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As the night approaches its first preteen hour, I step out for a breath of fresh air. The thin silvery sliver in a well lit sky belies my dark mood. As is my wont, I try to find a dark corner to communicate. Difficult task- even the school playground is so well lit. There are so many lights everywhere, its difficult to hide. Yet I had to find a dark spot- just to mingle with the dark. Do you know why just an open school playground with a few lights would not do? Perhaps its my disdain of electronic prying eyes! Perhaps its the human shadows always wanting to know, leaving no stone unturned to prowl even the deep dark recesses of dingy mundane human existence. Strange that I should be writing this blog- Being a business journalist most of my life, I hate unfolding my personal thoughts except on scraps of paper tucked away in unkempt plastic bags in some dark corner of my house. By now you may have understood my relationship with the dark. The dark never betrays you or so I thought! Anyway, coming back to my story. Eventually I decided to brace a bit of light and trace my steps back and forth in the school playground. What the hell - I could always duck the standing posts reflecting their ugly yellow halo ! That's precisely what I did. I squatted on the grass - just so that I diminished my physical stature and evaded the circumference of artificial human light. Glued to my ears my faithful i-pod. Lethal combination of raw emotion, blocked senses and a gaze transfixed beyond the human world. I was safe now and could be myself- just myself and yes confident that I had evaded the relentless electronic eye. My dear reader I am the sorts who has always learnt what is the simplest lesson for others, the most difficult way. Call it naivety or a lack of faithful comprehension of the complexities of modern world - I have many times fallen with a thud. I am also getting convinced that there is the hunter and the hunted. The more you look and behave like a deer, the more hunted you are. Is it the deer's fault, I keep debating with myself? Never found the answer to that one. Yes, indeed Im going to take up this battle with the God's but first I have to go through this life. Ah! again I diverted. So coming back to my story. Suddenly, in- fact barely a few minutes into my squatting position I saw a helicopter hovering in the sky. I did not bother- why should I? Woe! I should have. In an instant the helicopter was descending and a flood of light from the front of the helicopter, seered the playground. It was as if a hundred thousand bulbs were flashing. I was mooted - thinking this must be a falling meteor. But just a minute back I thought I had seen the helicopter high up in the sky- how could it get converted to this ball of white light descending from the sky? I am normally brave but this was not normal. I ran for dear life and vow! the light followed me . Were these aliens ? Honest to God that flashed in my mind!!!! The other thought that flashed was perhaps it's a meteor or a huge star falling from the sky. It is difficult to explain how low the helicopter was flying, how powerful the lights were and how dedicated they were in following me across the field. I felt like a trapped deer running from a thousand traps. I ran up a steep hillock and down and up and down and thought it was my imagination that the helicopter was following me. I must be mad to think that someone would be following an inconsequential me - and that too in a well known school playground. After a minute I was convinced I was in Iraq and the horror of it all- that they may strike me from the sky !!! This could not be Edmonton. Some strange quirk of fate must have transposed me to Iraq or Afghanistan. All this was passing through my mind in those two minutes which seemed like an eternity. So many emotions and scenarios flashed in my mind and I realised what it must be for thousands and thousands of poeple being haunted day in and day out by the helicopters of powerful nations in their own homeland. This could not be happening to me. This was a public place and I was doing what I do everyday- visiting the school park - albeit this once not walking but sitting on the grass and listening to music. It was not even eleven in the night. I was wondering whether I should - instead of running, fall flat on the ground. All survival techniques flashed through my mind! I wasnt sure what to do. Suddenly I saw a similar flashlight on the ground and for a moment I thought it was another helicopter. However I realised it was a human being flashing a powerful beam of light on me. It took me sometime to realise it was perhaps the police and I was being told to lie down on the ground and show them both my hands. I was numb. I fell flat on the ground and showed up my hands. I was wondering if they would shoot me or perhaps taser me and once again my mind travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan and I thought of the humiliation of decent men and women who perhaps have to go through this many times over and sometimes many times over in the length and breadth of the same day. The police officer came close and asked me why I was running. I told her I was scared. She was young and humane and beautiful and so polite. I was glad she was kind to me and explained that the helicopter in the sky belonged to the police and they were on some errand. That I should not run the next time as they would get the wrong signal. I did not mind her doing her job. Is that what its come to! Monitoring well lit parks at ten in the night. How safe is our city? This in a part of the city that is one of the safest- or so they say. Im convinced no one can escape the electronic eye-its omnipresent! One day perhaps I'd have mastered it enough to give it the slip. Sorry I wont share that secret lest Im tracked down! Freedom, freedom, freedom. Ah freedom in a free land. Ah for an inch of truely free land. Is there any left? No wonder I seek the solace of darkness. But now I know better. Or do I? If its a choice between a dark solitary corner and a repeat of this experience, I'd rather choose the latter. To watch the sky from a dark corner of the earth is truly the essence of my freedom! So what if I have to squat! I told you I am naive or perhaps I love the freedom of defiance! But I promise you the next time I get into trouble, I will not ask for your sympathy. This once its surely mine.

Fact or Fiction? You Decide!

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