Gentle Whispers

Everybody seems to be spouting an opinion on the Mumbai attack these days, including me. And often what we've been hearing has much repeated. But these two articles that appeared in the New York Times. One by Thomas L Friedman and the other by Suketu Mehta , made a lot of sense to me as well as made for some interesting reading.

It;s been two days since the terror attacks and Mumbai still seems to be reeling from the effects of the terror attacks. The anger and the rage is overflowing. People are displaying unabashed hatred for our politicians. And promises are being made of how we aren't going to take this lying down and how we're going to fight back. But I'm a little bit cynical, I wonder how how long before we forget and move on to dealing with our daily lives, until the next time 180 people are killed and over 300 injured. But at the same time I'm proud. Proud of the stories I'm hearing of people, who've saved multiple lives. Who risked their own lives for others. The stories are pouring in now and they're heartwarming especially the one of VD Zende, the announcer at CST, who saved hundreds of lives with his quick thinking and presence of mind. I've been going around telling everyone his story and his bravery ranks right up there with those of the NSG commandos and police fo...

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...

All our newspapers are full of how the accused behind the recent blasts in the country are well educated young men. Working with software giants like Yahoo! Our policemen though, it seems are still to get the message. What else would explain the persistent checking at railway stations of shabbily dressed men carrying large bags and suitcases. While the relatively better dressed and much more educated looking aren't even subjected to a cursory glance. What about women, you ask? Nada. Zilch. Nothing. The police force seems to think of women as being incapable of anything even remotely related to violence.(I don't think they've seen the fights at peak hour). But that aside, I have never ever seen a woman checked and often when I'm carrying a huge bag, I dawdle past the police desk in the hope that I'll be checked and I've never been questioned or even gazed at suspiciously. In Palestine and Israel, Italy and Chechnya women are being used increasingly as terrorists ...

10/05/2008 18:46 pm It's Day 2 at Nameri Tiger Reserve and I have finally been bitten by a leech. Not once or twice, but four times and all on my right leg. It's not particularly painful though and unlike the rest I'm quite okay with being bitten and haven't made too much of a song and dance about it. On the contrary, I was quite excited about being bitten and part of the elite "Leech Club". This has been a day of learning and I am still trying to absorb some of it. And the more I learn about discrimination against the North-east, the more it infuriates me.We heard a lot of stories today and my mind is reeling. For instance, when the Chinese Prime Minister visited Mumbai, north-eastern students who were leaving college were picked up by the police and kept at Lamigton Road police station all because they were ' chinky ' and looked Tibetan, which was a gross injustice by any standards. Most of them were just leaving college when they were picked up and ...

I'm back!! If anybody noticed that I was gone that is! And while I'm not really interested in blogging, I'm forcing myself to, in the hope that I get back into the blogging groove. And I'm hoping that it goes well. Goa was brilliant. As usual. There were only two things that sucked, the brain-melting heat and the absolute lack of a nightlife. But they weren't unsurmountable obstacles. After all when your with friends, every thing's fun! And we just tried our best not to venture out to much in the heat. The food, the company, the surroundings, the water, the people. Every thing was absolutely perfect. I went para sailing and on the banana boat. And maybe it's just my over-adventurous Arien soul but I found the para sailing thing quite boring actually. It was nothing extraordinary to be there safely strapped in and just looking around. I much preferred the banana boat. Think I need to try bungee jumping or sky diving. Everything we did in Goa had a bittersweet...

Is it just me or does anybody else see something wrong with the Indian Idol promos that are being telecast on TV nonstop recently? The cities being covered are Mumbai, Delhi, Gwalior, Lucknow and Jaipur. What about the Northeast and the South? Or aren't the people there Indian enough to be part of Indian Idol. Any ideas?

*This was a post I had done a while back and that I found saved in my drafts. Thought I'd put it up cause I believe in this and I would love to know other viewpoints.* I was in the bus home today and I saw a man pay for the ticket of another man who didn't have enough money to get to where ever he wanted to go and I thought of the Reader's Digest survey that judged Bombay as the rudest city in the world. The fine people at Reader's Digest came to this decision based on criterias like how many of them helped doors open for people behind them, where they helped somebody whose papers fell on the road and whether retail shoppers were thanked. New York came in first with a score of 80% and Mumbai last with 32%. But I think there's much much more to Mumbai than just these three categories. People all over the world are rude. New York which came out first is universally known as one of the rudest, pushiest cities. And to decide how rude a city is with such a limited set of...

I read this article in the Mumbai Mirror today. And I was disgusted to say the least. The article spoke of how the death of soldiers in Siachen was caused by defective clothing. And this is one of the saddest things I've read in a while. Siachen Glacier is one of the toughest places any armed forces person could ever be posted. - 50 degrees Celsius temperature throughout the year and the wind chill factor causing the temperatures to drop further to around -75 Degrees. The Army has a tough time finding people to go there and offer higher salaries. A friend I know made a documentary at Siachen and even the two days he was there were unbearable. He spoke of how devoted they are to India and a thermos of coffee(with no intentional regard to offend or hurt) being placed on a folded Indian flag led to much muttering and anger among the soldiers with a soldier finally picking up the flag and walking off all time shooting death glares at my friend and his team. And these are the people our...

What has basically brought this post on, is this article in the Mumbai Mirror. This has me really riled up. Why should the cops have to pay for the irresponsibility of politicians. Aren't they human beings too? Why shouldn't they get leave? And what the hell is Raj Thackeray thinking when he comes out with statements like that? Aren't the migrants working too? At least they're earning an honest living. Why target taxi drivers and innocent vendors and destroy their property? My heart bled for the taxi driver who's taxi was stomped on by the MNS workers and the windshield and doors broken. Do they realise how hard it is for those taxi drivers who have had to pay so much for their taxis and which they have probably taken under loans? And what is with being Maharashtrians? Isn't it more important for us to be Indians first? Why should it matter which state the corner samosa vendor is from as long as he's from India? And more importantly, why the ordinary man? Wh...

I'm a believer. I believe that the government does the best job it can. That the police is one of the best in the world. But now I've had a rude awakening from that idealistic world I live. Why? Well.... I was at a barbecue party yesterday. A party where the focus was on conversation over some amazing chicken, low music, good company, alcohol and a hookah. And we were having a good time until the police butted in. And then things began to fall apart. They were two of them and we invited them in to look around. A guy there had a permit and it was fine. But however, most of us there were underage, yours truly included, so we had to pay them off and 300 rupees it was. All in all, we didn't feel it was that bad a sum so we let it go. The music was shut off, the alcohol ditched. We just lounged around then, talking and smoking the hookah. And it happened again. At 5:30 a.m, and this time we were hopping mad. They walked in us, stealthily opening the gate and marching into what w...