What do terrorists really want? Why do they attack innocent civilians in the name of God and fanatic but baseless religious pretense ?

These are questions that were probably answered millions of times in zillions of newspaper columns, magazines and blogs. So, I will try to approach this from another standpoint, not from a stance that supports terrorism but just from a different angle. My bottom line for this post is:

Where else could it have happened?
What should we do about it?

When eight bombs exploded in first-class compartments of packed Bombay commuter trains on 07/11/2006, my friend who lives in Fremont, California called me up on my cell phone within hours of the incident (it was around 8 AM in california, would be 8:30 PM IST) and briefed me about it. He asked me where I was and told me to check the news out.

As it turns out, I was standing at that time in a local train station waiting for the train to San Francisco to arrive in 5 minutes ! So, I told him I will check it as soon as I got to work and hung up the phone. You can easily imagine what went through my mind after I got that phone call and boarded that train!

So many WHAT IFs ! What if this local train were attacked, not necessarily today but some other day! What if the daily passengers fail to notice a stranded bag or an evil mind lurking in some corner of some local train car who plans to pull the plug forever on his own life, and hundreds of others!

I looked around in the train I was sitting in. There was a mother holding a baby and talking to her as if it were the only thing in the world she cared about. There was a middle-aged man who dug his pointed nose into some serious non-fiction book with a smile on his lips, revelation was in the air. There was a young Indian (Asian) lady with a just out of bed look on her face looking at her husband sitting right opposite to her, anxiously waiting for her husband to finish his part of the International call so, she could talk to her shaken sister & family in Mumbai. Every one looked upper middle class, ready to hit work desk and well read, even well behaved. But, every one was wrapped in their own world!! There was the faintest sign of suspicion on their faces. Even more notably, there was a sense of calm, a methodical devotion to their daily commute routine which almost completely grabbed their attention. They may be looking around too but the place looked like the perfect hide out that a devious mind could employ to send a terror message! That thought terrified me! Could this have been the profile of the people on the cars that were injured on those local trains in Mumbai too ?!

Then my suspicions started mounting up and my antennas went up. If there was a psychopathic terrorizing vandal who wanted to pull it off on a train like this, how would he look like? What kind of a place would he choose? Where would he sit? What would he be carrying? My attention turned to a middle-aged man, clean-cut, well-shaven, reading the day’s SF Chronicle with a bag tucked under his knees. A black bag! So miscible in the darkness under his knees that it almost missed my attention!

Then something else occured to me. It was a Tuesday! 9.11.2001 was a Tuesday! Was it more than a coincidence?

The previous london bomb attacks happened in July, I vaguely remembered. Now, we are in July too! July, the month of summer when kids are at home enjoying vacation and parents, relaxed work wise but definitely involved & occupied the summer fun wise ! Could there have been a better time to serve a chilling annual reminder?

It was local trains for the last 3 big incidents - Madrid, London, Mumbai! Almost everyone remembers that! But is there more to it? The bombs were set off in first class compartments in Mumbai. Is there an attempt to attack the rich and the affluent? Or is it a choice driven by the possible indifference observed in the nonchalant profile of sub-urban upper-middle class people who are more concerned about finishing those 10 extra pages on their book than what is going on around them? Am I guilty of not being wary too? Should I call out on this suspicious profile of this middle aged man with that black bag under his legs?

Then, something important happened! THE TRAIN STOPPED ! They announced that a train got stuck in the transbay tube which every train needed to use to go to San Francisco! Who knows? It could have been a security check! May be they found something. May be a man with a bag of explosives. May be there is more of them. They evacuated our train. All of us got down and were waiting on that station platform for the next one to arrive. I could not take my eyes off that man for more than a few moments. He was laughing and talking to a lady standing next to him. Wait a minute! Is that possible? Are they not supposed to stand away from the crowd in an event like this? OR IS HE TRYING TO COVER UP HIMSELF UNTIL WE FIND ANOTHER TRAIN !!???!

Then, the man looks at me. I look away. By the time I look back, he was RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES WITH A BIG SMILE ON HIS FACE!! A chill through my spine… “Hi! I am….” What he said was warped & morphed a thousand times before it hit my year. I realized he had his hand waiting for me. I extended my sweaty palm out and touched his warm, assuring hand that felt like camp fire in the middle of a cold, desert night !

A smile made its way through my heart, out of no specific reason as I shook his hand and looked him in the eye, which was looking back at me, square in the eye!!

Then, it occured to me that it was impossible for a human to live in such morbid fear, the sort that I went through, for the rest of their lives, even if they lost a loved one in such terror attacks!! Even if they did, they would be helping out the intentions behind these attacks which, to begin with, were to terrorize

!! The best way to combat these attacks would be to stand up and take comfort in the possibility that there are millions of noble souls around me who mean no harm and live life as richly as ever.

..and ofcourse, keep a watchful eye on the occassional stranded passenger with a bag tucked under the dark corners of his subway car seat !