Shaken not Stirred

 Dear Koko, 

Today is the day when you returned home early because of a bomb scare! I mean, what world are we living in?

I remember when we were in school and we would get an early off or a day off due to heavy rains and we would have the time of our lives. The most "man-made" of these day offs would be a bandh, which was quite a frequent affair since we grew up in a Communist state. Communism meant something back then, seems eons ago though. 

But this is new, this is something I have never experienced and hope never to. It was morning and i was on an office call at 11 AM, when my colleague, who also lives in Bangalore pinged me, enquiring of I had been following the news. Of course I had not. Who has the time to look at what's going on in the world when there are beautiful Excels to admire? When I did look at the phone, it was filled with new of several schools in Bangalore getting bomb threats. The news was just developing so much information was not available o the channels or on Twitter (yes, because that's how we get our news these days. But wait even Twitter is not tweeting these days, is it X-ing?)

What followed was an absolute crumpling of order. Rumors ran rife all over WhatsApp. Anxious parents called schools, I just wonder how they managed all the calls. Some people reached schools to get their kids in person. First we heard 6 schools had got the threat, then through the day the number kept increasing and now at 4 PM stands at 44. Around 5000 children were evacuated from schools. Kudos to the school authorities, administrative staff and teachers for having managed this feat and managed the emotions of obviously worried children. 

While we as parents were only getting updates on phone, these children were there, front and center. They were doing their regular classes when there was an emergency announcement that there will be an emergency evacuation. Classrooms were combed and children made to assemble on playgrounds. While we might think this was all fun and games for you and largely it was, i did see that when you and your friends finally got off the buses you were somber. 



You got off and said, I cried a little. Was that a hint of shame? It's fine to cry. It's absolutely ok to be shaken by something like this. I know you are resilient and you will get over this, but today you can just be. 

I cannot believe how children who go through school shootings or other attacks can even return to school after they go through what they have. Of course this is not like that, but I just want you to know that we all get that this has been a tough day for you. 

Love,

Ma


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