Terror strikes Pune !!

Saturday was a normal weekend for me. After some good cricket practice, I headed over to have some sumptuous lunch at the coconut grove. It was followed up with some donuts at Donut Magic in Koregaon Park. I went back home at around 5:15 and passed by the north main road. Who would have known what lied ahead ?

When I heard the news about the bomb blast in German Bakery in Pune, I was horrified, saddened, disgusted to see the visuals. It was a grim reminder that life is such a gift, but can be taken away in a minute. The only question that came to my mind was that Why was Pune targetted ? Its such a peace loving city. There's never been any communal riots in the city, never has there been any other forms of protests.

I can go one and talk about the Pune spirit just like the mumbai spirit. Yes at one level, people will go on with their lives and put this behind. But on a far more deeper level, I feel there has been some considerable mental scars put by this bomb blast.

In a couple of weeks, ppl will forget about this and talk about "how I was there ?", "How I love that place - the german bakery?",etc. We don't want peace protests or marches. The crux of the issue is why was this place bombed ? What is it that these terrorists want that we're not willing to give ? Can this be solved by dialogue? I truly believe that there is no true evil in the society.. its just that some people are flawed. I truly believe through peaceful dialogue and understanding, almost any issue can be solved.

Till then, let the city recover

The power of social media ...

Today a friend of my wife's needed B-ve blood urgently. Getting rare blood type donor's can really be difficult. It means calling thousands of friends, sending emails, sending postings ... but the message only reaches within your social circle.

Today I found out the power of twitter. I tweeted the message that I needed bloodgroup b-ve. Within a matter of seconds, lots of people; many who I / they don't follow; spread the message. This was really heart-warming to see human kindness at its best. In the process, I also truly realized the power of social media and twitter in particular.

In this case twitter was a total #win or a #megawin