Terrorist trump card: Public fear

This week's overriding emotion all over India was Fear -- the fear of anytime, anywhere terror and the high risk of it getting you and your family.

Though we Indians are much better equipped than, say, the Americans to deal with the syndrome of fright, 26/11 has breached some of that genetic resolve in many of us.

May be, this is a temporary syndrome, but till the time it lasts, you suddenly understand why you shouldn't have scoffed at the Americans who went into national hiding after 9/11.

The latest to keep you away from almost everywhere you may want or need to go, are the scores of sms advisories asking you to stay home. In particular is the one which says "stay away from malls, cinema houses and restaurants etc till December 7." It says this request has come from reliable military sources who are in the know of a possible Mumbai-like strike before or on the Babri Masjid demolition Day -- December 6.

Coming as this does on the heels of 26/11, no one is taking chances or displaying the bravado of a "I don't care" attitude. Staying home and watching, well the serials which are back in business, is the second option. Being glued to the news channels has become a compulsive disorder.

In times like this, when the terrorists breached almost every boundary to get into India's heritage mile and destroy it along with 200 lives, you wonder if you are safe anywhere at all. In the middle of the night, as a police siren rent the post-midnight hour, I suddenly got hyper about being totally unprotected in my own home and colony.

Our guards are unarmed, our society apartments' doors and walls are so reed thin that even a loud whisper can be heard from the neighbour's room. There is no escape route and even our beds come with boxes making it impossible to hide under one. Such paranoia, of course, looked laughable and totally uncalled for in the sane light of morning and after an uneventful night but that made me understand the Americans suddenly.

Now you know why they go crazy after any kind of warning, be it for a hurricane, a terror plot or even an evening storm. I remember reading with a smile that much before Katrina struck New Orleans, a bulk of the area's citizens went into a collective storage drive. Mineral water bottles, tinned foods and even clothes disappeared from the markets and houses were spilling over with groceries that would last much more than a month.

Newspapers reported how this was a psychological disaster more than anything else.

Post 9/11 too, the US had to press for psychologists to collectively deal with America's national fear of flying. On-flight convulsions increased manifold and airlines started keeping docs on air. Numerous studies were done to determine how deep the damage was on America's mind. Many said it was irretrievable, others flagged some hope pinning it on passage of time.

Of course, the Americans have somewhat recovered from this collective phobia but much of it has to do with the fact that their Government has ensured that there is no terror strike on its territory ever again.

Back in India, we are hapless and scared citizens in the midst of an unfolding horror tale. We are sure more is coming but don't have the foggiest where and when. Our Government is as clueless as its public on how to rein in the hidden marauders. In short, we are collectively cowering.

For a nation like India, where syndromes like fear have always gotten a familial push-over, a phobic epidemic will be the last straw the terrorists are looking for. But then, it takes some assurance from our protectors to assemble a semblance of normality in cursed times like these. So, work on it and win the day.

Published in Sunday Pioneer, December 7, 2008 http://www.dailypioneer.com/141447/Terrorist-trump-card-Public-fear.html