I was fast asleep and I got a call from my brother in America asking "There seems to be a blast in Mumbai,are you safe in Mumbai?". I said Yes and slept...soon one more call came from my friend stating the same message with more fear.I was little shaken and slept back again....The whole night I had something running in my mind..I was not able to distinguish whether it was my dream or truth....But fear was building up in my heart.I had a drowsy sleep till the morning dawned....
Very soon I got up...I switched on the TV and browsed through the News channels to find about the terror I heard in the night...Hell...I felt this was much more in intensity than the ones we saw in the past.They were telling that there is fight going on with the terrorists in the Taj,Oberai & the Nariman house.Down came the first call from my mom,with lot of fear she asked if I was safe.....I said "Yes".
Sooner or later all my friends called up....I felt like I was in grave and striving to get up...I was really sad about why all this should happen in this world with so much hatred.I felt the terrorist are not the humans we talk about.They are some cold blooded machines to Kill and getting destroyed.I can't see them like dying,but a machine getting damaged or exploded.I don't see any good reason for them to attack us and spoil the peace we all bestow in our lives.
The whole of Mumbai seemed to have been glued into the TV sets watching the Times,NDTV & other news channels.I saw Mumbai like never before in my 10days stay there.There was so much panic.I felt more heat when my company called up and asked me to move to Delhi.
Date:28th,Nov,2008,Mumbai
Finally my company HR decided it was safe to move out of Mumbai though I didn't feel like moving to Delhi,I need to push off to the Airport.I saw the streets almost empty,with most of the shops around closed and the sense of fear was well felt.
I felt everyone around was in loss from the guest house I lived(27 bookings got canceled for them in that one day) to the Cab I traveled(The driver hardly got any customers going out) & everything seemed more like a troubled occasion.
Sometimes fate is good to a few and bad to a few.I met a couple of good fated people who narrowly missed all this terror attacks.
1.My Cab driver drove past the Marine drive at 8.30PM with his Chinese customer having his dinner in the Chinese restaurant.He escaped in a matter of an hour to be precise as the attack was there around 9.30PM.
2.My co-passenger in the flight to Delhi was a Canadian who was supposed to stay in the Oberai and attend a meeting in the Taj.He came a day late which saved his life & also the people who accompanied him. Maybe one of the closest escapes.
3.There was also a attack in the other side of my office at Ville parle at around 10PM...I left that place by 7.30PM
I felt like this is one of the worst terror attack our mother nation has ever experienced.But we cannot stop our lifestyle.We should not abstain from anything because of these ruthless machines-Terrorists.We should never fear a machine we cannot repair, we need to be united,we need to fight the error,terror and destroy to core.This cannot happen if we fear and stay away.We need to prove them wrong by getting back to routine as soon as possible.We lost a lot in this attack,but we got a good opportunity to unite and live together & show to the rest of the world that India is Safe place to Live.
Last but not the least,I salute the martyrs who lost their lives,especially their families & friends.The only way to show our gratitude is to move freely without expressing our fears by showing our faith in our safeguard forces,let's live & not fear the terror.
Let us all join together,Sink our differences,Rise above our petty jealousies and rivalries and remain as one,strong,unified Indian.
JaiHind!
