If tomorrow never comes...

In the aftermath of the terror attack on Bombay, newspapers have started carrying several articles relating to the effect this has had on the people of our country. Call it anything - the ripple effect, the trickle-down effect, or just the simple fact of all of us waking up one day, and deciding that we don't want to see any more of this.

Children are traumatised, and now require medical help. The field of 'terrorism-insurance' is booming - everyone now wants to safeguard their lives and businesses against these horrors. We've turned into worry-warts. I remember a famous Bollywood director giving an interview talking about how he had decided to stop taking 'terror-based films' for a while, because he said he himself was traumatised seeing so much of atrocity in real life that he didn't want to subject film-goers to more of the same. [Mr.Ram Gopal Varma - I hope you're listening]

But one of the most interesting articles that I read, and something that had a profound impact on me was an article in the Times of India - The 'Times Life!' supplement. [I've been trying to find the online edition]
The article was about the fragility of human life and how we're now forced to look at life differently. Today, anything can happen at anytime. You never know when something as simple as going out shopping or to a restaurant can turn out to be the most horrific thing that could happen to you. But does that mean that we stop planning for tomorrow? Its precisely what terrorists seek to instill in us - a fear of crowds, a fear of the future, a fear of the lives of our loved ones....
I personally, am quite a paranoid human being. An incident like this is enough to set me worrying like crazy about people close to me. And post-26/11, something has changed where we stop worrying just about our loved-ones, but also about random strangers who we read about in newspapers, but whose tragedy seems so close somehow.

Post 9/11, I recieved a forward of an article in a New York-based newspaper which spoke to several people who had escaped the attack on the World Trade Centre because they were late to work that day. And the reasons they were late, were little-everyday things that sometimes annoy us so much. Traffic jams, a phone call just as they left home, a car-breakdown, or other people taking forever to get ready to leave. They spoke about how they never thought that such a small thing could have saved their lives that day.

Its time to talk a long look at our lives - our priorities and the reasons for living. The gift of life is such a wonderful thing that we shouldn't waste it.

Hmm, so I guess the point I've trying to make is that we should live life to the fullest. If you love someone, don't hesitate/wait to tell them. If you want to apologise for something, do it now. [I've always had an irrational fear of going to sleep at night angry with someone and almost always try to set things right before I sleep.] But at the same time, don't stop planning and hoping for tomorrow. We'd lose our identities if we succumbed to fear.

After all, the most predictable thing about life is its unpredictability...