An era of terror is over

Veerappan, the notorious bandit, was shot dead in an encounter yesterday. This guy has murdered more than 100 people, killed countless elephants for their ivory, and disrupted the lives of many. The police had set up a special task force to capture him, but he was always one step ahead. After all, he knew the forest like the back of his palm.

A little over four years ago, early in August I was making final preparations for my journey here. July 2000 was pretty hectic as I tried to scramble together things that I might need for my graduate study, including a visa to get here. I was scheduled to fly out of Madras (or Chennai) on the 2nd of August. The plan was to take the train from Bangalore that morning, visit my uncle and his family in Madras, and board the plane that night. Amidst the chaos of shopping and packing and bidding adieus came the news that Veerappan had abducted Dr. Rajkumar, a well-known actor in the state. Fans took to the streets, and Bangalore came to halt that day. This was on the 31st of July. Bangalore police imposed curfew in a bid to contain the violence. The next day, things got worse. Reports and rumours of violence grew thicker by the minute.

Veerappan hails from Tamil Nadu state. He kidnapped Rajkumar who is idolized in the neighboring state of Karnataka. Madras is in TN, about 7 hours by road from Bangalore, Karnataka. So, here I was, in Bangalore, about to travel to TN. And the people of Karnataka had directed their anger at the whole of TN! Oh, joy! We heard that the highways leading out of the city were being blocked. We were convinced that the trains would too. It was only a matter of time. We could hire a taxi, we thought, and make our way in the dead of the night of 08/01. No wait, that's too risky. How about getting a police escort across the state line? someone said. In the end, we decided to simply take the train as planned hoping for safety in numbers. Plus, we reasoned, it was an early morning train; most of the train/road blockers get serious after 8am. We should be out of the state by then.

Thankfully, the train chugged out of the station as scheduled early in the morning. The scene outside the window melted gradually from an urban landscape to rocky hills, and we knew we had crossed into TN. After an unevenful train journey, we reached Chennai Central on time to be greeted with smiles of relief!