Was talking to one of my colleagues at the Lycee this afternoon. He's British. He says, India has been in the news a lot lately. The terrorism has been increasing. But it made me a bit angry and at the same time relieved. Because, terrorism in India is not a new thing. He said that before, like about 20 years ago, we used to never hear about India in the news. But now it's like, anything India does is news. Makes me proud and angry at the same time. Angry because, no one really took terrorism in India seriously before, in spite of the fact that India has been combatting terrorism ever since independance. Not just Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, but even Bengal, Tamil Nadu. And then all the comunal terrorism in practically every part of India, which is barely given any importance even in our own country.

It's only with the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the world seems to have woken up to this many- headed- monster 'terrorism'. People have been dying for years due to terrorism. But it's only now since India is considered as a fast emerging global power, that we have finally been able to attract the attention of the 'super- powers', with the USA, Britain , Isreal among others alleging their support to fight terrorism, condeming Pakistan. It's like a college student with not enough money to hang- out with the so- called 'In- crowd'. He gets bullied all the time and no one notices or if they do, they don't care a damn. And then one day he comes to college in new clothes and a flashy car, everyone notices. If he gets bullied, all the college hi- fi society take his side coz now they know that they might get something out of being on his side.

Makes me proud coz India is now a power to reckon with. People are even comparing the Mumbai attacks to the 9/11 in the US. Yet our problems run deeper and we can't afford an aftermath like the one USA carried out to 'fight' terrorism.

Our problems run deeper because leadership at home is faulty. In order to flush out something dirty we need to have clean water and a working plumbing system. I can't suggest a plan on how to do this but I guess in order to fight terrorism we need to clean out our internal pipelines so that the water that flows, will be able to flush out the filth without leaving mud on the sides.