Friday, November 28, 2008

Mumbai at War

All of you guys must have heard about all the stuff going on in Mumbai. Cowards creating terror at the risk of innocent lives. When I was young, I never knew what terror was. It all started at the age of 8. At that time too the riots of 1992 and the blasts of 1993 did not have an effect. I still remember on the ground floor of the quarters we lived in were 2 families. A Hindu family and a Muslim family and I just asked, "Aap dono kyun nahi jagad rahe ho?". And my aunts just looked at me. One of them just said, " Beta, Humme kisise nahi jagadna. Hum sabhi yahi ke hai." I just felt ashamed and went back. After that came all the blasts in the buses and taxis. And then came the dreadful July Train Blasts. I was 21 then. A full grown youth studying in an hostel and could not even connect to my parents. I knew that dad and mom travel thesame route. Dad would travel late. But mom would travel around the same time. I did not know what to do. I just wanted to talk to them. I wanted to hear them. I tried connecting to dad. I tried connecting to mom. I even called my landline number. But to no avail. Nothing was getting connected. I tried the whole night. Right uptil midnight. And finally i got to speak to mom and she told me that even dad's fine. That was the time terrorism actually sunk in. I was scared. For the first time. I had felt it in me. Something inside told me what it is and what it can do.
And here I am writing today. 50 hours after the terror attacks all over Mumbai. I asked myself why? At the cost of whom? Who is responsible? Loads of questions flashed into my mind. I had no answer. I was on my way home when i heard the news. I thought of landing home after a couple of drinks. At the bar there were different people. 2 young guys just drinking anf fooling about how useless the Indian security is. 2 old men who were regulars and seemed to be entirely lost in the news. 1 guy even got a call from home. And I was sitting there, with all the questions flashing my mind again and again and again. And then i cursed the politicians. Why on earth are they like this? Why dont they do something? Cursed them the whole night and went to work the next day. The bus was empty. My card playing partners had skipped work to remain safe. But i did not. I was on my way. What made me do that? Why did I not think about staying at home? But I did not want too. I wanted to prove to all the terrorists that I'm not scared. Was it my arrongance? No. Was it the love for India? Could be. Was it just something stupid? Could very much be. But I did it bravely.
What I want to say here is simple. They are doing shit to us. And we just get back to our simple lives. It just does not matter. There is something missing. Something.....

1 comment:

Charmed One! said...

Hey khuj!! welcome to the blogging world mister :) !!!
rightly written khujs...actual horror of these terrorist attacks can only be felt if our loved ones go thro it!!