One year and counting.

Like almost any day when something out of the ordinary happens, this day will be remembered for years to come. Maybe it will go down in history books. Earlier they’d think up grand names for such periods in history, like the ‘French Revolution’ or ‘The revolt of 1857’. Now since there are so many such events happening so frequently, it’s down to just dates like 9/11, or 26/11 for which I’m writing this post. When the attack happened last year, I wrote about it and my feelings/opinions on it. I won’t be doing that again. It’s tough, still, to go back to how absolutely frightening those 21/2 days were. It gives me the shivers. The bad kind. But another event that happened shortly after, gives me goose bumps for an entirely different reason.

They say it started with a blog. One post, by one guy, about the attacks. The post ended with ‘I will be standing outside the Taj Hotel on Wednesday, December 3 at 6 pm. Join me’. That simple.

And I did. As did (reportedly) over 20,000 others. Word spreads faster these days, they say. When I got there, I couldn’t see an inch of the road. All we saw was a river of people. The emotions I felt there, cannot be put into words, and I can barely try. I didn’t write about this then, and I wont write much about it now. Sometimes, memories are really sufficient, without having to be written down. But that is what I shall choose to remember each year on this day. It was supposed to be a peace rally, but it wasn’t a boring walk with lit candles. It was a huge, huge group of people who were angry, upset, hurt and humiliated what for what had happened to them. There were random bouts of slogan shouting, patriotic songs being sung, and placards flowing over peoples heads, passed from one to another. There were thousands of people, but it seemed, one soul, one voice. Hurt, tired of being quiet, wanting to be noticed. Asking for a change long due to it. The march crossed all the places where the attacks occurred, starting at CST station and ending at the Gateway, where people lit candles.

The march ended, people headed back home their separate ways. But that soul, that voice still waits for justice to be done to it. Will that ever happen? Call me an optimist, but if the world doesn’t end in 2012, like they claim it will, then it HAS to. It absolutely has to. There is just no other option, is there? The way I look at it, this event is the turning point, at least for India. There have been attacks since then, and I daresay they might be another or two. But in the history books, this like the revolution of 1857 will be the event that changed it all. It took us 90 years since then to be called an independent country. No great event has ever happened overnight and it won’t now. Hopefully, it doesn’t take that long now. Hopefully, the same generation can live to see the new independent India. Free from fears of terrorism, external and internal. Free from the forces that stop it from being the super power it deserves to be. Is that possible? If I live to see the day, then I’ll write about it. If I don’t, then maybe more than 90 years later, that soul and voice is finally paid heed.

Maybe it’s the voice and soul at fault. Maybe it needs to be more than that. One body. One person. It’s all that’s needed for a start. That simple.

A city that forgets its victims… is a city Lost

South Bombay has the best of Bombay’s architecture, mostly due to the British time architecture, with stone buildings, just like the Gateway of India and the Taj. It also has the best sea faces at Colaba and Marine Drive. I doubt that anyone who has ever visited Bombay has never been to any of these locations. To think that places at these locations have been the target of hatred so great, it makes some people think what they are doing is right and meant to be, is downright scary. 

The Terrorists:When reports first came in of the incidents there, I was staring shell shocked at the television. This was not something that could happen. So much of it seems unreal. From witness accounts and photographs, the terrorists looked like regular kids. The way they are shown in the photographs and videos, one would be mistaken into considering them as college kids or youngsters walking casually down any road if it weren’t for the guns in their hands or the bags filled with explosives that they carried. According to witness accounts, they also spoke fluent English and from their attire look as perfectly civilized, educated young men. What does it take to infuse such hatred into young minds as these? What level of training is provided to them to not feel the slightest remorse or have the smallest bit of fear in giving up their lives? To think of me or any other person my age being convinced into doing something as ghastly as killing others with no rhyme or reason, is a very scary thought.

 The Bombay spirit:Damn it all to hell! Bombayites know what Bombay spirit is. People don’t go back to work and try and get back into their normal routine in a show of resilience. They do it because it’s the only thing they know to do. That does not mean anyone has the right to use it as an excuse. BOMBAY IS NOT A BOP BAG!!! Just because we bounce back every time does not mean we deserve to be pushed down ever so often. We keep bouncing back in the eternal hope that things will not repeat but I guess we now have enough evidence that we cannot expect it to be so. Understand that for some Bombayites, going a day with loss of pay is worse than dying. As a city that is the highest tax payer, we deserve at least the right to live freely in our own country. We deserve to know that our money is being put to good use. We are not asking you to pay us for our jobs we are not doing, we are asking for being given an environment where we can go to work and know that at the end of the day we shall return home alive. Is that too much to ask? 

The Politicians:I think at this moment the politicians are hated even more than the terrorists and rightly so. Who could be more foolish than the politicians who visited the city in such an hour of crisis? Didn’t the cops have enough to deal with without also having to worry about the politicians’ security? The things they did on landing were probably worse. Barely had they landed and gotten out of the airport than they start the mud slinging and blaming everyone from rival parties (and Pakistan, every Indian’s favorite punch bag) for the attacks. Modi went as far as to offer monetary compensation to the deceased personnel. None of the cops of the army are beggars, Mr. Modi. They do not fight for the country just so that when they die, people like you can ease up on your guilty conscience by throwing money at them. Much like we do to the irritating beggar-children at signals, not so much to actually give them money but to get them out of sight. There were messages doing the rounds asking for Raj Thackeray and what he was doing to save the ‘marathi manoos’ who were victims, letting him know the army weren’t saving people based on their community/caste/creed. Quite frankly, I’d be happy if he stayed stuck in his rat-hole (tiger- Ha! I don’t think so!) for the rest of his life.  I think it’s high time everyone realized that we all need better people leading the country. When we look at our leaders, do we really need to look at people almost on their death beds with a tremble in the step and their speech? Name one top politician who does not radiate that image? There are better people out there. We know it. A lot of the young politicians seem promising; however, we are our country that lets age matter a lot over perhaps other more important stuff. Let’s change that. Exercise your right. Vote! Not for someone just because they are older than you or because they are from your caste/community/creed. But because they can help this country progress. 

Stop blaming Pakistan and Muslims:Every one’s played this blame game for so long, I doubt if they themselves truly believe it as the truth or just because that’s what every one says. The hypocrisy needs to stop. We can’t keep calling ourselves a secular country if we keep looking at every Muslim with suspecting eyes. We can’t keep saying we want to be friends with our neighbors if we are going to turn around and accuse them, suspect them and blame them for every thing. That is not friendship if you ask me. If we have the evidence, let’s follow up on it and let’s eliminate the sources. No one can believe all of Pakistan is guilty. We need to eliminate the guilty not the innocent. Most importantly, if we are wlling to say that our own Muslims can be terrorists then why not accept the same for our people from other religions? STOP the hypocrisy. 

The cops and they army who fought:There isn’t an Indian who couldn’t have been proud of them! We can find great reassurance in the belief that at least our army knows what its doing. And their best is really good. Let’s support them, show them our faith in them. Let’s ensure that their best gets better. We need to invest in our forces to ensure they have better training, better weaponry, better protective gear, and better of everything they need. What could be more heartening than the fact that with over 60 hours of going without food, water and sleep, they can emerge victorious with smiles, and none of them the gloating kind. Perhaps embarrassed with the all the attention focused on them by the media. Not one saying the job was too much for them, not one demanding anything in return for what they did. Just accepting it was ‘just their job’ and that they ‘would not let the terrorists or for that matter any enemy escape’. We definitely need more of these.

 The incident has seen several heroes. All of them need to be applauded. Perhaps the only person unaffected (gratefully) by this incident will be the 6 month baby who was rescued from the Oberoi. I don’t know if her parents will ever return to Bombay, but I hope that at some point in her life, they tell her of the incident and even while she respects her father for being the hero that he was, she also remembers to thank our army for being able to bring her out safe and secure in her father’s arms. Ironically, the look in her big eyes seemed to be asking what Calvin once asked his imaginary friend Hobbes, ‘Do u think the grown ups will have the world fixed up by the time they hand it over to us?’ Do we have an answer? I hope it can be a positive one by the time she does grow up. There’s a lot to do and little time. Let’s not waste any more time. 

Let’s bring in better leaders. Let’s have even better security forces that are trained to deal with such situations even as we do our best to ensure a repetition does not take place. Let’s invest in better intelligence forces. Let’s ensure our better leaders follow up on leads by the intelligence forces. Let’s invest in an independent investigation agency that can investigate and follow up on such incidents to bring the guilty to book. Lets be a country that we can be proud of for every thing. Most importantly let’s remember we are Indians before belonging to any caste/creed/region. 

And whether it takes weeks, or months or even a year for the targeted locations to re-open as new, it will happen and they’ll once again be flocked with people there to celebrate something in their lives.

What assures me this is possible and Bombay will once again be back as new maybe better? An article in a paper that said, that when at 3 a.m. with gun fires and explosion going on in the Taj, someone called up the hotel landline to enquire about their relative/friend, the receptionist answered the phone by saying, 'Good Morning . This is the Taj.'

Need anyone say more?

The time Bombay went into a coma

60 hours… This time the ordeal lasted for 60 hours, rather than the few minutes a blast usually takes, or a couple of hours at most for a series of blasts to take place. This time, nothing was the same. The last time I ever remember seeing armed forces entering Bombay, covered in protective armour, with weapons was during the riots in ‘93, and even that was in no way similar to what happened now. 

When it started at around 10 p.m. on November 26, 2008... with reports of shooting at café Leopold, my first reaction was, ‘Who are these idiots now?’ I thought it was someone acting stupid for whatever reason. When the news said there was shooting at different locations in south Bombay, I thought it was some sort of a gang war. In hindsight, I almost wish it were. For even the underworld has enough integrity to only kill people they need to and not masses in general. When the news claimed it were terrorists, I dint want to believe it. I guess when Hemant Karkare, Vijay Salaskar, Ashok Kaamte or the cops who lost their lives in the initial phase, went in with no or little protective gear, they thought the same. The entire video that shows the final moments of Mr. Krakare’s life on camera shows his body language depicting the same. He arrived at the scene, and his body language suggested, ‘Let’s get this over with’. In fact it seemed as though he were ready to go in without the ill fitting helmet and bullet proof jacket. He seemed sure of what he was doing, and probably thought the fastest way to end the situation would be to lead from the front. But he and everyone else had grossly underestimated the terrorists. The situation went from bad to worse soon enough. The cops looked lost as they learnt of the loss of their top officials. 2 terrorist managed to escape with a police vehicle, shot at bystanders, abandoned the vehicle, took over another car and tried to make their way through the city before being intercepted and killed. (1 killed, 1 arrested as it was later confirmed). Everyone was in a state of panic as to what was happening. This being something that was never experienced before anywhere in the country, except for Kashmir. 

Even as a nation watched, marine commandoes were called in along with the national security guard. When they arrived and chalked out a plan for whatever they were going to do, I finally decided to go to sleep since I had to go to work the next day. It was around 3.00 a.m. the next day. I went to sleep with 2 thoughts. It was only a matter of a couple of hours now before it all got fine and a truly selfish thought, praying for my city to be okay. I woke the next morning to the incessant sound of my mobile that had been buzzing for around half an hour with the alarm ringing and calls and messages. One message got through my befuddled and sleepy mind: do not leave for work today. I put on the TV to discover that contrary to my belief, the ordeal was not even close to over, in fact in a way had worsened. The sight of fires breaking out at the Taj and the explosions, hurt, coz everyone knows how iconic that structure is.  The entire day I was glued to the television, like no doubt every other Bombayite was. This was a whole new form of terror. It wasn’t just a faceless terrorist who came and blasted himself and others up. This was old fashioned face to face warfare. The day carried on with progress and losses, it kept shuffling back and forth. Rescued people were being brought out, as were bodies. Figures were rising sharply. The media for once was doing the best job they could, bringing as much information as possible uninterrupted (at least 2 channels had been broadcasting with no breaks for the entire duration) without hyping things, giving out unconfirmed reports, or getting sound bytes from every man and his dog. The day ended on the same unsure note, with no definite news on how safe the city was. Another night of going to sleep with the hope that all would be well by morning. 

In the morning as I got ready to go to work, TV screen flashed visuals of black cat commandoes being dropped down from helicopters onto Nariman house, one of the main locations. The entire scene looked right out of a movie, with them being gracefully dropped, them moving stealthily into the building and the chopper taking off. The atmosphere in the normally quite cheerful and bustling office was quite subdued, conversations at every table in the cafeteria, seemed to be centered on the incident. The day passed with everyone checking websites for news ever so often or going to the cafeteria to catch up on the updates. A few rumors did the rounds of the city and peoples phones would start buzzing with families and friends calling up to confirm if all was well. As the day ended, everyone rushed home to once again get in front of the TV sets and wait and watch what happened next. The Oberoi and the Nariman house had been cleared, the battle at the Taj was still on. Incessant gun fire and explosions continued, as did the occasional burst of flames from some windows, the fire fighters tackling with each of them from the outside, as the commandoes dealt with the situation inside. 

By night, the commandoes from the Nariman house had been moved to the Taj to help in here. Night saw no real change in the scheme of things as it were. Only at around 7:30 this morning, on 29^Th November, when a body of a terrorist was pushed out of a window and shortly after, when the room itself went up in flames, did the official reports of the ordeal being finally over come in. a city started to breathe again. Shortly after, the situation was safe enough for reporters to go close enough to the building to get images from within. The army has been extremely brilliant in dealing with the event in an impeccable manner, moving cautiously enough to avoid as many causalities as possible and still relentlessly going after the terrorists to put them down. The cops did their best in helping the commandoes by not letting people interfere from outside and will hopefully continue doing the best in helping with the investigations provided they aren’t troubled with too much interference. 

I’ve never known Bombay like this. Scared, shocked, in such a state of panic. Neither has it ever been so quiet except for the sounds of gunfire and explosions for over 2 days. The city is once more back to what is was, although the people aren’t, nor are some of the best structures in the city. With no idea as to what the future holds, here’s hoping this is not another incident that goes forgotten over time, and we learn from this and move ahead to a better city and country.

Everything burns

The recent happenings in Bombay have… frustrated me to say in the least… I say frustrated for the lack of a better word… I cant say I’m sad or upset, because I don’t think that is it, I could be downright rude and at the risk of sounding like a total nut case have found it a bit funny on a very ‘Joker’ level, if you know what I mean.

I was born in Bombay. I’ve lived here all my life except for the trips outside the city. But Bombay is what I call home, there has never been any city that feels quite right once you’ve been here. All my life I’ve been proud of  everything this  city stood for. A city that anyone could come to and make it their home. A city that let you just be yourself and stretch your dreams to their hilt and make it reality. So many alternative careers have been born out of this very fact. I remember reading in a book that this was one city where no one needed to go to bed hungry at night. A city even while bursting at its seams always ready to accept just one more person foolish enough to dream he could make it big, when he knows deep within he’s smaller than an amoeba in this huge universe somehow squeezed into a city. 

Quite frankly, the recent developments don’t scare me because if the city had to have its downfall, it could have been done so many times before. In no chronological order(I suck at remembering dates of historical events), the numerous blasts that ‘ripped the city apart’ (as the media loves to phrase the incidents), during the racial riots that  were caused by idiots and their uncles(pun intended), by the closing down of the numerous mills and small industries, the increasing crime rates and the even more dangerously increasing crime rates, hell if man failed, in the natural calamities caused by God in the recent years-namely the rains that do try to drown parts of the city every year. If its survived all of this, I don’t think I can be called crazy to expect it to do so even now.

Coming to what this is really about, I think every night Raj Thackeray must be looking into his mirror(and I’ll bet every last penny I have that it was NOT manufactured by a ‘Marathi manoos’), and must be laughing, enjoying the feeling of puppeteer. Or like in those old sci-fi movies, where the villain looks into this automated globe like thing which focuses on chaos caused by him the city over. I really pity the people who honestly and oh so naively absorb every piece of crap he flings at them. I mean the man is such a coward, he cant stick to what he himself says, he twists around his own words more often that a compulsive liar. To name a few, the craziness about sending all kids to Marathi medium schools. Besides the hypocrisy that is literally dripping from his mouth along with the drool that I’m sure he oozes while watching in his secret oracle his minions rush to do his bidding, it doesn’t even make sense, cause there are very few(if any) institutions for education beyond school that teach in regional languages, unless you are studying the language itself. So even if a person is extremely literate in the stuff taught at school, he ends up being a failure while trying to cope up with the much higher level of studies, that too in a language he is not well versed with. Also the more stupid fact about not letting non-Maharashtrian’s take up jobs here, in fact not even letting them sit for exams for jobs for which they could be posted anywhere in the country.  For the people who gladly agree and follow, shouldn’t it go both ways? Call back all the marathis working anywhere other than in the state and let them work here for whatever measly job and pay they might get, stop using products built anywhere other than here, stop using anything that has to do with anything/anyone outside the state.

Not to mention the incredibly stupid fact of beating people up. For someone who claims to be seriously inspired and what not by the brave Maratha , Shivaji, going around like idiots beating people up, destroying their own public property and irrevocably causing damage to their own people seems mighty cowardly and DUMB to me. And even greater heights of stupidity are achieved with naming everything after Shivaji. Recently a paper carried an article about the confusion caused due to the names of the 2 airports in the city being exactly the name, again named after Shivaji. I mean the future of this city is prolly being named shivaji city and every road every crossroad being named the same, all institutions, buildings, every damn thing that can be named be named after shivaji!! (I’d ask them to leave the public toilets unnamed atleast!)

Honestly, I fail to see why so few people can actually see through what the man is trying to do. What I understand is him actually sending across a message to terrorists, to rival countries, to the global recession even. And the message I get is this:

We don’t need the global recession to affect us. We don’t need you other countries to hire and fire us either. We can very well take care of shutting down industries and ruining our financial developments ourselves. We can manage without giving valid reasons, the throwing out of perfectly able employees even when we don’t have people to replace them with the simple excuse that they are outsiders. We definitely done need you terrorists wanting to waste your precious time trying to destroy us. Perfectly capable of doing that ourselves too thank you very much. We can hit right at the key spots that can cause enough conflict which will eventually cause the whole country to go down in flames. You can invest all your efforst towards other countries that are more united and that are trying to move forward rather than backwards like us. We also don’t need other countries giving us competition. We shall soon be signing out of the competition cause we don’t want our people to be educated enough or let them come up financially to take on anyone in our own country let alone the world.

Everyone else can just sit back and watch and enjoy a private laugh like we do at night n front of the television screens while the news channels earn their money airing all the above incidents.

Laugh and enjoy while ‘everything burns! Ha Ha Ha!’- The Joker

Hmm... my first post to do with something relevant to more than just me!! well, i hope this doesnt offend anyone's sentiments... though you know i mighty well dont care if it does :|

ive tried to put across too many points and it may seem disconnected, but i just had to get it all out at once! read with an open enough mind to let the thoughts move around, but not so open that your brains fall out!

I would especially love to have your comments on this post, either here or thru IM as always or mail or whatever floats your boat to know how you feel on the issue

there.. a diplomatic post with a diplomatic little speech in the end... :P