Was I dreaming or was it reality???

This happened around two days ago during the lunch break when Rahul and his colleagues just finished their lunch. It was already past two in the afternoon after a heavy lunch break…..let it be your first year or the twentieth year of experience….That time of the day during which you just can’t let go your lax attitude unless you own the company. That time during which people at office come up with the most interesting topics…Rahul was a fresher at office who desperately wanted to do some value added work in the office to impress upon his boss and achieve something. Some of his colleagues started their post lunch gossip…they came up with the most interesting topics ranging from cricket to movies to politics. Undeterred was Rahul, oblivious to that chitchat he continued concentrating on his work. This kind of seriousness will obviously raise eyebrows among colleagues…they go back to their gossip waiting to see for how many days this so called enthusiasm will go on.

All of a sudden Rahul hears those intolerable words (which he had to hear very frequently this year) “BOMB BLAST” in their conversation.”What? A Bomb blast again? Where?” asks Rahul. In the heart of the city at the Secunderabad Railway station says one of his colleagues. “Oh no not again” was Rahul’s reaction. People in the office started calling their loved ones and asking them about their whereabouts. All that lethargy just vanished and everyone at office were so sad recalling all those ghastly bomb blasts that happened this year especially a couple of them happening at Hyderabad. Especially, if one of those terrorist attacks happen in the metros it sounds very depressing. The reason being, you cannot really implement a proper check and fully prevent terror activities in the metros especially in public places like railway stations and shopping bazaars wherein the whole place is full of people. In a place like Hyderabad or Mumbai you could discover a thousand routes to gain entry into a famous public place like a railway station. Most of the security personnel are helpless. These terrorist acts have really raked up insecurity among the people and even the police. Recently, the Mumbai police removed all the recycle bins along major public places it seems….people were embarrassed for a few days as they did not have a proper place to dispose waste…but they gradually would have realized that some attempt towards curbing terrorist attacks like these is better than no attempt. Though it could be a very desperate act as most of the bombs are being planted or dropped in some of these recycle bins. Lately this has been their trend.

This rumor of a bomb blast spread like wildfire, people were desperately calling their family and friends to know about whereabouts .They really could not get any updates from the internet as it was too early for news sites to get updates. After sometime, one of them received a call and everybody was anxiously waiting for the news. How much causality??....How many of them injured??....which terrorist group was involved in the attack? What the hell???....and suddenly one of the guys in office got some news from a news website saying the Hyderabad administration, police and all other emergency agencies put together were conducting a mock or pseudo bomb explosion to actually see how well they managed a crisis. Rahul and all his colleagues expressed a deep sigh of relief when they heard news confirming that it was a rehearsal conducted. Actually the Hyderabad police and administration had announced a couple of weeks back in the media that a rehearsal like this would be conducted. Everybody in the city where lost in their own world until they realized that it was a mock blast. The new district collector was also said to be holding a key position in a disaster management committee…Good for the people of Hyderabad and for the people of India that such pro active exercises are being done to avoid post terror attack damage. Was I dreaming or was it reality? Let’s see……….