Gentle Whispers

They've been calling it India's worst ever terror attack. And it is. Much much worse than anything I've ever sen. It's been 16-17 hours since the attack began. But there hasn't been much headway yet. Hostage situations at three places. Countless people dead. Property destroyed. People terrified. They're young, well dressed boys. Somebody you would expect would know better. These aren't amateur terrorists. They're sophisticated, well-trained attackers who know what they're doing. They've carried out their plans with military precision and left India and Mumbai reeling. They came in by speedboat and the Indian Navy has just stopped a Karachi bound boat which refused to stop despite repeated calls. They came in to bring us to our knees. Hemant Karkare and Vijay Salaskar . Two of Mumbai's seniormost and valuable police officials gone for ever. Havaldars and army men. Security forces have been pouring in. The NSG, the RAF and the Marine Commandos....

Bombay has been reeling under terror attacks in the last couple of hours. The Oberoi and Taj hotels, Cafe Leopold's in Colaba, Cama and GT hospitals, VT station, Vile Parle and Santacruz. Men have stormed in with AK 47's and hand grenades and have been gunning people down. And this has affected me like nothing has in a while. Cafe Leopold's, VT are all places you'll find me at most often. When I was in college, Colaba was my hangout of choice and Leopold's a favourite place to be at with some beer and their famous beef chilly. The minute I would walk in, I would run into at least 5 people I know. And any Xavierite or Wilsonian will agree with me. It's just simply heartbroken and I'm finding it hard to comprehend. The hardest part though was when the camera panned around Leopold's to show a pool of blood in a corner. Why do people have to do this? How cold-blooded and devoid of feeling can a human being be to stand in front of a roomful of people and shoo...

I cheated today. Not on a boyfriend or anything of that sort, before you let your imagination run away with you. But at a stupid little game of volleyball. Played entirely for the purpose of fun and a miserly bottle of Pepsi. Well, anyway the score was tied, the other team was serving. One of the boys on the opposite team smashed the ball over to our side. We thought it was out and left it, only to have it bounce on the sideline. The other team starts celebrating and my team minus me, starts screaming about how the ball was out, and then everybody started arguing. One of my team mates comes up to me and says, 'It was out. You don't say anything, we'll handle it.' And I didn't. Because I was the only girl in the team and I didn't want to have all the boys shout at me. I now see that for the miserable excuse it is. That I, who's always prided myself on my courage and honesty and fearlessness could be scared of incurring the wrath of five boys. And when the oth...

Day before yesterday, on the 8th of November 2008, Avanti Desai would have turned 21. Instead 15 days before her birthday, as she hurried home to celebrate her grandmother's birthday, Avanti met with a train accident at Jogeshwari station. Just like that. Gone from our lives forever. Leaving behind a huge void and the world a lot more gloomier. And when I got the call first thing in the morning, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a cruel sadistic joke, but as the calls kept coming in, I realised it was true. Even at the cemetary,, it still hadn't sunk in that Avanti was no longer here. The worst moment though was watching her disappear into the crematorium, it was horrible and I couldn't believe we were leaving her there, and through the next couple of hours all I could think of was of her going up in smoke while we stood there in the bright sunshine. It seemed incomprehensible at first, to think of Avanti as dead, to talk about her in the past tense, to get...

Headlines Today has been telecasting nonstop for the past hour, the news of Dr Akhilesh Prasad Singh, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food and PD, assaulting and abusing a staff member of Kingfisher Airlines. To read about it, go here. The minister was on Headlines Today, where he said that he arrived at the Patna Airport at 8:15 pm, for an 8:30 flight . On questioning by the anchor, he said that the security formalities were completed by his staff. How ridiculous is that? 15 mins before a flight takes off, the man dares to turn up and on being told he can't board the flight, assaults the manager. All because he has behind him the weight of the ministry. When the plane has already begun take off procedures, he demands to be allowed to board the flight. Ordinary mortals like us on the other hand, turn up an hour earlier for flights, even with conveniences like online check-ins. We board the flight 30 mins in advance, follow all the rules, go through ou...