Strange. I was going through a slim volume titled Disaster Survival Skills compiled by an ex-Army man, Captain Vinod Nair, when I received a text message about the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore. I rushed to catch the breaking news on tv, and was sickened by what I saw. Apart from the injured cricketers, five cops have lost their lives battling those heavily armed beasts who opened fire on the innocents. Why? Perhaps the' why' is irrelevant. It is open season all over the world, and we are all sitting ducks. With the IPL matches round the corner, my fear is that a similar attack could take place in any one of the crowded stadia, leading to several more casualties, and this time their targets will include the superstars of the game. But who are 'they'? Another pointless question. Shadowy demons with hearts of stone.
I re- read the manual sent by Nair, and said to myself, a book like this has become required reading in these violent times. It provides practical and easy to implement tips on how to handle most 21st century emergencies - hi jacking, hostage situations, car bombings, grenade attacks etc.Scarey!! Nobody prepares you to deal with such scenarios. But like they say, 'A person does not build character during a crisis, he\she reveals it." I reccomend this book and you can access more info via the website www.kimmaya.com. Captain Nair in his covering letter mentions that he runs a consultancy and training service . I don't know the guy, and am not vouching for any of this. Just that I found the tips offered very easy to take forward. God knows we require road maps to negotiate all the land mines strewn across our paths these days. I wish the Sri Lankan boys a speedy recovery, and offer sincere condolences to the families of those slain cops.

Aham is all set to take his protest national on Sunday at 5pm. More power to him and all the supporters who have written, called, mailed. I was rather disappointed to receive an interview request from a newspaper in Bangalore which asked why we were bothering to protest against incidents that were taking place in another city, and whether the protest would give Bangalore\Mangalore a bad name!! Is it about geography... or humanity??