Unadulterated Carnage – Where is it going?

Wednesday night when I was catching up on some of the old Koffee with Karan episodes in Youtube, there was a loud wail from SreeRaj – ‘Look at this – Its in Bombay’. It was on the terrorist attacks in TV – the massacre! And Ommy God – it was unbelievable on the first sight. Bullet Sprays! Grenades! Hostages! And what not – Unadulterated Carnage. We watched the live telecast in Sky news for hours and it was heart breaking.

Next day morning in train I got the metro and there was this huge media hype – inferences and interpretations – One of them said the gunmen were typically focusing the Britons/Americans and asking for their passports for verification! And one of the victims told a fellow victim to say he was an Italian if asked – What difference does it make to the gun points? Did they really target foreigners? Then, they could have manipulated something of the same in a foreign country! When you see the plight of innocent inhabitants in the city from here what more can you do rather than worry on the same. I had checked and made sure my friend who has recently settled in Mumbai and her folks are fine. Thank God – though the incident happened near her Bro’s office they were all luckily saved. And she was mentioning that it was a nightmare and everyone is scared to get out of home even now. The recent forecast says 119 dead!!! And rest of the recent news came upon on the Google search, in fact the initial search results are ‘Mumbai Terror Attacks Hit India Tourism at Start of Peak Season’ and ‘Cricket's future in Asia in jeopardy due to terrorist attacks’. Media covers more on the business aspects and in a bigger picture. Now, how long does it take for the city and its inhabitants to come back to normal life? (Typed up until this on 28th, Friday)

The whole milieu around us creates the effect of the Mumbai devastation - an aura of disasters and nightmares. You get to hear about the incident from everywhere – you call back home, friends on phone, e-mails and even someone new you meet in an Asian shop. My colleague was talking about it this morning. Yesterday when we stopped at Spice Lanka for some South-Indian food stuff, we happened to meet a guy who works with the Cleveland Police – and he was saying that he is totally disturbed with the Mumbai attacks and is sticking to VandeMatharam. We realised the effect is not just there – its all over the world! No matter if you are a Mumbai resident or not! However, the death toll has gone up to 200. Thank God, things are almost settled now and it is repairs time now there for people and place.

Mumbai is one of the places which I have always fancied (for a visit/holiday; somehow not to live). I am definitely going to stop over there on my next visit to India – probably April/August. Seems like a long wait for that though.

Well, here is the start of another week. Ooooo….December!!! And 2008 is going to see its end! Should have to think and analyse my year 2008. May be in another piece of writing by the end of this year. Start of December doesn’t seem very favourable for me. My train was delayed for 25 minutes in the morning. It was snowing in the morning and it was absolutely freezing. As the train was late I got into another train; unfortunately it was one of those cross country ones and I didn’t think much. As I purchase advance tickets from Transpennine the Cross Country Company didn’t accept my ticket. The conductor was quite rude and made me buy another one for which my young person’s discount was not accounted. This was when the train was jam packed; he could have easily accepted (I had a ticket though – I wasn’t travelling for free). However, adding on my frustration in the morning the guy who sat next quite annoyed me with his attitude. This is the last thing you want to happen on a snowy Monday morning.