Sunday, August 14, 2005

What would you do?

I had finally made my mind about it and wanted to blog on what I thought Londoners should do in face of the recent attacks: ignore them. Stay calm. Keep behaving the same. Etc.

And then I went to London for 18 hours.

Arriving was a piece of cake: Thameslink from Gatwick, off to King's Cross. But leaving was different. I was taking the tube from Russel Square with enough bags to look like a nuclear suicide bomber - except for my skin color. As I was walking in the station and getting on the tube, I was seeking suspicious looks or people getting off the train as I got in. But none of this happened. A few stations later, a Pakistanese-looking guy gets on the tube with a large bag bag. He tosses it in a corner and sits a few seats further.

I got nervous.

I was thinking to myself that I shouldn't be nervous. I was tying to focus on my book. But I couldn't help it: every 15-20 seconds, I would look at the bag, wondering if... I was about to calm down when the guy took his mobile in his pocket. I thought about the previous bombings where the bombs had been detonated with a mobile. I stopped breatyhing and resumed only when he started talking to the other person. A few stations later, he got off the tube. I was relieved.

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