Jul 12, 2006 04:58 PM
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Close to 80 lakh people travel by trains in Mumbai’s western railway.. 5.30-6 PM is when most offices close and 6.15 onwards the trains run fully packed.. Well that’s when terror struck on 11th July 2006. A series of 7 blasts between 6.15 & 6.30 PM ripped Mumbai lifeline, leaving close to 200 people dead and over 700 injured..
A day after that, there is a sense of calm everywhere… The trains are less crowded.. A lot of the people travelling by trains are doing so because there is no other go… They are more careful.. The compartments have these stands to keep bags, all those were empty… there was just the one guy who put his bag up there to stand on the footboard and later moved on to the next door without taking his bag. People there were so vigilant, that they started to question him in suspision. He had to carry his bag after that… But such things will only persist for a few days post such incidents.. After 3 to 4 days, life will be back to normal….
I have always believed that it is fate and destiny that matters most in one’s life. If you are destined to die on a particular day, you will and if you are not destined to die, come what may, nothing will happen to you. Well that’s what happened to a friend of mine. She generally travels by the first class. Her 1st class pass expired on the day before yesterday. She therefore travelled by 2nd class yesterday… had she been in the first class, I possibly wouldn’t have been able to see her anymore.. well that’s fate !!!
There was this incident that was mentioned in the Mumbai Mirror where a guy saw person another man standing in the fatal compartment of the train after the blast. The guy was wearing a tie. This man who saw him tried to pull him out of the compartment with his tie. When he pulled his tie, the man’s head fell off… Just imagine the state of guy who tried to help him.. he would have been horrified… & there would have been umpteen such incidents…
A lot of people in the media blamed the policemen for not being there on time, but they cant be blamed for that.. With such serial blasts occuring, they will also need some time to be there and take charge.. The thing that put me off was that even when in such cases the politicians start the blaming one the ruling party for the lack of disater management and letting terrorists go scot free.. The politicians should be told that there exists something like uncontrollable factors and this is one of them…!!
But amidst all of this, there was one thing that stood out, the spirit of the Mumbaikar. It was the locals who rushed to the spot at the various places and started pulling out the dead bodies. Even at late hours, the Mumbaikars were seen in the roads amidst the traffic, distributiong water and food to those stuck in traffic. Within 3 hours of the blasts, long queues of blood donating volunteers were seen outside various hospital, where most of the injured were admitted. By 12 midnight, the hospital had to issue a notification that blood banks were full and they didn't require any more blood. After all of this world market research firms say that Mumbai is one of the rudest places in the world.. guess something is wrong with their sampling techniques.. they would have picked up a group of angry prisoners… !!
Look what we have the following day…!! schools, colleges and offices are all working.. the railway stations are bustling with the commuters. One was expecting that the stock markets will see a steep fall today because the FII would want to pull their monies off. But that was not to be, the Sensex closed at 325 points above the previous close. The city has simply dusted itself off and moved on - perhaps with greater vigour.. Well that’s Mumbai for you…!!
Black Tuesday..thats what the news agencies are terming the serial bomb blasts on the 11th July 2006.. It was a Friday on 12th March 1993… so they termed it the Black Friday !!! We have had 2 bad days on the stock markets, one was a Monday & the other a Thursday… its 4 down and 3 to go… well what does that mean?? We only have a Tuesday, Wednesday and a Sunday to call BLACK !!! Well that’s on the lighter side…and hope that Mumbai never sees any of these days ever …!!!
