Terror in Pune

Life has suddenly become scary. Or scarier. The threat of terror is always there at the back of your mind, especially being in India. But until it stares you in the face, you never realize how easily… how fuckin easily it could have been you. And how easy it is for people to treat it as just another event, unless they actually confront it. I was at the site a few minutes after the blast. And I dont think I can forget. Ever.

The German Bakery was one of my favorite joints in Pune. As it was for many others. The atmosphere and the relaxed ease with which people from different parts of the world milled around at virtually the heart of the city, made it a pretty popular spot. On Saturday, the day before Valentines, that all changed. I was in Koregaon Park that day, less than a Kilometer away from the place when we heard the blast, and the building shook. Me and my cousin looked outside and saw the smoke billowing up into the evening sky, but we couldn’t ascertain the cause. My cousin’s hubby and I went to the place, wondering what happened. When we reached there, barely 15 minutes after the blast, the site was chilling. The German bakery was totaled. Burnt and dead bodies were lying around and people were rushing around trying to get the injured to ambulances which had just started arriving. I was almost paralyzed at that point. It is one thing to see these images on television and another to actually see it up front. My cousin’s hubby tried to help lifting some of the injured onto stretchers, and his hand at the end of the ordeal was covered in blood and specks of flesh from the injured. I realized why it was so scary. The thought that it could so easily have been you. How many weekend evenings had I sat there, enjoying the mashed potatoes or the scrambled eggs with the pot of Earl Grey tea. I couldn’t help thinking… these people were also sitting there like that without a care in the world, when suddenly… I had passed by the place less than half an hour before it happened.

What is probably more disturbing is the fact that people have almost become apathetic towards these incidents unless it actually affects them. A nice story to talk about, muse about for a while and leave it at that. The few friends who actually thought about it enough called up or asked me if things were fine in Pune. Somehow the thought that I could have been in there did not seem to register in their minds. It almost seemed an event had happened in my city and they were enquiring after it. And I do wonder about the news channels which started reporting it as a cylinder blast, when even the cops and people at the site did not know what had happened. How did these guys ascertain so fast that it was a cylinder blast? Anybody who heard it could not believe that. Of course, later on, they revised their stories and it came to light that, like Leopolds in Colaba, the German bakery was another symbol for the haters to vent on.

Somehow it felt funny when people started wishing me on Valentine’s Day the day after. Yea, there seems to be a lot of love around.