The first public place I went to the first day I reached
Pune this time I visited India was a restaurant my sisters and cousins took me
to. My sister was stopped and the boot of her car searched. I felt a bit
frazzled. Where were they taking me? Is this some important building housing
foreign nationals, bureaucrats, ambassadors or may be big shot Bollywood stars?
Is there some kind of alert? No. it is just a terrace restaurant my sister told
me. It seemed like she had experienced this before and thought it was perfectly
normal.
The next shock was visit to the dentist. The dentist’s
office is on the top floor of a hospital. There were metal detectors and purses
and bags were being searched. I felt really unsettled. My sister again reassured
that it is a routine procedure in all hospitals now. There was no red alert or
anything to worry about. Everybody in the line continued like it was an
everyday thing. I seemed to be the only one who was shocked, confused, pained.
The third time I went through metal detectors in another
hospital building, it did not shock me but it still did not feel normal part of
life. The security in terms of metal detectors, bag searching, checking
vehicles etc. started at various public places like hospitals, restaurants,
business centers after the Feb 2010 bomb blast at German bakery. I had visited Pune before that in 2009 making
this development shocking and painful experience.
Pune is an important city from the military point of view as
it is the headquarters of the southern command. It is also a potential target for
terrorist attack because of the National Chemical laboratory (NCL), National
Defense Academy (NDA), – a military
training center, Armament Research Development Establishment (ARDE), High
Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) and the list goes on. I lived in
close proximity of the later two before moving to NYC but it never felt unsafe.
Now that I am back in NYC and thinking about it, I remember
the paramilitary police and military presence in Penn station. People loaded
with assault rifles and ammunition in their military fatigues. Interestingly
their presence neither makes me anxious nor does it make me feel secure. For me
they are just kind of part of the picture like the eateries, people running
here and there, announcements, signs for trains arriving and so on.
I have read multiple times the warning signs in subway
stations that backpacks can be randomly searched. Initially when I glanced at
the sign I immediately thought about the contents of my back pack and if I
had packed it well enough that they can do a cursory search and did not have to
take everything out. I also thought about the people who they might stop and
wondered what they might see that made them stop the person. Did I have characteristics
that will make them stop me? As the city became my own, and I did not feel like
an outsider, I stopped thinking about these signs as well.
I don’t feel unsafe living in NYC. Though logically I should
if I make a list of reasons it could be a terrorist target and also by the
presence of the military and the searching that tells me that there is a
possibility. But I don’t feel unsafe. The possibility of an attack does not
enter my day-to-day thinking. I don't think twice before entering a subway. I wonder if visitors to NYC feel differently.
This chain of thought reminds me of a conversation way back in
2004 when I was visiting a client in Chicago. I lived in India at that time. He
asked me how I felt living in India always feeling unsafe thinking about the
nuclear capability of India and Pakistan and their strained relationship. What?
I had never thought of it that way before he mentioned it. I did not feel unsafe,
not for a single moment. We did not live in constant fear of the next attack or
nuclear fallout. Everyday life was as normal as it could be even though
perception of an outsider was far from it. People even in places plagued with
terrorist threats and violence do get on with their lives and do have everyday
lives as normal as possible in their circumstance. Just like it was normal life
for my sisters I guess when I visited them this time, though not for me. Just
like life is normal to me here in NYC!
