Courtesy Times OnlineBut what happened in Mumbai at the Taj Hotel and the Oberoi Trident in the last few days did not thrill me in the least. We were glued to the TV, watching live action of the hostage terror and it wasn’t in the least enjoyable or exciting. Ball by ball commentary, so to speak, with visuals of what was happening on practically all the news channels only left us desolated. The feelings we were left with were grief and rage for all the lives lost in the attack, and fear for the lives that were at risk in the act of rescuing those who were still alive in there. The commandos and the police did a fine job, and lost some precious lives from their units in the process.
The depression caused by these events was matched by what one could call the pathetic fallacy of nature, with the skies weeping in Chennai and other places in Tamilnadu, when it just kept raining relentlessly during the whole 60 to 70 hours of the terror activity in Mumbai. As the siege ended, and the commandos took charge, the rains abated.
A bus sumerged in a subway in the cityCourtesy 'The Hindu'
Lives have been lost in the heavy rains caused by a cyclone, (named Nisha), and untold damage has been caused by rainwaters entering homes, both in the city and the interiors. The temple town of Chidambaram, we understand, became marooned.
Altogether a depressing week.
But, to use a cliché, the human spirit is resilient and people will go back to their normal lives in Mumbai and elsewhere, but the lives of those touched by this tragedy personally, and who lost loved ones, will never be the same again.
A blog with honest pictures of the Mumbai terror
And one on the floods in Chennai
13 comments:
Really Raji...
A real tryst with time...
anyway, we are going to live through such difficult times again, i feel...
terrorism is not addressed in the least positive way, as I see..
Climate is fast changing and most unpredictably...
Faith in God is all we can do, perhaps..
Nice post, Raji...
wishes,
devika
I am still choking with emotions. Can't really make out the feelings are of guilt or anger or sorrow or helplessness. Some 20- somethings held a whole nation at gun point. We have failed miserably somewhere.
The sensitive weep. The insensitive hold mikes and repeat empty words umpteen times because they see not tragedy, but TRP.
Chennai's drainage woes - I can't think of that water as good rain water - it hit home as well, and mom pumps it out everyday, helped by her brother's family who camp with her, because thier place is totally under water. Autos are 'making hay' in the rains I heard!
Makes you wonder why anyone ever made any disaster films.
Sad times..and Chennai had added woes too.. I guess all we can do is console each other..
yes.. we were all reminded of the Bruce Wills movies.. but sadly the nation is not prepared even now..
I would settle even for a Johnny Lever... if he could just shake some sense and ethics into our political class. Imagine! They're still squabbling over who gets Z-class security and the citizens who pay the taxes so they can swan around are left with a few whistle and lathi-armed policemen !
Hi Raji :)
I agree it was a depressing week altogether. On one side lives and property were lost due to terrorists and on the other side rain took its toll.
The photo of a bus sumerged in the town is unbelievable. How can this happen in the town? The drainage system must be absolutely bad.
I remember when I was in Chennai several years back, the Coum River used to overflow during heavy rains and all the filth came into places like Pudupet, Chindadripet etc.A small rain was enough for knee deep water logging. No one can walk on the pavement because you donn't know where a deep ditch is located. The speeding vehicles will splash water and spoil the dress. I must say it was terrible. Inspite of all these woes, people went about doing their normal things as usual.
I suppose the government cannot do anything to improve the drainage system just as they cannot do much to prevent the terrorist attacks. Remember Indira was shot dead by her own body guards. The terrorists and robbers are always one step ahead of security. Besides, the terrorists are ready to die in the process of killing innocent people. You will recall that Rajiv Gandhi's killer also died with him.
Life goes on. The only people who suffer are the victims families. May be the government will institute some better security measures to protect our lives. But we have no control over the fury of nature as in the case of psunami.
Have a good day :)
The worst of times, indeed. The horror in Bombay is unspeakable, and as for the floods in Madras, looks like nothing has changed. I remember our area suffering from severe flooding every time there was even a hint of a cyclone. That, or severe water shortage, come May!
from a positive side, one can say that the NSG have learnt a lot from this episode and can be more prepared in future. They now know many of the problems in urban warfare, which they came face to face with for the first time. The political and intelligence community would also have learnt that they have no second chance. so the 200 sacrificed lives will hopefully secure that of many thousands in future
Raji : This is the worst thing that can happen to India, I hope the worst is over.
By the way you left behind a flickr link along with the your last comment. I checked it out today.
WOW...Are those your images ? I have never seen better images of the common crow. Awesome perspectives, I was stunned for a min. Whosoever took them is surely a bird photograher in the making...Thomas
yes indeed ! this was a terrible event ! our tv were flooded with the images of this tragedy !
Nice post, Raji. And its goo to see the positive note at the end. We re resilient and we will rise from this, with some lessons learnt, hopefully.
Terror can be combated effectively only with superior intelligence. That'd be 'prevention' than 'cure' which can cost dear lives.
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