Anatomy of a blast


Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid was bombed this afternoon. Sad.

Except the blast, almost everything that happens around it seems so predictable. I’ll try and recreate some almost done to death sequences that happen post.

1. Local correspondent of local channel and national channel have ear piece dangling and mouth piece blabbering. “This city is under siege” is a commonly seen scroller on most un-creative news channels. The more creative ones make a story around it like “Is this the beginning of the end” (ha ha ha…).Incidentally that reporter will be stationed there for the next fortnight everyday pointing out to the spot where the blast occurred.
2. Expert Anti Terror Squad will be at the spot with terror trained Labradors sniffing and snorting.
3. PM will condemn attack.
4. CM will condemn attack
5. CM will announce compensation of 5 lakh for families of those dead, 3 lakh for those half dead (shouldn’t that be 2.5?), 1 lakh for those that lost limbs etc
6. Home minister will decide to ‘rush’ to the spot either that evening or the next day….the rush factor will depend largely on how many are dead. I think that the Home ministry has norms that have been developed internally which reads something like “If no of dead is less than 100, ask Home secretary to make a statement”, “if no of dead is more than 100, make a statement yourself”, “if no of dead is more than 500, then ‘rush’ within 12 hours”, you get the drift don’t you
7. Experts will be interviewed on TV panels. They will wax eloquent on the type of explosive used and try and draw parallels to earlier blasts.
8. Right wing politicians will blame appeasement of minorities as the root cause, the Left as usual will try and make a so called intellectual but absolutely useless observation (Sitaram Yechury :-))
9. Local insignificant political party will call for city bandh the next day
10. This is the stupidest one. All neighbouring states will be proclaimed “on high alert”. This state of affairs doesn’t do much except inconvenience general public. Naka bandis, extra frisking at airports, random rummaging of baggage at railway stations…
11. Suddenly, there will be unexploded bombs that will be discovered at other parts in the city.
12. Curfew will be imposed and the situation will be termed “tense but under control”
13. National newspapers will launch “Relief Funds” the next day. People who donate more than a lakh will find their name in print in font size 3. Font size increases proportionate to corpus donated.
14. Retired judge will be appointed to head a ‘commission of enquiry’. (Have always wondered why ‘only’ retired judges head such Commissions)
15. Microphone will be thrust into the face of injured and bleeding survivor lying mangled in Municipal hospital by a ‘daring’ reporter who will question him thus “Aap ko blast ke bare mein kya kehna hai” or the most stupid variety will ask “aapko kya lagta hai iss blast ke peeche lya Lashkar ka haath hai”

Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid was bombed this afternoon. Sad.

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