Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Because, they don't reside at IISc!

Words become redundant to describe what bullets can do, when mere words sent electronically can throw normalcy off course! New rules are set and Internet Café’s are on the watch list. Browsing Centres in the Southern State require customers to register their names, addresses and telephone numbers, as a result of the Parliament bomb threat mail. E-Mails are bound to be actively monitored and combed through for words that may be as mundane as a combination of the letters ‘R’, ‘D’ and ‘X’. I do wonder if 'Red OXide' would set the panic button on! Or, imagine the case where an e-mail discusses if the floorings of the ‘Parliament’ are coated in ‘Red OXide’! Hmmm, tough job for those in the business of decrypting!

As one would expect, speculation is rife if IISc would be repeated! Not a particularly good mood to begin the New Year, I would have thought! But that’s the way the cookie crumbles! It should be of no surprise if every institute that starts with ‘Indian’ is put on red alert, with special care taken towards those that have ‘Science’ on their names.

For one thing, if I hailed from Tirunelveli, I wouldn’t go to the net café that is comfortably situated right next to my house, send a bomb threat to the Parliament filled with the most important lives in the Nation and get back home, waiting for the police force to arrive knocking at my doors. I would definitely have bought a ticket to Vadodara, then would have come down to Hyderabad, sent the mail to the Assembly there, then would have headed to Gaya, before heading to Agra and finally settling down at Bhopal. If that goes for something as harmless as an e-mail, would the terrorists who had all the sophistications to bring loads of ammunition into the IISc to commit the dastardly act be stupid enough to target another Institute, say, IIM?

It is a lot easier to guess what the second target could be and put up a show of utmost sincerity in nabbing the culprits, than it is to eavesdrop on what they plan to do before they do it! It’s not just the pain of blood – it’s the awe of ‘First Blood’ that goes into their decisions of targets. Our police forces are too intelligent to be setting up shops in front of every Institute, waiting for the criminal to walk up to them to shake hands with them!