Ameraica's 9/11, Mumbai's 26/11... who's next?

People would argue that a terrorist attack on a city like Mumbai isn't something unexpected. But what would really make a mumbaikar chew the cud would be the audacity of the terrorists to get inside high profile places and carryout their modus operandi for more than almost 24 hours. Nothing like this was ever seen before. The entire saga is said to be an experimental strategy, setting the target on Mumbai.

The terrorist are said to have been come from Karachi, Pakistan; where they trained to do what would be remembered by the world till kingdom come. They trained in a camp that taught how to take innocent lives. How to kill whoever comes in their way. How to be inhuman, even to the children who are completely unaware of what the world is. What makes them so ruthless, that they cannot see the damage, that they turn a deaf ear to the screams of people they aimlessly point a gun at?




The open firing at the CST and Cafe Leopold in Colaba is still not as shocking as the ones in high security places like The Taj Hotel, The Oberoi Trident Hotel, The Cama Hospital and The Nariman House. The attackers entered the Taj by open firing on the gaurds outside and the receptionists. They were carrying with them, AK-47 and AK-57 rifles along with satellite phones and a bag full of grenades. How secure are we then, if the forces allowed these armed terrorists to walk around with the amount of ammunition that they had with them?

In contrast, who can we hold responsible for these attacks? The loopholes in the security measures, the failed Intelligence, the Government? Sadly, all. I was waiting for a political party to make a poll-mongering issue out of the tragedy faced by the city, considering the state and the national elections are just around the corner. And no, they chose to use their brains this time around.



I had been following the news since the time it broke out in the media. Post which I wanted to see a media circus happen around the whole situation. But here too, I was disappointed. The media seemed to be more responsible this time, the events being covered efficiently by The TimesNow Network. They withheld information they thought might be useful to the militants in case they had access to the television network even when the satellite and communication wires in the hotels and the Nariman House were cut off by the police. I think this was more important than just letting out "exclusive scoops" at the time of the militant attacks on innocent lives.

The amount of motivation to create havoc was so evident in guerrilla strategies planned by the militants that every move they made was so well executed, i wished the Indian forces were half has prepared. Three top ranking police officers including 16 others gave their lives for the safety of the common man. Some of the police men weren't even wearing bullet proof jackets! The men who face the dangerous suicide terrorists, aren't even paid well for the kind of job they do. The Government couldn't even provide them with fighting infrastructure? This is what the government pays them: peanuts.

It is very disheartening to see the state of affairs in the city. More so, I was disturbed by what ever happened on a personal level because, me and my friends were right there, just an hour ago it all began. We were all there and we never anticipated something of this magnitude, and an hour after that, there were frantic calls being exchanged inquiring about families and near and dear ones. Some of whom I still have not heard about.



During all this fracas, one thought that struck my mind was, why didn't Raj Thackrey send his "Marathi manus" and threaten to drive away the armed militants just as they do to the Biharis or better known as Uttar Bhartiya? That would have earned him some respect.

In the end, it wouldn't matter how ready we are, or how constructive and fool-proof our security measures are, what every Mumbaikar needs to imbibe in himself is mental preparedness and the will to comprehend that, in today's times, everyday is a day of thank yous and the uncertainty of returning home.

People enter our lives for a reason!

I strongly believe in the title of my post and as I am experiencing life, I've begun to believe it more than ever before. Can there be another explanation possible? Maybe we say this to make ourselves sound rational at the loss of an integral part of life but this also makes us ponder that, if something is meant to be yours, it will never go away from you. Or maybe it'll go away and then come back to you. Or maybe it'll keep coming back to you. Who knows what the future holds!

And that's precisely why life continues to intrigue me at every phase. How many times do we have a feeling that comes gushing to our heart, that tells us, 'Yes... this is meant to be...', 'this will work out fine...', 'yes... I am glad this happened...' or 'oh! this will not work!' And how many times have all these feelings fallen flat on their faces? That is what life does, it plays along with us, makes us happy and then suddenly comes the blow, out of no where, and we think, 'what went wrong?' And we ask this to ourselves not once not twice but possibly as long as it takes us to figure out what exactly went wrong.

But in the middle of all this fracas, people coming in and going out of my life, there came some, who today I feel are meant to stay. I can never be sure of that, but then again, as much as I hate to say it, this is life. They are those people who I never expected to stand up for me. There was a time when I did not need anyone or anything. There was a time when I was very happy with what I had or the little that I got from life. While something significant kept me rooted to this belief, i kept discarding many people for the happiness of the ones with me. Even a tree that sheds it's leaves in fall, knowing that soon there will be new ones accompanying it in spring, must have felt more than I ever could.

And suddenly today, I feel I have been nothing but mean to all those who tried to be there for me even when I didn't need them. I would say I am glad I realized this now, but I also know that now it's too late. Too late to go down that road, too late to re-live those moments and too late to get back. How hard was it, when we were kids, to say that one is sorry or to simply smile and say, let's be friends again? How hard is it now, to look someone in the eye and tell them that they're not needed and to suppress all those feelings and for what? To satiate the needs of ones ego? To make one feel that they have not lost face? To show the world how ones ego triumphed over the others? Swallowing ones pride is extremely difficult, it never tastes good either.

Moreover, there are people who make this journey called 'life' less harder than it is. In a world where one may not even trust ones family to be with them throughout, we make friends. Friends. Not as easy as the word sounds. And if they were not there for me, I would have felt differently about the whole concept of friendship. Friends are there when you want to have fun, when you want to feel silly, when you feel 'BLAH' [yes I am referring to you dear ;-)]. But being there when you never expected them to be, is sometimes a new experience all together. I never felt that kind of bond with anyone until now. Perhaps I was unsure to trust anyone around me. Too afraid to take someones hand and hold on to it. I feared being in that place where I had been before. I feared letting myself go. And now fresh thoughts enter my mind erasing the old ones like the first rains washing away the traces of dust particles from a leaf. And this is also how new people came in my life, pushing the older ones out.

I never really thanked God that much, but today I want to say Thank You God. Because of You, I realized so many things, I learnt to learn, to forgive, but never forget. One can never forget. Thank you, to those, whose chose to stick with me, and also to those who came for a reason. And leaving, just as swiftly as they came just like wind. Testing times have shown me why people come into our lives. For what reason. And when the God wills them to go, no matter what one may do or say, there's no stopping them. And finally, when they are gone, one learns again to be content with the few people one has in their lives. Finally realizing the mistakes made, and the time lost, the tears dried up. And hoping, with all ones heart that, Time, the biggest healer, will take everything away. And there will again be a new beginning, a new day.

I also want to thank those who are no longer in my life. Not because I want them to be or out of relief that they are not, but for teaching me the lessons... The lessons taught by each one will not be forgotten. One lesson that I have learnt very well is that, one needs to be weary of people who say that they will be by your side, no matter what. Sometimes they may be the ones who turn their back on you when you need them the most. Thank You, for teaching me that life goes on, no matter what. And after the lessons are over, leaving the space you occupied, empty, for the one who really deserves it.

Thank You All.

Inarticulate... Words.

There are so many things the heart would want to say, but how do the feelings make way for words? Words are hard to come by, there are times when one needs more than just mere words to convey deep and unfathomable sentiments. We feel people who are close to our heart are the ones who will understand easily what the mind wants to say. But yet we stand corrected. Life is indeed a mystery.
We look for our near and dear ones in troubled times, but often realize that out of the so called dear ones, few even understand the unknown, that which cannot be expressed in words. It's surprising how something we didn't utter or something we didn't say, flies across from us to someone we didn't know would understand. And we feel subdued and amazed at the people who betray us in the middle of adversity. Who understand, but pretend not to. And then we find out that there are others, preying on our sentiments. These are masked, and many too. Sometimes they are good, sometimes, just plain evil. And suddenly they stab us, right in the back, and one feels, how unfair is life, how wrong are the people or perhaps the only things that are wrong are our choices.
And yet one cannot articulate what one feels in words. Words - they have the power to influence the world. Words, they are so powerful that they and can possess the healing aura. The whole world seems to melt away when someone says something the soul longs to hear. A famous and romantic song goes, "It's only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away..." They are the also the ones that break your heart into pieces, pieces that you cannot find. And if ever found, they will never bind. Wise men always say, one thoughtless word ruins everything and does damage that is irreversible.
And then one day we find that words seem to fail us. And then the mind screams. Screams so loud, the highest octave, that only the heart can hear it, but the world outside is calm, serene and undisturbed. When the mind, in it's absolute frustration yells, wants to be heard, but is silenced by the desire to remain sane... It looks for words that may help articulate the pain, the struggle, the imagery from the dreams that have haunted our sleep the previous night. And tears come streaming down the face, when one loses someone or something which cannot be replaced. These tears also try to communicated, as a last resort, in the place of the words...that... have failed us forever.