It's been a week since terrorists / maniacs or mad men (whatever you say is an understatement) took over and hit India in a way that we've never been hit before. It made one all the more angry especially when freezing in the distant UK with no phone to check how one's near and dear were in the city of Bombay, it was one of the coldest and longest nights ever spent. The media here were ofcourse focussing on the Taj , Nariman Point and Oberoi because of the search for American and British Nationals but everyone's forgotten 2 other stories . The attack on Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus where 56 folks died is forgotten. The brave staff of the Taj and the Oberoi who risked lives to save guests , the brave firemen battling fires and bullets and grenades at the same time should not be forgotten either. The media in its live coverage of the areas around the Taj has forgotten about the bomb that went off in a taxi near the airport. So, if you look at it , they got to the railway station, airport and the 2 biggest symbols of India's economy with absolute brazenness. Scary ain't it. The media will do its bit, the politicians will point fingers across the border
Read Sidins blog here , if you want a description of how the Taj looks and feels, any words further would sound hollow and cliched. I read today the talks and the candle-light vigils and the street meetings protesting but with a difference, how can people make a difference to the country. The writing's on the wall - something had better be done and soon . It doesn't mean war with another state - but it means convincing the elected government to allow action or to take action on those responsible.
Even if nothing else comes out of it, the one good thing that's happened is the emergence finally of a country - India and not a bunch of people united for cricket or the stock market ! Finally spending the last 10 days in distant England, watching my country men vent out their anger and spleen and blood , brave firefighters dying for no-one's business I truly understand what it means to be an Indian abroad. People I meet at work , the taxi driver from a mall to home, a taxi driver in Leicester, the man sitting next to me on the train everyone asked only one thing - do you have family in Mumbai and are they safe ?
Forget boundaries and partitions and walls, shouldn't we just remember that after all Baby Moshe who lost his parents in the Nariman House attack is also human.
After all this go watch the India-England test series - Infuse some oxygen into test cricket and show them that life must and will go on!
