Thursday, August 10, 2006

August 10, 2006

I was at the Wilmington train station in the state of DELAWARE for God's sake and there was an insane amount of security with sniff dogs nd stuff.

Clueless as always, I was sleeping with my head on the laptop bag waiting to be picked up for office. First, a police officer approached me and asked if everything was all right, which I thought was sweet yet strange coz I doze off sitting in the train station all the time (Hey, I am not a bum! :). It was just too darn early in the morning!) So I beamed a reassuring smile at him, letting him know that I was not dying and went back to sleep promptly.

A few minutes later, another officer woke me up but this time I was quite annoyed. Thoughts like, "I will do what I want, this is a free country. For all you care, I will sit in the station all day long and sleep, what is your frikkin problem?!" were going through my head. He looked quite tense and asked what I was doing in the station, giving my laptop case a wary look. "What do you think people do in train stations?" would have been my usual answer, but instincts told me otherwise; I gave him a straight answer and he relaxed a bit. During the short, awkward silence that ensued, I mustered the courage to casually ask him what was going on. As one of the female species of the human race, it is quite strenuous to stay quiet for too long.

"A plan to mass murder-- by blowing 10 flights leaving London Heathrow-- has been foiled and 21 arrests have been made within England yesterday. President Bush has put the country on high alert and no passenger is being allowed to carry hand bags aboard. I am not sure if you are aware, Ma'am, but 8 Egyptian students have gone missing in Kansas yesterday and this comes soon after Al-Qaeda's declaration that their Egyptian brothers have joined them." I was in a state of shock. Like seriously? I felt fear after a long, long time. I was witnessing the global and omnipresent repercussions of terrorism first hand, for the first time outside of newspapers, that too in a small city in one of the smallest states of the US. I felt vulnerable and tiny in front of an invincible monster who, according to hear say lived in the vicinity, but seemed like a legend nevertheless. But now I had spotted its footprint for the first time in my back yard.

The irony of my immediate reaction is that nothing really had happened. And the pity is that had the carnage taken place, my reaction might not have been this severe. In some warped way, I would have been more at ease with the familiar feeling of numbness that comes while skimming over numbers on paper-- gas prices, stocks quotes, number of people killed. That's all they are, everyday numbers, aren't they?

In retrospect, I am not sure what prompted him to talk further, specially knowing now what he was going to say. His expression became grave as he continued, "It is Muslims against the rest of the world these days, just like the Crusades in the 13th and the 14th century. The bible also says that Crusades will happen again and this seems like the time." He paused for a brief second, studied my poker-faced look and continued, "You know, one should trust NO ONE during war, and yes, this is war. No, not even women or children." And he pointed at me after saying 'women'. I could have gotten angry, but I knew better than that now (ever since I heard of an incident in which someone was arrested for joking about carrying explosives in an airport). So just to keep a "good-natured conversation" going, and out of genuine child-like curiosity, I asked him if he had ever been in a war. Of course, he had! But his tone became mellow as he explained further, "Yes Ma'am, I was the captain of a unit in Vietnam War. And I had to ask my troops to open fire at the enemy, the youngest of whom was 12 and the oldest was 17. I prayed and prayed, but had to do what I did. Those kids returned fire for 2 godawful hours." Geez. I was left speechless. "Anyway Ma'am, you have a good trip. It was a pleasure talking to you". He gave me a huge, friendly smile, kissed my hand and walked off. Stunned by our conversation and his sudden willingness to trust me for no real reason, I sat in the station quietly waiting to be picked up for office...

1 Comments:

Blogger abhgupta said...

poignant. thts ur ending style. always. nd I love it.

2:51 AM

 

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