Shaken, not just stirred

The terror attack which took Mumbai hostage for around 60 hrs has left me shaken; and not just stirred, as I usually had been on getting reports of bomb blasts in various Indian cities throughout 2008. Maybe some part of that can be attributed to my proximity to the incident which exacerbated my reaction. But, for the other parts, I am trying to find a reasons. And these reasons are perhaps only mine, and may well not be a representation of general populace.

I have become used to hearing about coordinated bomb blasts as a form of terrorism. (Well, that raises a question, what state of antipathy and resignation do I live in if I have become accustomed to such dastardly acts involving loss of human life?) Such events happen in a small span of time. They do leave behind a trail of blood and human tragedy, but they get over quickly. The particular city rebounds. On-lookers come on to see what is happening, maybe even lend a helping hand or two. Statesmen make flash visits to the site and then to the hospitals. Self-claimed strategic experts speak eloquently in media on what can be done to spruce up our intelligence agencies.

This attack was not like the above. It had a face. It was mobile. It was dynamic. It stretched to hours. It took hostages. It was both proactive as well as reactive. It was unpredictable. It targeted places of symbolic significance.

When I first heard of firings and news reports at around 2230 hrs on 26th Nov, somewhere I had the assurance that this is Mumbai and the matter will be swiftly dealt with. After all, how bad can firing incidents get? And this city has probably the best police force in entire nation. It was this last fact, which was soon going to be turned on its head.

The news channels flashed the image of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare donning his head gear and bulletproof vest to get going in the action. "ATS Chief has arrived, now it is just matter of few hours." Those were my thoughts. But after 2 hrs., the same channels reported that he was KIA. And not just him, in quick succession two other senior and star officers of Mumbai Police were reported KIA. It was then that I was hit hard, and a sense of terror engulfed me. They got 3 senior officials, and the situation is nowhere under control? Maybe it was the same time that Maharashtra Chief Minister and Indian Home Minister too realized that they are up against something they can't control through normal measures. Maybe it was then that someone who had to decide finally decided that NSG, along with whatever immediate support could be available (MarCos and Army Commandos), needed to be sent in. That span of 10 min. was when the gravity of this incident sunk into me.

To add to the terror then were the images of terrorists roaming in South Mumbai streets in a hijacked Police van! They drove close past a group of unsuspecting journalists and opened fire. The fact of loss of top police officers had unsettled me, and then it seemed as if the terrorists had taken control of police infrastructure itself.

It was a long night which followed. Some more damage was still left to be done. That came with the images of Taj Hotel heritage wing burning against the black, night sky. I have stayed there twice - once for AVB Scholarship interviews and then for some function related to my TAS summer internship. I have seen this as a symbol in umpteen number of movies and footages which revere Mumbai as "the city of dreams" and "the Maximum City". The shock of such an unimaginable thing actually happening was huge, and personal.

In the two days which followed, I kept hearing personal trauma stories. My friend's colleague's fiancé (marriage due next month) got shot. MD of my firm lives in NCPA building, right next to Oberoi, and he was sending mails that he can hear the sound of firing and grenade explosion and "it is really, really scary". Later, NSG commandos actually took position in NCPA to launch counter-strike. CEO of my roommate's firm walked in between bullet spray in Taj because he believed "his time was not yet up" and miraculously escaped when others around him got shot. A batch-mate was at Leopold when firings started and he saw two of his friends getting shot; one getting a fatal head shot, other getting a leg shot. At least two batch-mates reported remaining holed up in their office the entire night as their office are next to Oberoi and they hadn't left when the firings started. An IIMA professor was stuck inside Oberoi and he was rescued after 24 hrs. A friend's firm's chairman got killed in Oberoi. A friend stays close to Nariman House and was posting his own pics of the operations on Orkut.

These are personal stories. Not like hearing, xx no. of casualties in the current bomb-blast. Maybe, I as a member of particular social class normally doesn’t get affected by these incidents. However, this time, the target was this very social class. Somewhere in my social circle, somebody was affected.

My personal face-off with the terror occurred when a rumor of fresh firings spread at CST spread on 28th noon. News traveled fast. My house faces a main, busy street. People started running in opposite direction to that of VT. Shops started pulling down their shutters. Vehicles made U-turns in the middle of the road. The lane going towards CST became empty. Then, the vehicles started using both the lanes to rush in opposite direction to CST. It was chaos and panic. It was terror. It reminded me eerily of the Joker in Dark Knight. Look what these guys did to a city with some rounds of ammunition and meticulous planning. They got to the police, they got to a symbolic landmark and they got to business elite. When this happens, no one feels safe. If the top of the social pyramid can be taken hostage, the base of the pyramid has no clue about their safety.


This time, I was shaken, not just stirred.