Thank You! November 29, 2008

Thank you Ishita, Rahul, Divya, Shivani, Mom, Karan, Swedyl, Shagun, Anshika, Garima, Bakir, Chinky, Nupur, Shikha, Bhakti Fui, Nickydi, Annesha for your frantic calls and texts to make sure I’m alright.

Thank you Shoa, Nayaab, Dad for calling at regular intervals to check on me.

Thank you Vahed for making sure the mood at All Stir Fry didn’t get too tense.

Thank you Rishi for telling me it’s gonna be okay when I really needed to hear that.

Thank you to the girl who gave us her UNO cards to keep us entertained!

Thank you to the staff at All Stir Fry for giving us coffee, blankets, pillows, phone chargers. For keeping the TVs running through the night. For taking such good care of us.

Thank you Adit, Smita, Aparna, Vinifer for staying calm while all of us were holed up at Gordon House.

Thank you Amit for dropping me home.

Thank you Sargamdi for replying to my blog post and providing the inspiration to do something.

Thank you to Srinivasan Jain, Barkha Dutt for keeping us up to date while sacrificing your own sleep and putting your lives on the line. For being responsible journalists.

Thank you Mr. Karkare, Mr. Salaskar, Mr. Unnikrishnan, Mr. Kamte and all the other officers who died fighting for us.

Thank you Mr. V.D. Zende and the other announcers at CST station who with their amazing presence of mind saved many lives.

Thank you to the NSG commandos for being so brave.

Thank you to all our men in uniform who fought so valiantly to finally bring the terrorists down.

Thank you to all the citizens of Bombay who are joining hands for a better tomorrow. Please don’t let this die.

The “spirit” of Bombay be damned!

I am honestly sick and tired of listening to people harp on about the “spirit” of Bombay. I really wish people would just stop. The so-called “spirit” of Bombay is nothing but the sheer need of the common man to get up each morning and get to work come hell or high water to be able to keep alive in the city. It’s nothing but a fight for survival. The “spirit” of Bombay thus, is not out of choice but rather the lack of it.

I, for one, am sick of being taken for granted in the name of our “spirit”. The “spirit” of Bombay has been used and abused so much that it holds no value anymore. It is nothing but a cliche. It is nothing but an excuse for the appalling failure on the part of the intelligence, the Government time and time again.

I’m sick of my city, my country being constantly under attack. It’s time for change. It’s time for our politicians to give us answers. We cannot, should not and will not remain silent as our security blanket continues to be torn away bit by bit. The authorities have been lackadaisical for way too long. We’ve watched on silently from the sidelines for way too long. It’s time for us – the citizens- to come together and fight this injustice. United we can and we will make a change, a difference. The “spirit” of Bombay be damned!

P.S. I’ve created an event on facebook to hold a peace rally or candlelight vigil perhaps to protest against the . Do join in. The time is NOW! Here’s the link-http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/event.php?eid=41080875973. if it doesn’t open just go search for the event called ‘Citizens for Peace’ and you should find it. Spread the word. The larger the number, the stronger the message.

What’s going on?! November 27, 2008

I’m sure everyone has been following the news and knows what Bombay is going through at this point in time. After more than 24 hours of being under fire the battle, I believe, still rages on. I wonder how long this will continue. I wonder how long it will be before everyone in Bombay, me included, will feel safe again.Sure, Bombay has been under siege before and sure the city and it’s people have picked up the pieces and moved on. But this time around, especially for me, it feels like the attacks hit really close to home. By saying that, I am in no way underrating the gravity of the earlier attacks-like the bomb blasts on the local trains etc. – but what I’m saying is that this time the scale of the attacks is unprecedented. Never before have any of us in Bombay witnessed such a widespread encounter that has gone on for over 24 hours. Never before have we witnessed people randomly opening fire at civilians. Never before have we watched on silently, helplessly as our city and it’s citizens continue to burn.

Personally for me, this experience was and continues to be terrifying. My s

ense of security has been shattered. It makes me wonder if it’s worth living in a city that is constantly under attack. It  makes me wonder if I have the strength to continue to live in a city where fear is my constant companion. I don’t want to keep worrying about the safety of my family and friends as they leave home in the morning to go to work. I know it may all sound slightly dramatic but after having being locked up in a restaurant (All Stir Fry at The Gordon House Hotel, where my friends and I were celebrating a friend’s birthday ) for over 10 hours with only a few buildings separating us and the Taj and hearing the sounds of gunfire, you can’t really blame me! I mean, the places that were and are under attack are all the places that my friends, my acquaintances, my family and I visit so often. Leopold Cafe for instance- I was there only last week! The Taj- I celebrated my birthday there less than a month back! After coming back home, I heard so many stories of friends’ relatives being trapped at the Taj, of a friend’s teacher being shot dead, of a relative’s friend losing a limb. I feel like my space has been violated. Like after this nothing will ever be the same again.

While we were locked up in the restaurant, the hotel authorities were kind enough to have two TV sets running through the night relaying the news. We watched all night as the enormity of the situation worsened. I think for me the seriousness finally sank in as I heard the news of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar being killed by the terrorists. It made me wonder how top cops like them fell victim to terrorist attack. Weren’t they given enough protection? Did they under estimate the arms and ammunition that the assailants were loaded with? I mean being the ATS chief and all that shouldn’t he and the others been given double the pr

otection before they took the terrorists on? It’s simply appalling to think they died when they actually could have been safe if only they were better equipped. They and the countless others in uniform are the real heroes, aren’t they? Like one of my friends’ rightly pointed out – it takes a ot of courage to lay your life on the line for a bunch of people you don’t even know! Makes me think all of us should be grateful to them for fighting for and ensuring our safety in the face of terror.I bow my head to them. I pray they rest in peace.

So what is it that is at the root of all this hatred? Religion seems to be the most obvious answer. All this fighting in its name makes one wonder how deep seated this hatred, this intolerance for the “other” is. It makes one wonder if a world without communal tension will ever be a reality. If it’ll ever be possible for all of us to live in complete harmony. I for one do believe that it is possible. Every person that refuses to fight in the name of religious differences is proof of that- is a slap in the faces of those who want to divide us according to which God we pray to.

So what is the solution to all of this? Some say that eradicating a certain religion and all its followers will do the trick. Some say bombing our neighbouring country is the ONLY solution. I say WTF??!! Do these people really think these measures will obliterate all the hatred that has existed for so long?! I think not. If anything it will only spawn more hatred and intolerance. I wish these people who make these statements would just pause for a while and THINK about what they are saying and I’m sure they’d realize that this in fact is not a solution!

Well that pretty much brings me to the end of this post. I continue to watch the news and and the situation as yet does not seem to be entirely under control. I haplessly wait and watch as the atrocities continue. I wish there was something I could do. Some say it’s time for us- the people- to take our safety in our own hands and stop waiting to be taken care of. Sure I agree. But what is it that we can do when even our top most officials are unable to do anything in terms of prevention? All I can do now is pray for all those who lost their lives, for all those who lost their loved ones, for resilience, for the strength for everyone to fight this horror, for unity, for a better tomorrow.

Hello world!

The raison d’etre for this blog is my need to vent and talk about all my experiences.