the terrorists have succeeded.
i've always preached a lifestyle devoid of fear, much less terror...and i live by it too.
unfortunately for me, it seems terrorism can win without fear or terror.
i biked to daman a couple of days ago with my friend
apoorv and a tent. it was a nice but long ride (170km to be accurate), when we finally reached the place, which i must add, was a rather well maintained tourist spot, and which made up for it's lack of natural tourist-unfriendliness (the beach was muddy, nay, mucky!) by having clean roads, well lit and architecturally beautiful street sides and monuments, and friendly locals with a chilled out attitude. but in the end it didn't matter.
our first brush with authority was while entering daman. a couple of cops waved us to the side of the road on account of our large bag. we stopped, showed them our bag and explained what was in it and what we were planning to do, had some friendly chitchat about our backgrounds, and rode off after thanking them for their vigilance.
unfortunately that experience was the best to come.
our next brush with authority (my friend's, actually, because i had rode off with my camera looking for interesting places while he caught an early-evening post-drinks siesta) was very unpalatable to say the least.
to cut things short, we were rudely shooed off the beach, bags, baggage, and hurriedly rolled up tent in tow, citing security reasons. apparently camping on the beach is prohibited in daman, due to orders from "higher ups", who we have not taken "permission" from, and who are "not available" to give permission.
the strangest part is that other people were allowed onto the beach more than 3 hours later, well after dark, and the cops themselves were sitting around at their vantage point that could barely cover 1/3rd of the beach - which was the brightly lit up section.
we were a harmless pair of civil adults, who were willing to be watched/searched/identified, who just wanted to stay on the beach for a night. the cops would be there all night (if not, i guess all this surveillance would be meaningless), and we were staying in a brightly lit area where they could keep an eye on us from any appreciable distance.
now there's talk of all christmas/new year celebrations being called off. and that includes in goa, where i'm supposed to celebrate the new year.
i just hope all these harebrained "security measures" actually deter terrorists...because if they're half as intelligent as i am they'll find atleast a dozen ways to get in without being spotted. like the dark sections of the beach. far away from the cops. and also, keep a couple of accomplices to keep an eye on the cops, who are probably going to be dozing at their stations a few hours later.
i think i'm finally pissed off with terrorists. and if there's a terrorist act anywhere near me after having already ruined my few and much required vacations, i'm gonna be super-pissed with the authorities too.
the terrorists have succeeded.