Posts Tagged ‘Visitor’

Sadasivan looked up from his book, as if at an intruder. He looked at the strange number on the dial-screen. Hesitated for a moment, and then pressed the red button. And returned to the page.

The book was a novel about urban terrorism. Page after page of bomb-making, recce trips, planting of bombs in market places, killing of innocents….In the city he lived, these were facts of life. He could identify himself with the victims. In fact, he felt a strange thrill and even relief to reflect that he had not had the occasion to witness any of such gruesome incidents. Much more, deep down somewhere, he believed he would never be a victim. He would be spared somehow. This sense of immunity gave him a kind of exhilaration. These were happening to other people. He went on reading with a faint superstitious strain in his mind that reading this novel worked like an expiatory act, which provided possible protection against his being anywhere in the vicinity of such future attacks. The fascination for morbid details had chained him to the chair. Read the rest of this entry »