I woke up to the sight of a pristine lake set amidst old conifers grazing past my window. “You are now entering Norway and leaving the European Union. Please keep your passports handy for security check”. The police woman greeted me amicably and wished me a pleasant stay. I got down at the next idyllic station with a cup of hot chocolate in my hands. The station was all but a small cabin meant for the station master and I could see the village through the entrance.
Cut back to the next day, I was walking on the international highway with cars zipping beneath me at 100 miles an hour and the Fjords visible across the horizon. I was kind of lost. It was pretty apparent, as the kind lady came over and gave me directions in as much English as she knew.
The next day I was roaming around Oslo at 5 in the morning with glassy mist shrouding the city. I went to parks and monuments and sculpture gardens with no care about my safely. Why would I. It was Norway after all. The most developed country and among the richest and safest in the world. Good times, no worries and sparkling life long memories.
Two days ago the Sunday Times headline read “Terrorist strike in Norway”. I was in utter disbelief. It rapidly turned to sadness and my first reaction was “At least let some places free from all the mindless bloodshed”.
Somehow we have sadly come to accept bomb blasts as part of life in India. But the above incident made my conviction even stronger. We really have nothing in our control when it comes to security. Be it any place, any situation. The reason is simple. You can have all the control and precautions in place. But how can you stop a ‘human mind’ with its conviction, whims, madness and bitterness from exploding. How can you judge that the person sitting next to you in your office, bus, with which you interact, buy stuff et al is not going to explode? Just imagine the activation mechanism of a nuclear bomb in the hands of a madman and how his one flick can change the course of millions of people.
Is there any protection against that one Human bomb who can be anyone among the billions who tread this earth? I am not saying that we should start looking at adversity and begin to see people who are out to kill us at each juncture. All that I have personally realized is that Human Life is so fragile and vulnerable. We think and act so as to feel that we are in control but who are we really kidding on an absolute level?
Just a last thought. In the utterly sad Mumbai attacks a few weeks back an unlucky person was found dead with 10 lottery tickets on him. Just to say, how small our Big plans for life become when fate strikes that fatal blow.
