Just chill (till the next episode)

(On a sidenote before we begin, I've been dying to use that line as the heading for a post for about six months now.)

 

After the Mumbai blasts, it's not a stretch to say that security in the entire country got ramped up. You couldn't enter a mall or a theatre or a big office without stepping through a metal detector and getting felt up (frisked) by some security guard. (By the way, I think it's extremely primitive that they resort to frisking instead of using a hand-held metal detector. As someone asked, what if the guy frisking me is gay? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having a male person frisk me?)

Now, a few months after the blasts, security has clearly dropped off. On the way to my office, they used to check the badges of the people who worked in the building, and all other visitors were forced to park outside and call a person in the office to confirm that they were expected. Two days ago when I went to the office as guest, I just had to sign in a guest book and could walk up to the office. No one to check if I was who I said I was, or if I was expected. Similarly, in lots of malls all over the city, the security checks and friskings as you enter have become much more casual.

It'll keep dropping till there is another event and then people will get hysterical all over again and ramp it up. I suppose it's just human nature.