Of war and other things

 In my few decades of existence i've witnessed very few global situations that have spooked the world as much as the current situation might have. There are certain spots that are never quite devoid of conflicts, like the middle east, several places in Africa and the not so economically prosperous regions of Europe like the Balkans. As a kid, gulf war was the first major war that i saw on TV with all those scuds and patriot missiles, glowing green on screen and bursting like diwali crackers. I was more curious to see how those cruise missiles were launched from ships, hardly having the maturity to realize what was happening on the other side. Bosnia-Serbia war was the next big one, that was mostly followed on newspaper. I am not sure chronologically which one came first but remember that one was filled with much more gore and lead rise to several movies. Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnia Herzegovina would've made as much difficult words to ace on a typing exam as much as verbal. But the underlying sadness and the cruelty that were discovered post the war would've shocked humanity or expected to, at the least, having survived something sinister only few decades earlier in the name of world war 2. Kargil was hitting closer to home and nationalistic patriotic feelings were at their frenzy best during those years, which we celebrated, the victory, by making "Border" movie a super hit!! 

The Israel war with entire middle east was just a foot note that i read in my history book. It was fascinating as a story to read how Mossad out winked every major nation surrounding Israel making the war a cake walk for that country. I lost count of the number of movies and novels that were made on the same. The battle of Stalingrad was another one that was vividly described in our history books for it turned the tide of the entire war scene at that time. With everything being thrown at it, the bear somehow not just managed to outlive the assault but strike back as well!! The Sabre rattling on Taiwan by China, its salami slicing incursions across the world, the always clear and present danger of one Kim or another from that clan threatening to bomb its next door cousin country to smithereens were all other wars that weren't covered as much in detail as compared to rest. But never have i dreamt that all of these will happen together and i would get to witness them first hand in my life time itself!! History repeats itself is an oft quoted cliche, but this part of the history is not anyone's favorite and is condemned to repetition by those who failed to learn the lesson from the previous incidents!! Whenever i open that day's paper or visit any news channel, it feels as if the entire world is on fire and the next stop is Armageddon!!! Even regular news like elections are compared to such terrible scenarios and in the name of milking TRP's the channels literally sow the seed of desperation and fear in the general public. For the vast majority who are hardly bothered and right fully so, it is yet another day to survive and with the hope of a better one to wake up the next day. I've stopped following such news and articles and the toxicity imposed by them is yet to come out of the system. It may be akin to the proverbial cat closing its eyes shut thinking the world may go to sleep, but rather than fearing the next moment on what may happen, we seriously miss out on the present that remains unexplored and hardly exploited for the true benefits it contains. Possibly the one major thing that i may've to learn is to stop doing what i regularly do and start with newer routines that are more positive and are devoid of anything dark.