Interesting Conversations In Istanbul...

As we headed back to Kennedy Caddesi from the jetty at Kabataş Motor İskelesi, quite by chance, we met a few interesting people.

There was a young couple with fair and sharp Caucasian features on the bus. The lady was in black Islamic attire and kept staring at us. And then she spoke - "Hello! Where are you from?" in perfect English.

"We are from India, Mumbai. How about you?" Neeti responded.

"Ohhh! India! We love India. Bollywood is great. We are from Baku, Azerbaijan."

Bollywood, I discovered on all my travels, is one cultural aspect of India people abroad easily identify with, alongwith Indian cuisine and yoga. And that clearly is India's incredible soft-power!

"O really, Azerbaijan! We have heard Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country and would like to visit there someday", Neeti exclaimed.

The entire Caucasus region - Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan is an area that has fascinated me for long. Not only is it stunningly scenic but it has a great deal of cultural and historical heritage. Besides those mountains (remember the photos of Mount Ararat that I had spotted on the flight to Paris) and rolling green meadows, I remembered that Baku, in Azerbaijan, is home to the Baku Ateshgah or "Fire Temple" is a castle-like religious temple located in the Surakhani suburb, that has a fire burning for a long, long time now. Natural gas or naphtha from a natural underground reservoir fuels the fire. While a lot of history on the temple is lost, certain inscriptions have been found which indicate that the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian place of worship. Incredible.

And then a Pakistani family got on to the bus. They looked quite Indian. The man was beefy and grumpy. The lady was a bit plump and fair, clad in a salwar kameez. The couple had two sons - one would have been in his early teens while the other was either 7 or 8 years old. The younger kid was quite mischievous and was bothering his mom, who in exasperation chided and then said in chaste Urdu "These people here understand that you are being scolded. Does it look nice?" 

We were then convinced that they were Pakistanis.

She realised that we understood what she had told her son and was a bit flustered, and asked Neeti "Aap kahan se hain?" (Where are you from?)

"Hum Dilli se hain, Mumbai mein rehte hain! Aap kahan se hain?" (We belong to Delhi, but live in Mumbai. Where are you from?)

"Hum Lahore se hain! Main India gayi hun - Dilli, Agra, Lucknow, Mumbai. Mujhe Dilli bahut pasand aaya! Merey wahan rishteydaar hain"  (We belong to Lahore. I have visited India - been to Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Mumbai. I loved Delhi. I have relatives there).

The smart-aleck teenaged son joined in the conversation. "Meri teacher Chennai se hai." (My teacher is from Chennai).

We wondered how come an Indian teacher in Pakistan? How weird can it get? 

The father of the kids looked straight ahead, ignoring us completely, as though we bothered, but the lady was quite cultured and perhaps understood the weird thoughts running in our minds. "Mera beta boarding mein padta hai London mein. Hum Lahore se yahan chutti pe aaye hain." (My son studies in a boarding school in London. We live in Lahore but are here for a vacation).

Ohh, moneyed Pakistanis - they are far too rich to afford to send their kid to the United Kingdom, probably because they don't want him to go the terror way. Frankly, I have never heard of Indians sending their kids abroad to study in school - they might send them to college abroad for higher, specialised studies, but that's a different matter. Or perhaps schools in Pakistan aren't really that great.

The smart-aleck son butts in again. "Aapka Modi ke baarey mein kya khayal hai?" (What do you think of Prime Minister Modi).

This was tricky, we didn't want to get drawn into a debate, especially because Modi is regarded as controversial in Pakistan. Also he had responded resolutely, retaliating to unprovoked Pakistani firing on the border, killing quite a few Pakistanis, raising a storm, We paused a bit.

Neeti in her diplomatic best responded "Kaam karne wala banda hai aur humen kaam karne wala banda hi chahiye tha iss samay" (He is devoted to his work and we needed a guy like him at this stage).

I was happy Neeti responded as I couldn't have been so diplomatic.

"Merey school ke Indian doston mein wo bahut popular hai" (He is very popular among my Indian school friends).

The lady was quite embarrassed again and tells her younger son "Yeh pata hai Viraat Kohli se shehar se hain" (They are from the city where Viraat Kohli comes from). For those who read this blog from countries where cricket isn't played, Viraat Kohli is an extremely popular, astute and flamboyant Indian cricketer.

The lady looks at us and says "Mera beta Viraat Kohli ka bahut bada fan hai!" (My son is a big fan of Viraat Kohli). And the cute son looks at us, blushes turning his cheeks rosy red and we smile back. But the dad seated in front seems to fume. And that made us wonder he is from the establishment or the army or the ISI - the architecture that created the whole anti-India, and now anti-world terror network.

But think of it, this little kid loves and adores an Indian player, a pure and innocent human emotion. The big and dirty world of terror is so far away from him, but for how long? And that is the real tragedy, if you raise and unleash a genie like terror, it will consume you, one day. But we prayed this kid remains safe from all the masla (trouble) Pakistan has and grows up to be a sane and logical human being...

The Taj - A Labour Of Love...

Despite having lived in Mumbai for 10 years, I hadn't visited her. Despite having adored this beauty for so long, I had never experienced her. 

I am talking about the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The first time I saw the beautiful structure was way back in the early 1980s when the UK edition of the Illustrated Weekly carried a feature on the best hotels of the world. The Taj was featured in it. I was absolutely smitten and awestruck. 

My Dad told that this beautiful structure was in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was known then... and I wanted to see it myself, with my two little eyes...

The first I laid my eyes on it was in 2003, when I visited Mumbai for work. But I didn't get the chance to visit it. After moving to Mumbai in 2004, I saw the Taj many times but it was only last week that I got chance to visit this amazing place, a structure symbolic of my city, Mumbai, and India as well, a symbol of our fight against terror.

We drove into the Taj to attend a function early last Saturday.... After the function was over, we took a round of the property...

The jharokas are reminiscent of a Rajasthani haveli....

While the architecture is in typical 19th century European style, the interior was distinctly Indian....

Such a regal structure....

Anyone would fall in love with these sights

Surely those men who attacked the Taj were madmen and they deserved the end they finally met...

Wonderful jaali-work in the lobby...

The grand staircase...

The dome from the grand staircase...

The bust of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata..

Legend has it that he decided to build the hotel after he was refused entry to one of the city's grand hotels of the time, Watson's Hotel, as it was restricted to "whites only"....

As fate would have it, Watson's decayed over time and is a dilapidated structure, but the Taj still stands strong after a century...

The very look and feel of the property shouts out loud that it is a labour of love.... you can sense it, you can feel it...

And the way the Tatas restored the property after the 26/11 attacks speaks of that love and that steely resolve to give us the best....

We dropped by at the Sea Lounge for a cup of tea...

A lovely view of the Gateway of India made the experience very exciting...

The Sea Lounge was replete with old world charm...

The waiters seemed to be oldtimers here.... and made us feel as though we were at home...

This kind of hospitality is a rarity these days... in hotels that pride calling themselves modern and contemporary...

The oldtimers' hospitality at the Taj would embarrass their younger counterparts in the newer hotels with the superiority of their service....

Larry entertained us with his lovely renditions of classics on the piano...

And finally my tea came - I had the Monkey King Jasmine Tea that had come from afar, China...

Complimentary coconut cookies came alongwith the tea - these reminded me of my Mom's legendary baking skills....

After splurging on a rather expensive tea (I wasn't complaining, as the hospitality more than made up for the damages), we took a walk on the Apollo Bunder....

This was the scene of a bloody massacre on 26/11... people jumping out of these windows... smoke belching out... firemen rushing to save whatever they could...

Hope we never see that here, or anywhere else in India...

But it is indeed a feat how the Tatas restored the property after the Pakis screwed up the place...

We walked around the promenade enjoying the views... Indeed the Taj heritage wing is an imposing structure, but the adjoining high-rise wing is no less impressive...

Indeed, whoever has seen the Taj will forever remember the Bombay of yesteryears, the Mumbai of today and terror we faced on 26/11.... Indeed the Taj has been, is and will be a labour of love...., a love that's timeless...

Freakish 2611

Today I read a news report on the proposal for India's first emergency call number, on the lines of 911 in the United States.

The system promises to integrate all services - fire, police and medical - all into one. It is said it would operate on the principles of artificial intelligence to search and locate the distress caller!

Ambitious it is. Futuristic, it sounds.

The United States had the 911 emergency service. The country then faced the horrific 9/11 incident.

India had a horrific 26/11 and we now want "2611" as the emergency call number.

That is far too freakish to digest....

Are the Berries Bitter?

Berries are sweet, so are the Blackberries!The Blackberry has been around in India since 2004 and they have evolved into ubiquitous business tools - let's call that democratisation of technology.

In 2008, India first raised security concerns on the encryption technology used by Research In Motion (RIM), Blackberry's manufacturer.

The concern was on whether security agencies would be able to monitor communication on Blackberries, which is encrypted and routed through Blackberry servers in Canada and the United Kingdom, making monitoring ineffective.

Somehow, RIM squeezed itself out of the tight spot it found itself in.

Then the 26/11 attacks happened in Bombay. It was reported that the Pakistani attackers used Thuraya satellite phones alongwith Blackberries.

While our sleuths tracked down the sat phone communication, it appears they achieved little success with Blackberries. Again, the same concerns have been raised by the security agencies.Just as India was cracking down on RIM, it was reported that RIM maintains servers within the United States, to allay homeland security concerns. China too allowed Blackberries in only after a server was installed in Beijing.

Now the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are cracking down on RIM. Prudish Pakistan too wanted to block blasphemous content on Blackberries!!!

Some Indians have been voicing concerns on the intrusion into privacy, on sleuths snooping on private communications. But these are same very people who cry hoarse when a 26/11 happens.

We, in India, have a choice - do we allow unhindered privacy (which could have the unintended consequence of aiding terror) or we give up a bit of our liberty in the interest of national security.

I would happily accept the second option, for Blackberries can be bitter if there is another 26/11.

Is this a government we deserve?

I am confused. I am totally clueless. I cannot understand what is our government's policy.
When has this government given any policy of national importance you name, any direction of any sort?
There are numerous examples to prove that the government is working aimlessly, without any direction, without the end in mind.
I sometimes wonder where the decisiveness of Prime Minister Manmohan (following the 26/11) has vanished. What does he seek to achieve by talking to Pakistan? And talks for what purpose? Why do we need to talk to state sponsors of terror, to murderers? How can we ever achieve peace by talking to those who have perfected terror as an instrument of state policy?
And the worst spectacle is that of ministers and bureaucrats bickering in public.
The spat between Digvijay Singh and Chidambaram on the Naxalite issue is shameful. Is Digvijay living in a fanciful world that he thinks the gun of terror cannot be silenced by silence and inaction and not the gun of peace?
S. M. Krishna's public castigation of the Home Secretary, G.K. Pillai, that his comments on Pakistan's official involvement in 26/11 derailed the talks was nothing but downright appalling. Isn't what Mr. Pillai said a fact?
Indian Railways is going to the dogs while Madam Minister is preparing to give all her Mamta to West Bengal. How can the Prime Minister be quiet on this and tolerate her?
The Congress seems to have lost its act and is aimlessly trying to govern the country.
Is this a government we deserve?

Remembering 11/7 .....

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the train bombings in the city.

I missed the 11/7 bombings by a whisker. I was about to leave my office at Churchgate, at about 6PM that evening, when I had to get into an urgent call with a client. Just as I was getting into the call, I received a call from Delhi. Neeti's Dad enquired if all was well. And I alongwith my colleagues stayed on in office till 10PM, when I took a taxi (I was lucky to get one that night), picked up Neelima from her office and went to Abodh's place where Neeti had come down.

We stayed put in Abodh's place, only to move out at 1AM after the situation seemed settled.

Till now we do not have a clue who was behind the blasts, let alone booking the culprits to justice.

As life goes on, we move on one from one terror attack to another, month after month, year after year. The same story repeats itself all over again, in city after city - Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, etc.
Perhaps, the sole exception of a speedy investigation has been the 26/11 case, but it remains to be seen how long it takes for Kasab to hit the gallows. Our track record on that is pathetic too. Isn't it contempt of the Indian citizen that Afzal Guru is still alive, 4 years on after his sentence?

To me, even the fast pace of the 26/11 trial seems more like an exception, as the system was under immense pressure to act, for high profile establishments had been attacked, known personalities were caught in the crossfire.

Had 26/11 not happened at the Taj and the Trident-Oberoi, but only at CST, etc., Kasab may have gone scotfree.

Sad, but true.....

Dealing with Pakistan - Homeopathy v/s Chemotherapy

Is the Indian state coming of age?
Perhaps, we are seeing the beginning of a change in the way the country thinks.
I believe this change is very well manifested in the statement of Judge M.L. Tahiliyani's conviction of Amir Ajmal Kasab.
He said "Every man who wages war against India forfeits his life to the Indian state."
This is a far cry from the so called Gandhian philosophy of peace and non-violence. Had Gandhi been alive today, who knows he may have opened the country's borders, made more CSTs, Taj's, Oberoi's and Nariman Houses to Jihadis, hoping this may bring about a change of heart in them.
India has for years tried to follow this Gandhian philosophy in our approach to Pakistan. Each time India failed.
Perhaps now India believes we can't afford the Gandhi's utopian concepts any more. They have cost us years of progress and development, years of lack of focus and trillions of dollars in lost GDP.
But still, people like Manmohan Singh are still trying to cling on to the old ways which have not served us well.
He is trying to talk to Pakistan again. He perhaps thinks homoeopathy is a good substitute to chemotherapy, that Obama has spoken about.
I am sure he'll fail in this attempt and the will of the people to act tough with Pakistan will prevail.

Aman ya Jung?

The one thing that has angered me over the last few months was the Aman ki Asha campaign, initiated by Times of India.
I have a question - will you ever sit and have a cup of tea in an aman shanti ka mahaul with a neighbour who is always pelting stones on your house?

Never, would be the unanimous answer.
Would the pseudo-liberals, pseudo-intellectuals who have spearheaded Aman ki Asha have tea with their own belligerent neighbours.
Not one would do that in reality, yet it seems the country, India, does not matter for them.
And while we kept the asha for aman and mohhabbat, we got a lovely Valentine's Day gift reecently. A grand blast and about 14 deaths at the German Bakery in Pune.
As if that's not enough, the much wanted, Hafiz Sayed, addressed a public rally in city of Lahore after the German bakery blast, and said that one 26/11 was not enough for India, there need to be more. He went on to say that they will drink blood of the Indians, rather than die thirsty.
All this in broad daylight, in a public rally, in the city of Lahore and the Pakistanis claim they cannot arrest him, because they do not know where he is.
What a bloody joke!
Just as we were coming to terms with the Pune blast, Salman Bashir and his Pakistani delegation caame to India. The press waxed eloquent about his pragmatism, attitude and his personal rapport with Nirupama Rao.
The talks happened, or rather should I say we had "tea" again. And after that the vitriolic press conference made the Pakistani intentions very clear. They'll continue throwing stones.
Its barely been two days since the talks got over and today, Indian interests were targeted in Kabul. The result: 6 Indians died.
The Taliban claimed responsibility. No prizes for guessing who supports the Taliban.
And what do we do?
We keep the Aman ki Asha.
But this is a Jung.

In one of my blogs titled "Is India Truly Independent?", I had written that we need to retaliate, an eye for an eye.
Why can't we learn from the Israelis?
An eye for an eye, a limb for a limb, should you dare touch my countrymen, should you dare even look at my motherland.
That's what we should do - systematically throttle Pakistan, cultivate fringe groups in Pakistan, encourage Baluchis and the Sindhis and get them to eliminate terrorist leaders, one by one.
But we certainly caannot afford to have tea with our neighbour. We certainly cannot hope to have any Asha because the neighbour wants a Jung.
And our pseudo-liberals, pseudo-intellectuals better realise this fact of life in India, that this is a full fledged, yet undeclared war, the Jung of our lives.

26/11 - Living in Paranoia

It's 26/11 again.

One year has passed since that gruesome bloody night.

That was a night when I stayed up awake, afraid and sad. That was probably the first time in my adult life that I was actually so scared that I couldn't sleep a wink.

It was a sad spectacle to see CST in blood - if it was CST, it could have been the Churchgate station as well, that I had used only a few hours before the carnage started. Had it been Churchgate and had I left office an hour later, I could have been in the line of fire.

The Marine Drive promenade, was where I used to take my customary walk, post-lunch. That is where the fire was blazing.

It was a scary night, a sad night, with teary eyes begging to weep, but couldn't as all of it was happening so fast for my numbed mind to gather and assimilate.

The eerie silence on the New Link Road, which normally bustles with traffic till 1-2 AM, was a shocker. With rumours of firings taking place at the JW Marriott (which is barely 5 kilometers from home) and a blast in a taxi outside the airport (where I was supposed to be at 6 AM to catch a plane to Hyderabad), I felt I was staring terror in its face and trembling.

And channel after channel blared the news that the top cops of Mumbai Police had been eliminated. The sense of this wave of lawlessness and despair was overwhelming.

And then the images of a crying baby Moshe emerging out of Nariman House and the para dropping of commandos on the building went on to show how anti-Semitism, sadly, had reached our shores, after 2000 years.

The charade that followed on television shows made terror sexier than sex itself. Socialites after socialites, corporate honchos after corporate honchos and hotel hostages after hotel hostages were prodded, provoked by the likes of Barkha Dutt in meaningless debate on security that she can barely comprehend one year later.

The channels sponsored, provoked and initiated inumerable petitions, candle-marches and campaigns for silence till "we, the victims" were heard. The cause degenerated quickly into a page 3 event, with the gathering becoming a grand avenue for celebrity spotting. I don't think "we" were ever heard, but the charade went on ad-nauseam till the TRPs were high, and was soon forgotten thereafter.

The ammunition that our forces fought with, or rather without, became the topic of huge debates. Terms like the MP5s entered our vocabulary - no, I am not talking of an advancement of the MP3 or MP4 audio-visual formats, I am talking of the MP5 rifles.

And in the aftermath of 26/11, Jewish establishments have become strictly off bounds. No longer can I ever visit the Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue at Kala Ghoda that truly mesmerised me, that convinced me that Bombay was truly a melting pot.

Right now I am flying back in to Bombay from Delhi. And this was despite stern warnings from Neeti and everyone at home to be careful, to be on the lookout for anyone, anything suspicious. And as I write this piece, I notice three veiled ladies across the aisle, loudly playing with "cellphones", despite repeated and angry warnings from the stewardesses. These actions were certainly not above suspicion.

And I wondered, could they be carrying weapons? Were they frisked properly?

And it dawns on me that paranoia has come to be a part of our lives, ever since 26/11.

Will we ever mature?

There are moments in history which are points of inflection.... when the attitudes change for the positive to help the nation emerge stronger, confident and unified.

It's well known that most of us, common Indians, thought that the 26/11 attacks on Bombay was such an event that would define our destiny.

But it seems that we are back to square one.

Just today, there was this news of a likely fidayeen hijack threat at all airports. Heightened security is the highlight of the day with panic all over. Chidambaram quickly goes on air to say that it's a false alarm and before we realise. Is he required to say all that so soon? Couldn't that have been a red herring?

And our media trumpets this news on the headlines, as a cheap thrill! Can't the media be more mature and show a little more restraint? This is really too much.

And then, our cricked crazed population was up in the arms when the government did not permit Lalit Modi to proceed with the Indian Premier League (IPL). Mr. Modi who went cribbing about this decsion should realise that IPL isn't larger than the nation. Was that maturity?

I think that was a brilliant decision on the part of the government. Look at this - the Taliban are knocking on our doors and we need not only defend borders, provide internal security but also let the elections happen peacefully, to ensure that policy making - on the security and economic front doesn't come to a standstill. In such a volatile scenario, can we let the security apparatus get distracted by some IPL happening around the country? Maybe India would lose some revenue from the IPL this year, but we would be better off by having a peaceful election in the months to come. It's a pity we, as a society, are not mature enough to realise that.

And then, to top it all, Chidambaram terms communalism as the root cause of all terrorism. And the old man in a hurry (to become Prime Minister), Mr. Advani, is quick to give a scathing reply back. we are being done in by these petty politicians. Isn't it high time for all these grand old men to act mature and send out a signal that we stand as one against terror rather than blame each other. Let's not forget that it was Chidambaram's gang that supported the LTTE and Bhindrawale. And everyone knows who unleashed terror on the streets of Delhi in 1984 after Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated. And wasn't it Mr. Advani's party's duty to soften the cherub Varun's statements? Is this what we call political maturity?

I suspect our inflection point is yet to come.... that would force us to mature as a society...

Haven't we learnt any lessons?

Every time terror strikes, we claim that we have learnt what we need to do and we pretend to do it for some time - albeit a very short period of time. And then, guess what, we conveniently forget.....

We proudly say life goes on and has to go on.... and that we as a nation have to ability to bounce back.... And then it happens all over again.

Couple of incidents that I have seen have make me feel particularly vulnerable.... make me shit bricks....

Not very long ago, we had the 11/7 blasts on the Bombay local trains in 2006. In a panic reaction, metal detectors had been installed at Churchgate station. Cops were deployed and CCTVs installed to monitor the crowd movement. But I don't think, or dare I say, I am convinced that these detectors never work - they barely squeal when pass through them with a metal object - it could be a goddamn bomb. Cops, on the other hand, instead of keeping a hawk's eye on suspicious movement, either prefer ogling pretty girls or just don't care. I have myself walked through Churchgate carrying big bulky carrybags several times, without being questioned a single time.

You may blame that on indifferent attitude of Government staff.....

Now sample this.....

Yesterday, I flew on India's "finest international airline" (am trying to be politically correct here) from Bombay to Ahmedabad. Anticipating a stringent security check at the airport, I reach well in advance - a good 90 minutes before the scheduled departure. Sample this - the CISF at the entrance to the terminal barely at e-ticket printout and my id proof and waves me in. You need to be a tech-geek to forge an e-ticket, do you? It's a five minute job on MS Outlook, right?

Then, why don't we have a bag screening process prior to entering the terminal - the CISF cop at the terminal entrance, just checks the e-ticket and the id proof, without having any clue of what lies in your bag - it could theoretically have kilos of explosives and weaponry, which could wreck havoc in the terminal. Possible? Yes, very much.....

The newspapers yesterday spoke of ladder point checks and zero tolerance towards laxity in security checks. But, my friend, there was no ladder point check at all....

The story doesn't end there. I was assigned row 22 - common sense is that one should board from the rear ladder. But yesterday, the "finest international airline" had boarding pass checks only at the forward ladder point and not at the rear, which was being used by the janitors. Respecting the logic of safety and given that checks were taking place at the forward ladder point, all passengers moved towards there. However, when my turn came, the lady tore the stub of my boarding pass and smilingly asked me to use the rear ladder as it would be kind closer to my assigned row.

I did just that - but..... there was no one to check my boarding when climbed up the rear ladder, neither cabin crew at the rear find anything unusual. It is well known that Bombay airport has porous peripheries. Theoretically, anyone could have sneaked with a cache of arms and handed it over right? Now dare think of what could happen next.....

Landing at Bombay is a nightmare - given the proliferation of slums around, imagine how easy for a rogue to target a landing aircraft with a shoulder-based mini-Anti Aircraft missile - need I say, these are wholesaled in our neighbourhood - the famed arms markets of Peshawar! But the slums, they've got to stay, for Madam says so.... Great, right, what a free for all!!!!

7/11 was just last week, but have we forgotten it so soon? I must say this amnesia so damn shameful....

Let's look at the post 9/11 US on the other hand. No exceptions are made, no compromises are made. I still recall when George Fernandes, our then minister, who enjoyed diplomatic immunity, was stripped to the bone..... Moral of the story - giving up a few liberties is a small price to pay for national security.

There are two problems with us - one we start security initiatives with great fanfare, but lose it somewhere, two, we Indians don't like being checked. Voila, this results in a deadly cocktail.....

Bottomline, neither do we learn nor do we want to learn.....

Terror in Bombay -- A few unanswered questions.....

Twenty - twenty five years back as a kid, I recall flipping through The Illustrated Weekly, which carried photo feature on the best hotels of the world. The Taj Mahal was there. Papa who saw me flipping through the photo feature described the grandeur of the place to me, as I listened in wonder....

Today the Taj is in shambles. God knows whats happening inside the Oberoi and the Trident. All this is a sad testimony to the lackadaisical attitude of our authorities.
Bombay, a city that has fascinated me for its speed, attitude and iconic structures, is bleeding for the last 45 odd hours....

Are we so ignorant that we didn't know that this could have happened? The incident has opened a Pandora's box of questions that must be answered for the benefit of Indian citizens.

1. 
   
   Why weren't the Taj and the Oberoi-Trident complexes not stormed on Wednesday night / Thursday morning? Why did we wait for 8-9 hours despite the army, navy and NSG being called in? Why are we so soft on terror?


2. 
   
   Quoting a comment on Facebook on these terror attacks, that no matter how much pesticide you use, you surely get a few cockroaches. The key is to brutally and swiftly eliminate these cockroaches. Why are we so slow and casual? We have constantly been attacked, almost an attack a month, for quite long now. Was the government sleeping, all this while?


3. 
   
   I came across an interesting insight on Facebook today which said that India is the only democracy where the top three posts - Prime Minister, Home Minister and President are nominated by a person who herself does not have any mandate from the people! And at least one of these three people are surely ignorant and insensitive to the terror we are seeing, let alone taking any action. Mr. Home Minister has said that we need to show compassion to those involved and these arms and RDX laden guys are brothers gone astray. How stupid and insensitive. How long can we let someone have power without any accountability of any kind? Is there something murky over there?


4. 
   
   Security analysts have for the last 5 years have been talking of a marine threat. What have we done to boost our marine defence and patrol systems?


5. 
   
   What a slap it was on the face of the state government that it took Narendra Modi's visit to the Trident and Oberoi this morning to get Mr. Deshmukh out of his slumber. Where was Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh all this while?


6. 
   
   What has India done to curb Islamic militancy in our hinterlands? How long can we ignore this real and genuine threat in the name of secularism?


7. 
   
   As evidenced from the nuclear deal, India now has a strong lobby (both with US megacorps and the administration) in the US. Why can't we leverage on our new found strong relationship with the US and the rest of the Western world to pressurise the Pakistanis to curb terror?


8. 
   
   Why do we want to trade with Pakistan when we know they will stab us? Why did we support the financially bankrupt state of Pakistan in getting support from the IMF?


9. 
   
   Why can't we coerce Pakistan into clamping down on terror by strangling Pakistan economically - disrupt the shipping lines into the Karachi and Gwadar ports?


10. 
    
    Why can't we learn from the Israeli swiftness and brutality in dealing with such matters? Why can't we join hands with them in dealing with Islamic fundamentalists? If not all that, can't we get Israelis to train our commandos and state police forces to deal with these situations? How long can we be so sensitive to a certain vote-bank that we don't co-operate with Israel on these matters?


11. 
    
    Why don't we have a disaster management plan? How can we allow three top cops to travel together, thereby multiplying the risk of losing them all - this is precisely what happened when we lost the top three ATS cops on Wednesday night. Losing three ATS cops on the same night is strange. Is there more than what meets the eye or is it a mere coincidence?


12. 
    
    Last but not the least, I got an interesting text message this morning which went as follows: "The Navy commandos are headed by a Sikh. The Army operatives are headed by a Haryana Jat. NSG has been called in from Delhi. Taj and Oberoi staffers who heroically tried to save guests are mainly Punjabis. Where are Raj's Marathi Manoos?" Relevant I think - if he loves the city so much, if he loves his people so much, where is he? Why haven't we heard from him so far? Why aren't party workers assisting in relief efforts? When I sent this message across to most people on my cell's address book, I got an angry response from one of my contacts saying "we should not talk of all this and we should stand as one today". Surely we have been standing as one and that's why there has been a co-ordinated approach. But my question still remains - where are Raj and his Manoos gangs now? Why don't they help the authorities in hunting out the sleeper cells, instead of targeting North Indians?

Can the readers help me with some answers on these random questions on the terror of the last 45 odd hours?

As we wonder about these questions, we need to resolve to flush out and eliminate these cockroaches. We need to remember that our Motherland, India, is indeed incredible and we'ld better keep it that way. Jan Gana Mana....

Terror attacks - the day after....

It is indeed tough getting back to the routine after a lazy and fun filled weekend.

Taking the train to office, unlike any other day, today I felt a sense of fear in the fellow passengers' behaviour and body language - perhaps we all were thinking whether after Bangalore and Ahmedabad, were we the next?

But then who cares? And life goes on...

Are we so weak as a country that we can't fish out, weed out and eliminate such elements? And we call ourselves the next superpower! It is one thing to be powerful and it is altogether another thing to be perceived as powerful. And in today's world, perceptions matter more than substance.

Fact of the matter is that India is perceived as a weak state. And weak we will stay if we don't act. And the government better forget about human rights for a moment, forget about public opinion for a while - it better take action against terror and prove that as a country, we are not taken lightly, anymore.

But again by evening, the train commuters were back to their usual boisterous self. I wonder whether that is a sign of helplessness that little can be done or is a sign of getting on with life and work.

Rain rain go away.....

What a day it is..... wow!!! Its been raining here in Bombay since night, or say since yesterday for all practical purposes.
And it looks beautiful outside the window. But the best part is that we don't have to venture out of home, get wet, get water splashed on you on the road, get stuck in a traffic jam on the road, wade through water....
Indeed it seems, the monsoon is the best time to be in Bombay. Everything is so cool, green and full of life. In fact, my better half, Neeti, who happens to be a hardcore Delhiite, did tell me a couple of days back that she had got used to Bombay weather that it would be difficult to adjust to extremes of the north.
But is monsoon all that fun in Bombay if you have to venture out? Perhaps not.... I still remember the grand deluge of "26/7" or July 26, 2005. Spent the whole night in office. The road outside had turned into a river. People were scared. And the next morning when I left for home with colleagues, the devastation was to be seen to be be believed. Loss of life and property has been well spoken about.
Even today, people shudder when they talk of that day - an all pervasive fear. Even continuous rain for two hours is enough to send the city into a spin.
Have we learnt lessons from "26/7"? Perhaps not...
The little said about the administration the better.
What can we do? Eminent citizens like Alque Padamsee go on TV to talk of how the monsoons were in the 1940s. But what have they done beyond that.
Compare this with Delhi - that city changed due to intervention of the courts - PILs filed by eminent citizens forced the city and state administration to shut up, sit up, listen and do. And today Delhi is a much pleasanter place to live in - the quality of life is so far better than Bombay.
So what does the common man like you and me do? Enough of getting saluted for keeping the "Spirit of Mumbai" alsive. Let's cut the crap. Perhaps, we should group together and initiate action ourselves, as collective action is more powerful than individual action.
As for me, Neeti and I just laid to rest a plan of driving down to Fort, for the fear of getting caught up in the mess!