November 26th(11/26) will be a day which will be marked in Mumbai's history as a black day.Not that there weren't other black days for Mumbai,and i fear there will be other black days to come too,this was a day which saw the worst terrorist attack in recent times.
I had just returned from my office on the night of 11/26 at 10:30 PM when i happened to browse through one of the news channels.Little did i know that i would be glaring at those channels late at night upto 3 AM that day!Initially news channels were reporting about a gunfight between two groups,supposedly the underworld(?),but as the events began to unwind,it became clear those were terrorist attacks,well orchestrated terrorist attacks.Shocking as they were,they were audacious too.It was mumbai's 9/11.
Not only were these maniacs armed with sophisticated weapons and grenades,they had come to mumbai with a purpose,a suicidal purpose.These guys then reached an appropriate target and started firing indiscriminately with their AK-47s and rifles.Scores of people were caught unaware.Their targets included popular places like gateway of India,Leopold cafe,taj mahal hotel,oberoi-trident hotel,metro cinema hall and a couple of hospitals amongst others.Needless to say,the police and authorities were caught napping.By now,most of these terrorist have been killed or arrested but the damage has already been done.
I had decided to take a leave on Thursday(11/27),to relax and have a day off from my taxing work schedule.But it turned out to be exactly the opposite.Most of the day i was left sulking,irritated,angered and frustrated with what was happening to my city,Mumbai,my beloved mumbai.The city of dreams was left bending on its knees for almost 24 hours by this mindless senseless violence.Imagine being shot in a gunfire of two mercenaries while waiting for a train back home at CST station.Imagine slumping to the ground hit by bullets after watching an enjoyable movie in Metro theater.Imagine being held at gunpoint while dining with your family or friends in a restaurant.Imagine just having started a journey in an exotic country,which turned into tragedy at the 5 star hotel itself!Thats what my mumbai went through in the past 24 hours.
And watching the idiot box,sitting at home doing nothing only increased the frustration.I watched the beautifully majestic Taj Mahal hotel crumbling down,when blaze after blaze continued to beat it down.Both the 5 star hotels,Taj and Oberoi-Trident are symbols of the rise of the city we love.To see scores of foreigners,tourist and staff held hostage to terrorist was a wrenching sight.Now its time to ask the tough questions.
For the last 3-4 years terror strikes have achieved such frequency that i fear we as a nation would become numb to those BREAKING NEWS reports soon.I fear soon we would become adaptable to the situation,so much that terror strikes will be perceived as a common occurrence. If there is a time to change ,then the time is now.
First thing,there should be a provision in the law to prevent important politicians or minsters visiting the terror site every time theres some incident.It not only hampers investigation,these politicians(or should i call power hungry monsters!) also hamper medical services by visiting the affected in hospitals.Already the resources are strained due to terror strikes,they are stretched to the limit when the PM or leader of opposition comes calling.If these politicians had some common sense,they would have not entered mumbai until investigations into the blast are complete.What a waste!
Now is the time for the leaders of the nation to forget their differences and selfish motives,to come together for the sake of the country in its security.If not now,then the enemies of our great country will take it for granted that India doesn't mind being hurt by these terror strikes and continue them at will.It is time for some concrete action,some stricter laws,using the firm hand against entities aren't in national interest.And of course we have to do something against the country,which is the root cause of all our terror pains in some way or the other.God knows when we will have Pakistan off our backs,but if we cant make them agree to our cause,then its time to bully them!!
This last attack was a strike right into the core of Indian financial power.It was different from the rest of terror strikes India faced in the sense that the targets were the lower class or urban middle class Indian.But this time the targets were high flying millionaires,tourist,foreigners and the upper level la de cream in general.It also got a lot of coverage from the international media because of the foreign hostage situation.This attack will have hard ramification on the country.I can just hope that it will help the giant called INDIA to finally rise up to its true status in the world.
