Mumbai Mourns Again on Wednesday 13/7, 2011

Its been quite a sometime I have been to South Mumbai after my return from Delhi last year. I left home around 4pm to visit first Siddhivinayak temple at Dadar. From there I got down at Tardeo and walked up to Lamington Road near Opera House at around 6.30 pm. I decided to walk further upto Opera House from Lamington Rd then suddenly people started to gathering near a TV shop watching Breaking News. I moved closer & saw only text messages about serial Bomb blast to my surprise felt terrible for some a while with anger. Maybe I was blessed to live though I passed these two Bomb blast locations between 5pm - 7pm from Dadar to Opera House.

By sharing my journey I only want to say that this could happen to anyone in the city of Mumbai which is vulnerable to such terrorist attacks. Who to blame or whose is responsible or accountable makes no sense with repeated attacks in same places again & again only indicates how unsafe is our life & property with such Govts.We may be technically equipped with advanced weapons to deal with these kinds of attack or may even deploy police personnel's in big numbers so far has failed miserably. What we really need is Central Intelligence teams working 24/7 coordinating with all local security agencies gather information at all times.

As a matter of fact we all fail to implement any good ideas suggested by our security experts and foolishly follow politicians advice who are not experts to advice in these matters. People die & properties worth crore's gutted in fire and we all forget what happened in few days. Hope this stops and people seriously question concerned authorities and make them accountable.

God Bless Mumbai...Amen!

MUMBAI...Meri Jaan...India Meri Shaan!

MUMBAI SIEGE – November 25-27

I deeply feel sad and pray to lord Almighty to give peace to those who lost their lives in Mumbai Terror attacks on 26-29 November 2008. Hope and wish this thing never happens here in Mumbai again and may there be peace in the world. Mumbaikar salutes & pays respect to all great souls whole fought bravely and lost their lives while saving others.

I was born and brought up in this city though my parents are from South India . I think I learnt life and living lessons from this very city. It makes you confident and brave when one lives here in the city . It also makes one street smart and sharp when they say jokingly in local dialect as ” SHAANAY” which means smart guy. Yes this is true in many aspects. People who have come to Mumbai from all different places have developed themselves into confident and courageous individuals who might have left the city to stay overseas but they proudly label themselves as Mumbaikars for ever. Once you stay here for goodtime then your surname is MUMBAIWALA or BUMBAIYYA or in local lingo as MUMBAIKAR.

But on 26th November 2008 it made us feel like we are nothing but helpless fools who didn’t know what to do and how to fight in case of such attacks and incidents. Suddenly this Smart ” SHAANA” of mumbai failed to understand and become vulnerable to these attackers who laughed at us and got away with such terrible damage and loss of lives of mumbaikars and many foreign Guests (‘AATITHI’) who thought and believed that Mumbai is safer and they can trust our security system.

Mumbai Police was well known and many a times compared with Scotland Police in terms of intelligence and work outputs. But this time it looked helpless with just 10 terrorist tooking control of south mumbai within few hours.In past there have been many stories about Mumbai Police saving and solving many great problems of the city with bravery and brains. And I still believe and trust Mumbai Police can do wonders if given a free hand and freedom to get things in order.

I wish to intereact and start a conversation with all the people around the Globe who have faced such situation in thier lives to react and give thier ideas on how to bring peace in world and in minds of people who are doing this acts of terror.

• Can we cure such minds who think and believe by such actions they can change the law & order of the world?
• Who will win in this war of Terror ?
• What have we lost in this war of Terror?
• What have terrorist gained by these actions?
• Are we losing trust among one human race to another human race?

Like these there are hundreds of questions raised and answered by many people from thier point of view but can we say for sure or confirm the name of the virus and from where it originated ? What kind of virus is this which is getting more and more complicated as time passes? Is there a cure for this deadly virus which causing hundreds of mind to think of voilence and destruction as solutions to justify their belief or ideals on which they are ready to kill thousands of innocents around the world. Can we call this virus as “FEAR” which slowly making inroads into the minds of people leading to a mindset of DISTRUST among all human races.

Maybe debates on such issues can lead to some intellegent answers from all of us to understand the root causes and cures for such problems which is creating such individuals who want to die for a cause which they think is right and appropraite as per thier belief. This terror story is not about just Mumbai but a story which connects people from around the world and different sections of the society.

We love Mumbai and Mumbai Loves all…

Shastri