Darna Mana Hai!

After the anger, the helplessness, and myriad other emotions, comes the most debilitating of them all - fear. The terror siege in Mumbai may have ended, but its grip over the people is as strong. In fact, it is perhaps growing stronger by the moment. People are afraid to venture out in public places - a friend told me how she noticed that malls were noticeably less crowded over the last weekend. People are putting off travel plans, those who cannot are living under the constant shadow of fear. Even at the workplace, coffee-room conversations revolve around the uncertainties that plague us: about how it's no longer certain if you can walk the streets without fear that a bomb may go off nearby; about how the very place where I work is a prime terror target (it's a technology park, surrounded by DRDO installations, staff quarters, offices all around). People are glued to their television sets following the latest news. And in fact, that makes them even more paranoid. Viewing the images of death, destruction, and tragedy adds to this macabre setting.
One wonders why the media is adding to all this by mindless and insensitive reporting of every tragedy? Why is it making a tamasha of sorts about the funerals of the lives of the brave officers who laid down their lives? Why does it have to stick in a microphone and a camera in the face of the grieving mothers, sisters, and fathers, in the expectation of a sound-byte? Can it not allow them to grieve privately? Why does it make a spectacle of the tragedy? I cannot forget, how, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist strike at CST train-station, the media was broadcasting 'live' images of the dead-bodies strewn about, blood-stained floors, and people weeping. I guess much has been written about terrorists, the politicians, the people's anger, candle-light vigils, et al. But what about the media that is adding to this melting-pot of emotions? In my view, it is creating (and using for it's own good) something like mass hysteria! Why do we need to know if more terror strikes are being planned? Why do we need to know that 'specific intelligence inputs have warned of strikes on XYZ installation'?! Can we do something about it? Well, we can all debate about it at lunch tables, coffee rooms, and over IMs, and in the blogs. But honestly, I feel that all this just adds to the 'fear psychosis' that is slowly, but surely, gripping some of us. And unless we make a deliberate, conscious effort to come out of this, we will play right into the hands of the terrorists. They will die, but the seeds of terror and fear that they've sown will live on. So let us not fall prey to their designs. Let us be alert, but not hysterical. Let us be sensitive, but not paranoid. Do the CNN IBNs, the Aaj Taks, the Star News have their microphones out now? Are they listening (or reading)?