I wish I lived in simpler times.
Some time in 1999, when I was in 9th standard and we had just bought a PC a few months back, I remember playing my first RTS, the demo version of Age of Empires – Rise of Rome. The demo held two scenarios if I remember correctly. The one I played was where I start off as the head of a Carthaginian colony on an island. Across the sea to the west lay a Roman encampment though I didn’t know that when I started out. I set my villagers to chopping up wood and hunting gazelles for meat so they could build themselves homes first and then move on to a granary to stockpile their resources and later, a dock for fishing boats so we could live off the sea. When I realised I had some surplus material left over and above what was required for these basic facilities, I decided to invest in a Barracks. I even trained two warriors. They spent their time glowering at passers-by at the town square, axes held ready, clad in barkskin dyed indigo blue. We were peaceful. Gulls wheeled overhead cawing at my fishing boats. The gazelle population faced extinction. And the threat of imminent deforestation with the coming of the Bronze Age loomed large. We were content. An hour and a half into the game (which counted for a century or so in game time), a boat marked in a style unfamiliar to our eyes landed on the eastern shore. Two men got off it. They were clad in bronze, bronze bell-shaped helmets with red plumes, bronze breastplates with no discernible ensigns, bronze greaves clapped over bare forearms thick as cypress logs and bronze shortswords held high against the evening sun. They marched in formation to the town square and, when faced by my own militia, with two neat slashes hacked my axemen to little blue and white ribbons. Then they proceeded to patiently raze my barracks to the ground, one brick at a time. For 10 minutes, I watched them hack away at it with precise swings as if it was one of their boot-camp combat dummies. Soon little fires broke out in the barracks which spread to engulf the whole structure. The few villagers I assigned to firefighting and repairing the structure long enough for newer axemen to be trained, were summarily slaughtered by one of the visitors who, once he was done with the workers, returned to chipping away at stone. When the barracks was dust, they decided to hone their skills on my villagers. Within 15 minutes, my colony was ash and rubble and blood stained prairie.
So I restart the game. I build my dock first and trained half a dozen warships to patrol the coast. My villagers had no homes. Food was in short supply as the majority of my people were drafted to chopping up wood. I set up watchtowers all around my colony. I built my barracks and a blacksmith’s forge so I train some shortswordsmen of my own. Within an hour of gameplay, I had my army. In the next 20 minutes, I razed the towers of Syracuse with my warships and landed my troops on its palm-studded shores. Across a narrow strait, I could spy the reavers with the red plumes and knew that this time around their base are belong to me.
This was on High difficulty by the way.
Those kids with AK’s who stalked the corridors of Taj wore no red plumes. Mumbai is no peace-loving little gypsy patch of green floating in pristine blue waters. But I just found it curious. As curious as these little bits below:
A) The ATS team on site at Taj had flimsy bulletproof armour and service revolvers. How in hell were they planning on standing up to terrorists armed to the teeth with AK’s and hand-grenades who also had a number of hostages at their disposal? The papers today described how after the first alert was raised at 9-30 PM, the request for NSG troops was forwarded 90 minutes later. The troops themselves managed to land here a whole 8 hours after around 6 AM because there was no air transport available to freight them over from Delhi. So we were in a position to begin any ‘real’ operation against the threat a whole 8 hours after it began. I hope we never raise a Godzilla along our coastline ever.
B) Then, of course, we have our deputy CM shooting his little bulldog mouth off. I don’t know in what context he thought these words would be considered appropriate, I really don’t. And I did try to find some frame of reference whereby his casual dismissal of the past few days’ terror can be justified, but…nope, I got nothing. Reports on TV over the past few hours suggest that he has refused to tender his resignation for failing to ensure proper security for the people when the IB had warned of possible sea-route incursions into Mumbai. It takes a special brand of balls to admit to and uphold this level of incompetence. You, sir, have my grudging respect for so efficiently usurping the asshole-of-the-month post from other such competitors as Mr. N Modi and Mr. R Thackeray.
C) Which kinda leads me to my next point. Two separate reports from the Hindu should be enough: the first which suggests some prior intel was available about possible attacks on hotels in Mumbai. Ratan Tata confirmed this in an interview. However, we have a byte from our esteemed CM in marked contrast to the above. There was no “specific tip” about the attack, he claims. Maybe our CM would have liked a manila envelope with high-def B/W pictures of our terrorists taken in various poses outside Karachi along with files listing their blood type, hair colour, virginity and HSC (or whatever the Paki equivalent of a HSC is) percentages. Perhaps this will also school all the people out there who’re walking around lamenting our Intelligence failure. Unless they share our esteemed CM’s ideas on what constitutes intelligence.
D) This. STFU, seriously. Your party did shitty little to improve security. Do you expect us to believe that this wouldn’t have happened if a BJP government was in place? Accountability should be established, yes. But let’s not get carried away with the scent of blood still fresh and tangy in our nostrils. It would be prudent to wait and watch what this government does before springing out at them, all claw and fang, and ripping them to shreds with your rhetoric. And as for pulling a post-9/11-esque reaction, next point!
E) As reported by Dawn. However, if my brother is to be believed, troop pullout from the northwest frontier has already begun and Pakistan is gearing toward a buildup on the eastern front. Bow wow chicka wow wow! <CartmanVoice>Shit is about to go down, people.</CartmanVoice>
That is probably the sum of all I know so far about these terror attacks. I know people are sick and tired of this shit now with three attacks in the past 6 months. I guess they will be looking for things like tighter security or, from what I can make out of the prevalent attitude among folk, an Israel-esque response. Get in there and lay some shit down. I’m cool with that.
Of course if nothing comes of this, if our elected representatives from both sides of the spectrum are content to clicking their tongues, mouthing platitudes and rubbing cheques over our wounds, we could always go Thai.
