The Black Forest... :P

So I wasn't in a mood to blog of late, a very good friend of mine has been going through some really hard times, and it makes you stop for a while and think about the fragility of life, and how a seemingly trivial event can change someone's life forever. Well, I am 18 after all, and death hasn't been a prominent part of life for me. Trapped in our little protective bubbles we tend to forget that life is but a temporary guest-house in a long and arduous journey...

And last Friday, while the air-raid was on, and my friends were complaining about being stuck at BC audi and not being able to listen to the bands, I was sitting at home, in a suburb far away from the action, and watching it on tv/the blogs as it happened. Here was something that excited me greatly [stream of consciousness: planes! explosions!! planes+explosion!!!], something that I had read about so much, something about which whole movies have been made... and everyone ran outside to watch the seemingly harmless "fireworks", until the blind bullets snatched away 2 young lives from us... a seemingly trivial thing to someone looking at it from afar, yet a life changing situation for the people caught up in the middle of it all... kinda reminds me of how we watch in awe and glee when they show our laser guided bombs smash buildings to pieces, yet never think about the people that lay buried beneath the rubble, gasping for one last breath...

And no, I do not blame the government for anything that happened that night. People would argue that having SAM sites in unpopulated areas like the Wilpattu or using IGLAs would've been a safer and sure fire way to bring down the tigers, but they came, we had nothing to throw at them, and I think the gunners did an excellent job finishing them off with the little resources that we did have. May this cursed war end soon...

P.s: Why is the post entitled "the black forest" you ask? well this blog post went through four revisions, in the course of which I went through a lot of grief and thinking. Yet a friend's status message on Facebook made me forget it all and laugh for a while. It read: "Don't know yet about life, how can i know about death. She's got half the Black Forest hanging out of her armpits..." lol ;)

P.p.s: Oh and I have to mention it here, TRALE '09 was an immense success, and around 1400 people had attended the event. I just want to thank everyone who helped us, our teachers, the donors, the sponsors, the well wishers and most of all the people who came, for making the event the success that it was. Thank you! :)