That’s right, despite the dire reports on the news of heightened security at Indian airports (the threat level at U.S. airports has remained at orange for several years running), and the recent macabre events in Mumbai, we are going for a week to one of the most famous beach-tourist spots in India.

I was ambivalent about this particular choice of vacation spot in October, when the choices included other places in Asia.

But now our choice has become a part of global politics – should we or shouldn’t we change our plans based on what a militant group plans? Given a choice, knowledge that something might happen, which those people in the Taj didn’t have, what should we do?

Its ironic that living in Qatar, in the seat of the Middle East, across from the shores of Iran, none of these questions have previously been brought to bear on our daily lives. In an abstract fashion maybe: as we watched the ex-pats evacuating Lebanon or heard the stories of friends fleeing the bombs of summer 2006. We nodded and said to ourselves, yes, life is precious, nothing is guaranteed, and that could be us. 

In fact, just the opposite has been true for the last three years here. Questions of "what if" are soon buried under piles of work and the mass commericalism of new Versace or Gucci shops opening up.

But these recent events in Indian have made me consider avoiding tall building or hot vacation spots. Is this a way to live? 

Instead my husband and I have decided to put into hyperdrive our constant travel policy: get your house in order, kiss your loved ones, and go. Call it fate or destiny, we’re moving on with our lives, in support of the Indian economy and the right of civilians everywhere to do what they had planned.