The day that was 7/11.
It has been two years since the worst bombings,Indians have ever seen.It is just an account of a common man about the day he experienced and which will be forever etched on his mind.
The day began usually as I was late,I could not get the bus to my destination i.e Goregaon,so opted to go to Bandra and get a local.It was a typical rainy day of Mumbai with pleasant weather due to absence of rains.After going through contours of eastern Bandra,I reached platform 1 and boarded the local in 10-15 mins. The Ist class compartment was sparsely crowded with enough place to stand.Call it sixth sense or anything (I don’t claim to be possesing it),it was very uncomfortable in the compartment although devoid of the morning mad rush of commuters.After leaving the local, little did anybody realise that these same compartments will be angels of death for several hundred people.
The day went by and it was around 6:30 pm,the office was almost empty.Somebody was conversing on phone and informed the team that there was a blast at Khar station.Quickly everybody logged on to news websites and the news was confirmed.Now another news crashed in with 2 blasts,one also at Jogeshwari.A team member who lived near Jogeshwari station confirmed the sudden rush of ambulances and firebrigades towards the spot.The next few minutes were most horrifying of all,with every refresh of news page,number of blasts increased and count stopped at 7.Reports were confirming of casualties of at least 100,but the way even Ist class compartments are crammed on Borivali & Virar trains,everybody was sure that it is upwards of 200-300.
When we rushed to the terrace,we could see a caravan of people walking along the railway lines as all the locals through Jogeshwari had come to a grinding halt.The picture later was shown over & over as a proof of the ‘never say die’ attitude of Mumbaikars.Fortunately I could inform my family about my whereabouts,as within half an hour all the network was jammed due to sudden burst of traffic.Everybody was advised to stay at the guest house instead of trying the way out as many feared of a communal backlash.What was shown in the media was further chilling ,mangled compartments,countless bodies,body parts along the lines,but what stood out was the way neighbouring people responded. Hospitals and even relatives were informed of the whereabouts,people were rushed to hospitals and even when next day I enquired at Sion hospital for need of blood donation,I was politely answered not to bother as the stock was more than enough for the calamity.
The most disturbing was response of the political class, especially government.In her latest article in Express ,Tavleen Singh expressed that the way Manmohan Singh responded while visiting blast sites, was like strolling in Lodhi gardens. They were more bothered of the rumours and communal harmony. Till date the intelligence agencies have’nt been able to crack the case. The next, was media by showing how people have again started using local trains and showcasing it as resilience.I think it is a cruel joke to say it resilience, it is necessity or Majboori in Hindi.I think it is this majboori that the political class has become so negligent of it’s masters i.e PEOPLE. I am not a strategist or a politician,but I feel sad to say “is this my own government?” which does not care about the way people fight their everyday battles (not even in local trains but in snarling road traffic across country) and are then butchered by some mad fanatic with abatement from our dear neighbour (which we are trying to mollycoodle)
I think there is a need to wage a war on two fronts, to save our belief that ‘all religions are true paths to ultimate truth (ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanthi) and to turn our democracy into it’s true form of ‘by the people, for the people & of the people’
