Gaming for the innocent

A year after the November 26, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, a precocious 13-year-old from Patna, Bihar has created a game called Terror Attack – Project Fateh based on the attacks. Shivam Gupta, a Class 7 student at St. Mary’s School, Patna started work on the game after he was left devastated watching footage of the gruesome massacre on television.
Shivam, who suffers from a rare disorder known as Klippel Trenanunay Weber Syndrome, says, “I was very upset when I saw people being killed randomly at the Chatrapathi Shivaji Railway Terminus (CST) and people in the Taj Mahal Hotel and The Trident being killed and held hostage. I felt so helpless wondering how many men, women and children were getting killed for no reason at all. I wish I had the strength to fight them but I was sitting here in Patna.”
Feeling drained, scared and helpless after watching the news coverage, Shivam spent days mulling about what he just saw, and he says he was also left very scared.
“But, I wanted to do something about it. It kept me thinking for days and that’s when I decided to design this game. I made it with the thought that I could at least fight and kill these terrorists in my game, and so could many other children who felt the same way. I want all the children in India, who felt helpless watching these terrorists attacks, to aspire to become commandos and be part of the special forces unit. Then we can all defend our country and its people from terrorists,” he says with a passion.
Shivam has spent a lot of time thinking about how the game would work. “The first level will have NSG commandos fighting the terrorists at the CST Station. The second level will show them fighting at the Taj Mahal Hotel. The third level will have the NSG commandos rescuing the people in the lobby of the same hotel. I have shown my best friends the game and they loved it. They are waiting for the game to be in the market. My parents have been encouraging me a lot. Papa has taken a lot of trouble in getting the right contacts to release the game and I am grateful to my parents for making it happen today,” says the 13-year-old.