45 bombs go off in bangalore on thursday morning

i have never felt fear like this before. i was visiting with a very interesting lady who makes hand-made paper on sarjapur road (halour road) and suddenly, we heard, of course, but also 'felt' the blasts. our car shuddered, our dresses almost buffeted and our hair flew slightly. again, and again -- deafening -- we looked around wildly -- what? where? bombs? it was too powerful to be fireworks, and definitely not gunfire. this was the real stuff. then a deafening silence.

in those couple minutes, i felt helplessness, immense fear, anger, and almost ashamedly, some relief (that whatever had happened hadn't involved sanjana and me) -- a mix of emotions coursed thru my head... and incomprehensibly some workers' children nearby continued playing with their tires... did they not hear it? a small child started crying -- he heard it. sanjana was frightened and whimpering. i was shocked and looked up to see plume upon plume of jet black smoke.

and then the answer came... from our driver and corroborated by a small boy -- military bomb squad practice. it happens regularly? yes. every thursday morning. sheesh. and the construction going on all around?! those poor unsuspecting souls buying there (redwoods, palm vistas, trinity acres, vista del mar)... how will they live?

and all through the hour and a half i was in that area, our conversation was regularly interrupted by the ear splitting, window rattling bombs.... and a cowering, cuddling ear-closing sanjana.

for the first time, i realized first hand what power a bomb holds. over 1km away, and we still felt the waves.... suddenly the damage bombs can do -- literally and to a child's psyche -- jumped out of a small CRT and became all too real.