City Plans

My time in Calcutta was overrated.

I shoped for clothes, I shoped for shoes and I shoped for binder clips. That's pretty much all that was going on.

Yes, of course this was all before the city was brought down to a screeching halt last night when a certain group of people (more commonly referred to as terrorists) decided it was time Calcutta smelt some gunpowder. So they send out a mail threatening to blow up more than half the city and the entire suburban area, and of course this had to be where I happen to live. And this? was about to happen in like 2 hours. And my dad wasn't home yet. So I was worried instinctively. I tried not to panic. But I guess this is one of those things you don't really plan or that you can control

So I laughed. And I tried to keep myself away from the local news channels. But I couldn't help it. While surfing through the channels I always ended up staring into the screen, watching bearded Bengali journalists braving the night at the sites of the predicted blasts, and notifying the public of the status in emphatic tones.

The panic was palpable. And I tried to limit my calls to my father down to a respectable number as I tried to ensure he was on his way back home. The bombs were supposed to go off at 10 pm.
It was 9:15, he wasn't home, and I tried to concentrate on the heap of chips and cheese loaded in front of me. He finally arrived at 9:30.

They flashed the threat mail every 2 minutes on the television, and I ended up reading the whole of the script. The words seemed confident and extremely passionate. Now, threat mail isn't really supposed to fire so much of activity and flurry, unless of course similar incidents have already occured in several other cities and the mail was always the common link.

Nothing happened at 10 pm.

They traced the source of the mail, which turned out to be a cyber cafe - which, incidentally, is located less then half a mile from where I stay. They arrested the guy who owns and runs the cafe. I know the guy too. So, in terms of proximity alone, this incident is supposed to freak me out big time.
The worst part is, in fact, that nothing happened last night. Because now, something will happen, only we don't know when and where. But we know something will happen, and we might just be in it. There is nothing anybody can do here. Of course security and government personnel will try their best to avert the catastrophe. But they can only do so much. There have been serial blasts in four different cities, and nothing has been traced yet. So there is absolutely nothing that can lead us to believe that the same won't happen here.

So now, shopping is on hold, along with other things which include freedom of movement, peace of mind and the sense of calm that always seemed to be almost tangible in the streets of Calcutta.