Paranoia in times of ...

The security code is red. Not that anyone cares about it or for that matter even comes to know that it is so. Why ... infact very few would be even aware that there is such a thing and it is so kiddishly based on primary colours. I venture out of my not so secret dungeon and immediately the signs are evident. After all what the mind doesnt know the eyes cannot see. Is the corollary also true: What the mind knows eyes sees that only eh ... quite a delusionist view. The Mumbai police is making its presence conspicuos. But the people carry on with the diwali dhoom. News channels are bleating hoarse about our security, terrorism, independence and the favourite flaying horse .. the resilience if Delhiites as they did a few months ago of the resilience of the Mumbaikar. All this brouhaha creates only a preverted kind of paranoia in the news channel viewing, hoi polloi. I guess that includes me as well. I board the train, packed as usual. The guy next to me is copying something from a bunch of visiting cards into a neat register with columns. It draws my attention immediately and I try to peer inconspicuosly into his diary. He is making some sort of database of doctors, their visiting hours, place of consultation and one more column in which he cryptically writes 'E' or 'M'. I could not solve this one. My imagination runs wild and I think could it be some sort of an extortion list! 'E' for extortion and 'M' for ....! So much for Code Red. I venture ahead and see a person talking wildly into his handsfree while holding it with both his hands. He could have saved some money on the handsfree! A sleeping person whose belly is just begining to show signs of prosperity is sporting a T- Shirt which says "We Will Remember 09.11.2001..."It takes me a second to realise that it is not ninth november but eleventh september. Despite the different way in which we write our dates we have blindly followed the americans in describing their disaster. I remember Code Red. Are there signs of similarity. Or may be Iam getting just paranoid in the times of Code Red and Diwali. Happy Diwali!