Bits and Pieces - Aftermath of Mumbai Mayhem

I was glued to the TV watching the nail-biting fifth one-dayer between India and England. Flipping the channels was strictly not allowed. The match ended with India's win in the match as well as 5-0 lead in the seven-match series. One step ahead towards a whitewash. After the win, I changed the channel, just to see the news (of over-excitement of Indian news channels) of India's win.

Forget the good news, there was the news of firing at four places in Mumbai. The reporters, initially, tagged it as a gangwar. But i sensed something much much more fishy. A gangwar can not take place at so many places at the same time. Within minutes, the news of a blast at Vile Parle flashed on the screen, affirming my belief of a terror attack.

At that time, the victory in the cricket match looked so very irrelevant. Cricket is not larger than life, not even in India, where it is said to be a religion. IRONICAL !

I didn't even watch the presentation ceremony. All I was doing was flipping between the news channels.

The terrorists had already started firings at the Taj, the Oberoi-Trident, CST, Cama Hospital, Leopold Café.... I couldn't sleep that night, even though I knew that allmy near and dear ones were safe.

Next day, the picture became clearer. Those guys had taken a lot of people as hostages, including foreigners, in the Taj, the Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House. I thought these guys had some demands to make. The news channels were doing LIVE coverage of the rescue operations, something which could've posed a bigger threat since the terrorists might have been watching every move of the security personnel LIVE on the TV.

Bullets. Fire. Grenades. Hostages.

I kept watching silently.

I had seen our Home Minister changing clothes after the blasts in Delhi. And that night I saw him informing the whole world on TV that NSG men are leaving to take on the terrorists. He gave the details. Number of NSG men, what time they would leave and what time they would start the operations.

Thank you Mr Minister. The terrorists were watching you on the TV.

And I was watching it all silently.

That night I also wondered where was Raj Thackeray and his 'brave' men who wanted to save their beloved Mumbai from North Indians. Why was he seen nowhere to save the lives of Mumbaikars? And did he ask the NSG commandoes whether they are from north or south? Or do they speak Marathi? Since the NSG commandos arrived 9 hours later, Raj and his men should have been sent to 'save their Mumbai' in the interim.

Mumbai for Marathis! NO!!! Mumbai belongs to all of us. Attack on Mumbai is attack on India. And that night all the Indians were worried and glued to TV and praying for the safety of hostages. They were not praying for Mumbaikars or Marathis or South Indians or North Indians. They were praying for all the INDIANS.

Even I prayed. I prayed for the well being of those inside, except the terrorists of course.

That night I also read Amitabh Bachhan's blog. Day 218. And I was stuck at the last sentence of the blog.

"Before retiring for the night, I pulled out my licensed .32 revolver,
loaded it and put it under my pillow. For a very disturbed sleep."

Disturbing times indeed.

I am still silent. But I know its time to speak up. Speak up and ask our damn good-for-nothing politicians and administrators how long they are going to cage us in fear and insecurity?Speak up and ask why don't we have a leader who can come out and say YES WE CAN !

We were tired of waking up each morning to the news of terror attack in some or the other part of the country, at least I was. I needed some result. Some damn result !

The Oberoi-Trident was cleared by evening and Nariman House by night. But the terrorists were still playing hide-and-seek with the security forces at the Taj. The Taj was cleared by next morning, thus ending the biggest terror attack on India in 59 hours. By late evening, it was found out that they were just 10 terrorists who carried out the inhuman act.

This was an example what a few 20-somethings can do. These 10 guys halted the world's largest democracy, the world's future superpower.

All of us are tired. Tired of facing terror attacks. Tired of the reports of the insensitive media. Tired of trusting people. Tired of being helpless. As a friend put it,

Why we, the youth of India, can't do a fucking thing to change the
fucking system at the moment?

I still sometimes wonder that why do Indians fight with other Indians in the name of caste, language, race, etc instead of fighting the motherfucker enemies of the country.

The aftermath of terror attack was something even more painful than the attack itself. With the media trying to reach everywhere, even at the cremation grounds and at houses of the martyrs, its much much more painful to see someone's funeral LIVE on the bloody idiot-box, and its even more painful to see the state of the kins of the deceased. The media fraternity (as they call themselves) must STOP doing such a crap. Just for the sake of your viewership, you guys are making commercial use of something like DEATH.


Another aftermath took in the political circles with Shivraj Patil (coincidentally from Maharashtra) vacating the post of Home Minister. He resigned taking the moral responsibility of the attacks. P Chidambaram is given the Home portfolio while the Finance portfolio (earlier held by P Chidambaram) will now be held by the PM himself.


Well much said about the good-for-nothing politicians and of course the insensitive media. Its time to end this post. But before ending, I would like to mention a message, which reads like this :

Forgiving the terrorists is left to God. But fixing their
appointment with God is our responsibility.

- INDIAN ARMY

Mayhem ends after 59 hours

Almost FIFTY-NINE hours of fierce gunbattle and exchanges of grenades has ended just a while ago when the Marine Commandos (acronym :: Marcos) and NSG commandos killed the three terrorists in the iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel's Heritage Wing. The 103-year old heritage structure stood completely devastated after the attack that started on Wednesday (November 26, 2008) evening.

It is reported that all the terrorist threats have been neutralised in the Taj building. But search operations are still on. The Trident-Oberoi was brought under control yesterday in the afternoon, while Nariman House was in control later in the night. The casualties toll rising further with 183 killed and over 350. The dead include 22 foreign nationals and 20 security personnel.

The operation, codenamed 'Operation Cyclone', to flush out terrorists from Taj is now over, signalling an end to the 59-hour siege. However, the NSG is still sanitising the hotel to check if any remaining terrorist or explosive is still there in the hotel.

The landmark Taj, especially the heritage wing, is totally devastated by the grenade attacks. It has been found out that the taxi that blew up in Vile Parle was headed towards the Airport. Had it reached there, it would have been much much more disastrous.

Of late, terror attacks have been increasing in India. Why is it that our Intelligence networks have become such a failure? The porous borders also add to the woes. The PM has doubted a foreign hand behind the attack. The Foreign Minister has confirmed the Pakistani link.

Its now time to speak less and act tough. Our focus must be to PREVENT such incidents rather than fighting them later. Plus the security forces must be trained and kept ready for such unforeseen events. Stringent anti-terror laws must be framed so that nobody can ever think of repeating such heinous acts.

My salute to the martyrs and bravehearts.... And condolences to those who were killed in the attacks....

Praying for peace.....

Mayhem in Mumbai

Warning :: THIS POST IS FULL OF ABUSES..... READ IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.... THIS POST IS THE VENT OF MY FEELINGS AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN MUMBAI.... I DON'T CARE IF BLOGGER BANS ME FOR THIS....



Why the hell are those bloody motherfuckers doing this.....? And those sitting in the air-conditioned government ministries, what the hell are you doing to stop there kinda cowardly acts???

Those bastards have the guts to come to India and do such things here every now and then..... And we guys are like helpless fellows who can't do anything except sitting at home watching TV and commenting on the incident, or in my case writing a blog about it.....

Its high time now..... Enough is enough..... When the US can attack Afghanistan 'coz of just one terror attack (its a different matter that they couldn't trace the mastermind Osama bin Laden), why the hell should we suffer just for the sake of the dummy 'Won't-Attack-First' image of ours.... Are we, the Indians, meant to suffer such heinous acts....???

India can send the Navy into Somali waters to kill the pirates and save some sea vessels which may or may not have Indians on-board.... Even if there are Indians, they might not be more than a dozen or two..... But India can't send its army to Pakistan (there's sufficient evidence that there are terrorist training camps in Pakistan) and curb them.... Why can't we stop those assholes to save more than a billion Indians.....???

These fucking bastards attacked at 10 different places in Mumbai (including the iconic Taj hotel, the Trident (formerly Oberoi) hotel, Leopold Café, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Madame Cama Hospital, Vile Parle, Wadi Bunder, Nariman House, Capitol Cinema) killing more than 100 people and injuring more than 200 (at the time of writing this post) including some top counter-terror officers (ATS chief Hemant Karkare, ACP Ashok Kamte, Encounter Specialist Inspector Vijay Salaskar among them)

Indians are now fed up with these kind of attacks.... We have been defensive for so long.... Now its time to become aggressive and give a tough answer to the bastards, so that nobody can even think of doing it again....

The number of terror attacks have increased so much in recent times, that everybody is now sort of used to it..... And even the government is so helpless in preventing such attacks..... The motherfucker terrorists strike anywhere, anytime in India..... and that too AT THEIR WILL..... There's an immediate need of stringent counter-terror laws.... The government, for the sake of its vote bank, is not acting on the honorable Supreme Court's decision to hang the terrorist Afzal Guru involved in the attack on the Parliament way back in 2001..... Seven years down the line, India is still waiting for the bastard to be hanged.....

With every terrorist act, we get evidence of Pakistan's hand in it, yet we need to maintain cordial relations with them.... Why??? Its better to have no neighbour than such a fucker.....

They can send terrorists to our country to kill innumerable innocents, then why can't we send our army to kill those bastards? I'm sure almost everyone agrees to it.... I'm a peace loving guy, but when they can resort to such lows, we have to do something to counter them.... Aren't we supposed to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people....?

I'm not at all apologetic about what i wrote.....

LET THERE BE PEACE.....!!!

Pappu can't VOTE saala....

Finally, I'm back from a damn tiring trip to Mumbai..... My schedule throughout the trip was so hectic, that i couldn't meet so many people....

Moreover, the scorching heat in Mumbai made the trip more tiresome..... And here in Rajasthan, its so very cold.....

But there's definitely some other heat in Rajasthan..... Yes.... With elections on head, the season is very hot with only 10 days remaining for the D-Day.....

This is gonna be my first election (as a voter... not a candidate...) and i'm pretty enthusiastic about it.... What about those who don't vote??? We are supposed to vote for the most suitable candidate rather than cursing the elected candidate and the government for the next 5 years.....



'Pappu' - This name doesn't need any introduction.... The movie 'Jaane Tu Yaa Jaane Naa' made him famous overnight..... He's a man who is popular, who has "Rado ka watch", who applies "Gucci ka perfume", but the poor guy can't dance..... I would like to add a new dimension to this fictitious character.... What will you call a person who has got everything but no time to exercise his right to vote....?

Yaah !!! You got it right.... I'll call him 'Pappu'....

This post is dedicated to all such 'Pappus' who are endowed with the right to choose the leaders of the country.... who in turn will decide the fate of this country and people like you and me.... for all those who have the right to vote but no time to vote....

On the polling day, 'Pappu' would like to stay in the comfortable confines of his home, or rather watch a movie with friends (not letting the other 'Pappus' vote), or even plan an outing if the polling day falls with the weekend.... But the most ironical and the most interesting thing about the 'Pappus' is that despite of showing his 'interest' in the political system, he'll rather curse the same system and the leaders part of it..... He might not even think about his own contribution in the making of the system....

But the question is Why Pappu can't vote???

Some common reasons cited by the 'Pappus' for not voting are :

"Politics is not my cup of tea..."

"Whom should I vote for...?
They all are same... All are equally corrupt...."

"No one cares for the
aam-aadmi (common man)... Everybody's busy in making money...."

Well.... I know and even you know that the list doesn't end there....

The leaders come into power on the basis of the number of votes polled by people like you and me. It's you and me who make them 'the leaders' and drive the rest of us which we might later like or dislike...

Every vote counts.... Every effort counts.... A single vote can make or break the government, it can block the right person or pave the way for the wrong person to be there or the other way round....

When there's a flaw in the system, there isn't gonna be any 'divine intervention' to change the system.... Its us who have to stand united against any such flaw.... We all blame the system for almost everything.... We want a change in the damn system.... But tell me what is stopping us from doing that...? You have the right to do so.... I have the right to do so.... Everybody has the right to do so.... Then why not do it? Why not vote and bring the necessary change in the system....?

Its time to make a collective effort to put the right system in the right place for a better future of you, me and everybody....

So my dear 'Pappus', its time to wake up !!! You have it all.... Rado ka watch, Gucci ka perfume and of course the right to vote.... Please don't waste the right once again.... Your vote is worth millions, don't let it be wasted..... And don't give yourself a chance to complain about the system for the next five years....

'Pappu' might not dance but he will definitely vote.... He will vote for himself, for the right system, the right government, the right people and for the best of the nation and its future....

So, all the 'Pappus', get ready to vote this time.... so that nobody can say

"Pappu can't VOTE saala...."

so vote and don't remain a 'Pappu'....!!!

Journey with Foreigners

Hi guys !!! This is the first time, i think, when i've had 'international co-passengers' during my train journey..... They were 4 of them, all from different countries, all travelling alone, all going to different places..... Yet all of them were allotted adjacent seats.....

One was Gerald, from France..... He comes to India every year since the last three years..... This guy knew good Hindi but with a French accent.... At Bandra Terminus station, there were a few guys talking to him in English.... Meanwhile, some of them were abusing him in Hindi, and guess what.... he told them to SHUT UP ! Yeah.... Those guys were unaware of the fact that Gerald knew Hindi..... That was a great sight.... He knew very much about India.... Of course, he had been visiting India every year.... He had a typical French look.... with a bit of Indian touch !!! He was impressed with the Indian way of living and dressing.... He loved eating Samosas...!!!

Moving on to another foreigner, Murray Gordon, from Cape Town, South Africa.... This guy was so skinny that he could've given a tough competition to Indian models (females)... In fact my health was much better than him, even though i don't possess a great body..... And in front of me, he ate SIX bananas one after the other..... How can one eat six bananas....??? Isn't it too much? Yet he was so thin.... I hate eating bananas..... Thank God my mom wasn't there with me at that time..... She would've definitely made me eat at least one or two....

Third one was Hernan Itoiz, from Spain.... He had long hair.... He looked like a typical foreign tourist..... dressed in t-shirt and shorts.... with camera around his neck.... On one occassion, he asked the tea-wallah something in Spanish.... Neither i knew Spanish nor the tea vendor did..... Just a few seconds later he realised he was in India, and not in Spain..... Then he told me in English to ask the vendor the cost of a coffee..... Another rare occassion...... He had his relatives all over the world, in almost every country....

The last one, Matias, from Argentina, was a real dude..... He was visiting India for the first time and was totally impressed with the country and the people in the first four days of the trip....

All over the way they talked about almost everything..... I guess they had discussed around 28 countries they all had visited..... I wondered these 30-somethings have already been roaming around the globe while at this age we Indians are still busy raking the moolah.....

They felt bad about the Indian people not caring about the rich heritage of the country.....

Anyways, it was a different journey altogether..... And i didn't meet any of the species of the co-passengers as i described in my earlier post.....

Well, i've still two hours travel left in the train to reach home.....

And i'm bored now..... I wrote 4 posts in the last 14 hours...... Tired of writing posts and moreover tired of travelling.....

I need a BREAK....!!!