Lol!!

“ I have been warning Pakisthan not to play games with us. The last game should be Mumbai attacks. Stop it there.... If terrorists from Pakisthan try to carry out any attacks in India, they will not only be defeated, but be retaliated against”........ Our honourable home minister, P.Chidambaram spoke these words earlier this month.

Today’s Hindu (dated Nov 26) thought it was important enough to carry it in the editorial page. I must thank Hindu Group for providing me comic relief and a rush of nostalgia.
I was reminded of how, when we were kids, we would be told by teachers, “Stop playing the fool। Let this be the last time you come late to class। Next time you do this, you will be thrown out of school”। None of us ever got thrown out of schools-not that we never repeated our mistakes।

I frankly just don’t find any difference between these two threats।

Enough and more literature has been written about the 26/11 Mumbai attacks। I wouldn’t be writing anything new, or asking new questions if I were to use this space to wonder aloud some realities of the whole episode.

However, I do wish to gently remind the home Minister that, there’s a lot of cleaning that needs to be done in our own home, before we point fingers at the other। We’d rather have a home minister (and hence the media) flashing reports reflecting lessons we have learnt from the attacks.

We still read about poor training for policemen... we still hear about poor security checks.....we can still walk into any shop and buy any number of sim-cards with flimsy proof of identity....
What have we really done at our own home is a more pressing question than threatening our neighbour।

Till such a time...

Anything that is said is a sinister joke, and all we can do is- Lol!!*

(*Lol: Laugh out Loud)