Current Events

As we were finishing our group yoga session on Thursday evening, my roommate got a message from our friend: “Twin blasts in Hyd. Stay at home.”

We checked the news. We stayed at home. We sent messages to our loved ones. Our bosses gave us a call to make sure we were all ok. We were told to stay close to home the following day as well.


News reports varied: death tolls were different, numbers of injuries were vastly disparate, descriptions of the scene ranged from vague to movie-script-like.

Now, as with any tragedy, there has come the blaming and the ‘what will we do about it’ and the politics and all the thoughtless-words-that-shouldn’t-be.

There is some meaningful discussion - discussion about diversity and about healing and about peace.


The thing is: My mother worries. And I get that. It was too close for anybody’s comfort. (And I’m told it’s a mother’s job to worry.) But the thing that strikes me the most is how much this incident and this discussion could be about the USA.

Struggles with diversity. People saying really stupid things. People blaming entire populations when in reality only a few people are responsible. Media taking advantage of a terrible situation. Politics.

Yes, some of these things are worse here. Some of these things are worse in the US.

The things that are distinctive about India are: infrastructure, response procedures, and management systems – there is a reason that there is so much discrepancy in reporting of numbers of those who died and are injured.



But the truth is:

Whether you are going to the movies or the fruit market or to worship or kindergarten, people should feel and be safe - whoever and wherever you are in the world. We should stand together on that, wherever we are.

Take away the preconceptions and the talking points and you will see that we are all on the same side.

Dear World, Here’s your pep talk again:

It’s our duty to give the world a reason to dance. Go and be awesome.