It caught up, finally. A calm and lazy city was forced to wake up and Bangalore had a blast – this time it isn’t fun we are talking about. In what seemed to be a declaration of sorts, the adherents of terror told us what they could do, leaving a lot of people relieved that they didn’t actually do it.

To a city that is quintessentially laid back, fighting “terror” and “terrorist” is a very alien concept. It is no defence, of course, but these are terms that we as Bangaloreans know exist. But that is all. So when the city was attacked, it did more than just jolt us. For the first time, it made everyone think why nobody had found the need to “get real.”

As is the case with most places that are “secure,” – a term I fear using now – animosity, deaths, bombs, riots and the like have never been Bangalore’s highlight. Sure there have been few incidents that have involved the aforementioned events, but none that were strong enough to instil fear or bog down the spirit of the city. Not that the latest one has shattered the faith of people here, but it has definitely got them thinking. Visiting malls or certain parts of the town, roaming around the city at odd hours, shopping excursions to Commercial Street… These don’t seem like the best things to do right now.

And that’s what has changed. For once we are being forced to think about where we want to go and why - rather why not. I’m not entirely sure that is a bad thing. Being relaxed and peaceful is one thing and being lax is something else altogether. May be it really is time to step up the vigil and acknowledge that we have an issue to address. That would probably be a start. Something else that we could do is being more aware of our surroundings and seeing things instead of just looking.

Sometimes, it probably takes an explosion to break the spell.