Enough is enough. But what next?

At around 10 am, we reach work and right outside our office, we see two bikes, with a huge bag strapped on to each, parked outside. Naturally we are scared since it looks suspicious. We inform our colleagues and two brave souls go and try checking the bags. Both the bags are identical - blue in colour and of the same brand and size. They unzip the bag and find packets of condoms and gillette razors on the surface. Not willing to dig further, they come back and tell us what they have seen. In the meanwhile, we are trying to summon the police and guess what? 100 does not connect. We look online for police station numbers call them and there is no response. Two colleagues go off on a bike to the nearest police station and their response? When the hoysala patrol passes by your office, they'll take a look at it.

Of course the bags did not contain explosives of any kind. They were full of condoms and razors and the owners turned up around an hour and a half later. But my question is this. Had the bags really contained bombs or weapons, what would have happened then? Why are the police still dozing? Why aren't they alert? Why are they so unresponsive? Why so complacent? And what about the hotlines? Why is 100 not functional at a time like this when not even a month has passed since the terror attacks in Mumbai that took 195 lives? And the anti-terror hotline that they had given was also not too helpful. In fact there was no proper response. And to think Bangalore is supposedly on high alert!

And the saddest part is, this is not just one stray incident. While the siege was on in Mumbai and people were losing lives, the security of the malls in Bangalore were totally dismal as always. The security personnel were just casually "peeping" into the bags, some people were not even walking through the metal detector and no one was bothered in particular. It was flashed in papers that the security as CST, Mumbai, just a day after the killings was also totally abysmal. A man walked through with his licensed revolver and the police claimed they did not hear the metal detector go off! People carried perfumes and match boxes with them into the BIAL and they were not stopped or checked. It is sad and at the same time frustrating.

What if today there had been armed men in my office? I would not be able to inform any police or security personnel for the simple reason that they would be unreachable.

We all think it can't happen to us. We don't want to discuss it. We don't want to talk about it. But would not talking about it solve the problem? Shouldn't we, as responsible citizens, at least voice our concerns and get the protectors of our security to pull their socks up and be up to it?

I am also just a general citizen of India. And probably my voice will never be heard. If I die in a terror attack, no one will publish my photograph in the papers. I am not a famous Indian and I have not achieved anything for this great nation. But if I keep quiet like the one billion others, then who will speak up? Who will bring a change?

Am I not the change that I want to see in the world? Aren't you too? Aren't we all?

It's up to me and you, really. It's up to us.