Fire in the Belly

Ushering in the new year with a bang makes for a good figurative mention at binges that are so characteristic of this bulging metropolis. Abstemious behaviour on my part doesnt really put a spanner in the works. Although, Bangaloreans did manage to experience the bang literally to their own chagrin. Its more often than not that you hear shots of raging intellectual fire at the apostle of knowledge that the IISc is. Verbal barrages apart, it found itself in line of some real fire at the fag end of the year. Indiscriminate firing, the news reports blared but to me, it was a case of some serious discrimination. Knocking at the very doors of that hallowed institute, the perpetrators have sounded us on our vulnerability. Only if it was the fear of mortal peril, I wouldnt have found the incident worthy enough to find a mention here. However, the shackles it puts on our thought process is what deserves to be put in perspective. We now need gun toting police men around us to feel secure. Thoughts of attending public functions and institutes of repute fill us with apprehension than pride. Our nerves display such frailty that a panic attack is triggered even by preposterous rumours. Isnt gunning down a professor every bullet worth it if it meets these ends. We are no longer touted as a safe haven for business and the proposition of losing my bread fills me with much more dread and pain that a bullet can. Something inside me tells me that the only way out of this gloom is to avoid the very submission I have alluded to. Should the IISc function under surveillance. Do I keep looking for possible attacks from every car that stops besides me? Do I avoid crowded places and functions that celebrate my very being. I have decided not to, not because it sounds like a Herculean task but because thats my reply to the conundrum these veiled men pose before me.