[Assam] A Guwahati diary: Games in the shadow of terror - TOI

[Ram Sarangapani]

C'da,

You would have to expand on that. But I am guessing - the general
preceptionsn of the Assam/NE from the uninformed in Delhi and elsewhere.. am
I way off?

--Ram

On 2/14/07, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
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>  *** And guess where they got their cues from Ram .
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> At 7:09 PM -0600 2/14/07, Ram Sarangapani wrote:
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> Whoever wrote this piece for the TOI - seemed a bit too glib and a lot
> patronizing.
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> Just my take - could have misread.
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> --Ram
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> A Guwahati diary: Games in the shadow of terror
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> TIMES NEWS NETWORK[image: www.sng.ecs.soton/6C22F6BD.gif]
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> The moment the flight took off from Kolkata, under silvery clouds, we
> could sense the change in the air: we knew instantly we were entering a
> different world.
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> In the first leg, from Mumbai, the cutlery was gleaming and the smiles
> genuine; on this stretch, it was all plastic, including the ear-to ears. As
> we trooped into Guwahati's smallish international airport, finally, the
> reality here hit us.
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> Suddenly, the passengers were incidental; armed guards were swarming and
> one couldn't walk even from one end to the other without being waylaid by a
> question or an instruction.
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> Outside, the roads were narrow but the traffic was fast. Shops dotted the
> highway and every fifth one, reassuringly, seemed to be plying booze. For a
> second, one thought this was Goa; the folks here are equally laidback,
> taking every day and its queer turns 'lahe, lahe.'
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> But that is where the similarities end between the west and the
> North-east. Assam is in the grip of insurgency; the fear of the hidden bomb
> casts a grim shadow over their daily lives. Guwahati is known as the gateway
> into the North-east; but you don't exactly feel too welcome. Until you meet
> the people, of course.
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> They look diffident but you can see their sense of determination; they are
> not loud but you know they are confident. In public, they may not be too
> demonstrative; but in private, as one had noted the other day, they laugh
> loudly and effusively. Maybe, it is just their way of releasing their
> nervous energy.
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> As one saw the roads empty out in tandem with fading sunlight, and got a
> grasp of the meaning of terror, the mind raced to other parts of the world.
> Fear lurked there too but in different forms and shapes; one covered
> sporting events there too without really knowing what the next day held.
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> The worst experience was in Atlanta, during the 1996 Olympic Games. Late
> one night, just as the world's biggest sports stars were getting into the
> groove, a bomb exploded in the Games Park. One felt the tremors inside the
> media centre too, which was housed on the 18th floor of a massive building.
> When we went up a few floors, we could even see the site of the blast; it
> was almost within touching distance.
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> Until then, the evenings were resplendent with laughter, bonhomie and
> music; now, suddenly, only a funereal silence ruled. Atlanta was numb with
> dread and the people in a state of shock; the Games were not the same after
> that.
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> For those of us from India, used to communal violence, curfews and bomb
> blasts, the overnight change in the city was difficult to comprehend. We
> still walked around by ourselves late in the night, hoping to find a decent
> meal, if not fun, after work. We couldn't do that in Harare, Nairobi or
> Durban, of course.
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> At one time, they were three of the most beautiful cities in the world;
> now, they are nightmares. Nairobi is straight out of an old Western, with
> old men in old hats and old clothes; one couldn't even go over to the store
> across the street, alone. They would rip you apart for a few dollars.
>
> In Harare, one only saw long queues and despondency everywhere; they
> waited for hours for a loaf of bread, for milk, for petrol, for everything.
> The Zimbabwean dollar was not even worth a toilet paper but if you flaunted
> it you would immediately be surrounded by a dozen thugs.
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> Worse, in Durban you didn't even know where the mugger was hiding: he
> attacked you from the shadows or in broad daylight; he would break through
> your locked car at busy traffic intersections or just flash a knife or gun
> in a packed bank and vanish with your cash.
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> One was trailed by ISI officers in Lahore, accosted by trans-sexuals in
> Kuala Lumpur and hoodwinked out of everything in London. But there is
> something so intangible, something so surreal, about Guwahati. In Durban,
> Nairobi and Harare, you knew where to go and where not to; you could even
> sniff out potential danger.
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> In Guwahati, there are no such warning signs; terror lies in wait at every
> corner. It can strike at any time, in any form. So as the National Games get
> under way, the country must spare a thought for the people out here and send
> out a prayer for them. Some day, hopefully, normalcy will return; and then,
> we can look back and say it all began with this sporting extravaganza.
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