Bizarre instances occurring less than 50 feet away from me

In the last few days, a couple of events quite out of the ordinary have happened to me. Indeed, I thought this stuff was what tabloid fodder was made out of and never imagined it would happen in my sleepy little suburb. Oh, the exciting life I live.

1. A bomb was found in the auditorium bang opposite my apartment building. I live so close to the auditorium that I often watch the crowds mingling at the cafeteria during the intermissions, as they grab some food and make it back to their seats while floating through the sea of hungry people. The funny part is, the auditorium was heavily frequented by politicians, film stars, thespians and the likes when it was newly inaugurated. Now, however, it barely attracts any attention unless a political rally has been organized there. Which is why it was bizarre that there was a bomb found under one of the seats and during a play that was attracting a small audience at that.
When the bomb was diffused, we heard a loud “boom” which shook me to the core. I was visibly shaking ( and those who know me will testify that I get startled quite easily). Even my father who was watching TV was surprised by the noise and wondered what it could be. As his eyes darted about the living room, checking if we were witnessing a minor earthquake, my mother’s cool response was “Must have been a flat tire!”(What are tires made of TZ that they make such explosives noises when they go flat?!). It was only later that we found out about the bomb, after a frantic phone-call from a friend and then, as a news alert on TV. Aah, don’t you just love the information age!
The icing on the cake was my brother’s reaction - He quite depressed because he had missed “all the action.” He wanted nothing more than to run out and be in the auditorium, watching the investigations and the live newscasts. We had to remind him that bombs are sort of life-terminating, at which he rolled his eyes, mumbling something about a generation gap as he walked away.

2. Last night, me and a friend were waiting for another friend to pick us up, when an auto rickshaw zoomed past us at a very busy intersection. Within seconds, it rammed into silver Maruti Zen and toppled over right in front of our eyes. By-standers rushed to help the driver and the passengers in the auto while its wheels were still spinning in air. And, surprise of surprises, the Indian police was there barely a minute after the accident happened! Unfortunately, the silver Zen had driven off, obviously maneuvered by a man with no conscience or moral responsibility, irrespective of whether it was his fault or the auto driver’s.

3. This one happened to me in the U.S. but it came haunting back to me in light of recent events. I was waiting for a bus at night. On the diagonally opposite corner of the intersection, was a large alcohol store that was heavily frequented by all sorts of weird people at night. It also sported an ostentatious red neon sign with dazzling lights that flickered round in circles around the store’s name, “XXXX Liqour.” As I contemplated the ugliness of the sign, 6 police cars suddenly pulled up on the corner out of nowhere. Within minutes, they had surrounded a white sedan sitting on the kerb. The police flashlights and the sirens seemed to be competing with the store sign in their ability to blind passersby. Through the blare, I made out some cops arresting 2 men(face down on the car, hands behind the back, reading rights and all that jazz – proved to me that COPS is no fiction) while some others were going through the car, looking for drugs, I presume. Not knowing what might happen next and preferring not to find out, I didn’t stay and watch but boarded the first bus that stopped my way.