Of Bomb Scares and Collapsing Bridges

Thank you Pranav, I've been meaning to write about this for a while.

Pranav and I were just chatting... I asked him if he would join me for a walk at the lovely KBR park. He said, "Ok. If it doesn't rain. And if there aren't any bomb blasts.'

The life of Hyderabadis these days has undergone a change. When we ask each other what we're doing over the weekend, the answer generally is, "Staying at home, of course."
"Good."

First the bomb blasts. For me, coming from Bombay, it wasn't so hard to deal with it, although, I was angry and frustrated about it. But Hyderabad hasn't been the same since.

Our malls have super-extra security now. Entry from this side, and exit from another far-away corner. Ditto at the building in office. It's annoying how these ridiculous acts of the terrorists affect our day-to-day lives. Pisses me off.

Then, a bridge, that's been under construction for more than a year (when I first arrived at Hyd, I remember seeing the construction going on) collapsed after a bit of heavy rain (pretty normal by Indian Monsoon standards, I thought), right outside an extremely popular mall in the middle of the city, on a Sunday evening. Fantastic. Just what we needed.

I haven't bothered reading the newspaper to see what the government / construction firm says. "So and so is at fault." "It was out of our control." "There will be a (three year long) inquiry, and report (we'll never hear of it again.) We've set up a committee to look into it (16 greasy fingered slugs.)"

But, yes. Life is now not the same here. I'm astonished by how often when I'm in public spaces, my mind's corner reminds me of a possible lurking danger...

Nothing to be done about it, but to tug along bravely. Or just tug along along, anyway.