Dear Friends,
I write this letter to share with you what has been running through my mind for past few days. This thought has been taking shape in my mind for the last one week. It has taken the form of a letter today because of todays’ significance. I had a friend who used to study law in Pune . He lost his life this Sunday after fighting it out for a week. He had sustained serious injuries last weekend when he was unfortunately outing at German Bakery when the blast took place. If it was not for that incident, I would have wished him on his birthday today, but now I know that it is no use calling on that number, when the reminder on my phone rung this morning.
I had always felt sorry for the victims of these blasts that have become so frequent in recent years, but this time the feeling is different. There is a sense of restlessness about the whole issue at hand. There was a march by the name ‘Youth for Peace’ that was organized in various cities this Sunday. But now I feel this whole issue is not about peace and harmony. The tormentors of our lives are not against peace, harmony etc. They are inhuman in their approach. They don’t quite realize the meaning of these words. Now it is about fighting it out against these people. I really salute the brave soldiers of the nation, who as the Anti-Terrorist Squad, have been fighting against these cruel people. I think that for them to be successful it is necessary that they get full support of the citizens. The support that they have asked from us is ‘Vigilance’. A community is successful in achieving its objective only if everyone realizes and works towards their goal. There is a community of Godless people out there who take pleasure in tormenting the lives of others. Our nation has been worst affected by these activities, so it is necessary that we all should understand the significance of being vigilant and realize the role that we can play. If our community of over a billion people stands together and get ready to do everything possible to restrict these people from disturbing our harmony, then I think we will be a force that will be invincible.
Today, we know that these ruthless people have trained professionals like engineers, doctors, scientists etc. who work for them to help them plan out their attacks. Thus, can’t we, as young professionals keep providing assistance to our government to tackle these threats. I think that the time has come that we need to be more vigilant than just refrain from mishandling suspicious unclaimed objects that are lying in public places. Just this Monday I was travelling from Kolkata to Ranchi via overnight train. To my surprise, in a huge station like Howrah, where lakhs of people travel every day, I was able to get in to the station without passing through a metal detector door-frame. My bag never went through any scanner and if I would have wanted, I could have easily taken a bag laden with explosives without anyone even noticing it. Is this the lessons we have drawn from what happened at the other end of the country just a week back? With the threat of terror already looming over the metropolitan cities, I have read quite a few articles on the possibility of these attacks reaching out to the smaller cities and towns of the country as these are soft targets with less or no security. Thus, things need to be tightened up and I think all this can be done only through the support of all the citizens.
As we know the complexities that bind the socio-economic fabric of the country, I think there are a lot of services that can be provided by the citizens of the nation. There needs to be a system or network though which we all can provide solutions to situations that in turn become the problems that go on to become the weak threads in the fabrics that these attackers are able to exploit. Services of research, counseling etc. can be used to realize potential threats arising within the society and to sort out the issues before they become a threat. For example, there are a few professionals who work amongst us in reputed companies and also work for terrorist outfits. They have certain reasons due to which they feel justified in doing what they are doing. We don’t need Anti terrorist squads to always get hold of these people. Through our own vigilance we can try and track these people down. Being part of the society we can better understand the reason why others might be feeling alienated. If we see something happening that might have improper consequences then we should be able to do something about it. Thus there are lots of factors that make this whole job of stopping these attacks, very complex. Thus we need to identify areas where we contribute.
One important factor about entrepreneurship that I have understood is that it tries to satisfy an existing need and I certainly feel that there a need to find ways to attach ourselves to this fight against terrorism. There has to be a system through which we can contribute. I don’t know whether we need social, religious, communal, spiritual or whatever other kind of entrepreneurship, but we need to address this need. I think we all can share some ideas on this.
After every attack we hear the names of some the victims and they stay in our minds for some time. But sooner or later we forget them. I am just stating what happens with me and I believe that it is the same with almost everyone. But this time around I know that there will be one name that will be at the back of mind always. Memories of my friend will refresh every time I would hear of any new attack. He was a jolly good fellow who would have done something good in his life. But his life ended abruptly. So is the case with many a talented people of this country who have already lost their lives. I believe that these are not just any other people, these are martyrs. They lost their lives in a battle that they never thought they were part of. We now know that they were and we need to carry on this battle and win it for them. That is the only fitting salutation that they deserve.
So let’s join our hands together to try and contribute our share in this war against terrorism. Let us try and avoid this agony of losing a friend in such senseless attacks. As my friends Ashish keeps reminding me ‘WE HAVE JUST ONE LIFE TO LIVE’, so we cannot let others take control of it.
Tanuj Poddar
