Mumbai Attacked, Again

Another day, another attack.

Another mindless bombing, innocent people dying.

It’s become the circle of life in Mumbai. I wonder how much can that city take before the psychosis of living with the fear that a bomb could go off next to you drives people over the edge. Already there are statements appearing on the web that border on mob mentality where you go where ever your anger leads you. Here are what some of my close friends are posting on their wall on Facebook :

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Time to get up and take control. If you agree let’s make this a movement. Hang that Kasab (Pakistani Islamic terrorist who was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks) or I am not paying taxes to the government for them to sit and feed the man who injured the soul of Mumbai!! An appeal KILL THAT KASAB OR CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT!!

I understand you are angry and upset but I do not understand how killing Kasab will stop terrorism? Once Kasab is dead will the terrorists just stop? It did not happen when US go Osama Bin Laden so why would it work in this case?

And if the person is saying that we should hang Kasab because he is guilty and the government is just dithering by not hanging him right away, then I have to ask, do you want to be like the terrorists? In other words do you want to take Kasab in the back and shoot him just like the terrorists do or do you want to go through a process that are entrenched in a democratic society. Yes, they can be slow but that’s why it’s called a due process. Leave no stone unturned. That’s how you fight terrorism.

I have been very disappointed by the response to this later attack from fellow desis (some of them are my very friends). There have been shouts across the board for more security. What does that mean? Do you want an Orwellian police state? Do you want to be told what you can do each moment you step out?

If yes, then may I suggest you try North Korea.

I was also disappointed with the response to the bombing by the authourities. I mean, I do not expect them to have a police presence at every corner (I would hate that kind of society). My problem is that I saw pictures of injured being carried in the back of delivery vans, injured lying about with no professional help, no fire men, nothing. WTF! I thought after repeatedly being bombed, the authourities would have learned by now how to RESPOND to a bombing even if they cannot PREVENT one.

And the media. Oh my god! What is wrong with the desi media? The hyperventilating reportage from the scene of the blast with no concern for the privacy of the victims and their loved ones makes me want to puke.

I have no idea how to end this post on a positive note because there is nothing positive about this tragedy. It’s happened before and it will happen again.

The “Glorious” Indian Main Stream Media

I wonder how the western media would have handled a story of a young officer who laid down his/her life while trying to capture a dreaded and wanted terrorist? I think they would have extolled, over and over again, the bravery and courage that it took to face one’s adversary, eliminate the enemy and die in the process, all in the name of serving the country. And what does the esteemed “Up-To-Date” Indian media does?

On Tuesday (Nov 28^th ‘06) news swept across all the news channels ‘Sanjay Datt relieved by the court’. ‘Sirf Munna Not a bhai’ ‘13 saal ka vanvaas khatam’ ‘alhough found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breathe a sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn’.

In another news: Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing badly; Greg chapel said something …..; Bomb scare in Gorakhpoor express; and Shah Rukh Khan replaces Big B in KBC and Sonia asked PM to consider reducing petroleum prices (I wonder who’s the PM …anyways that is not the topic so leave it…) But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Datt’s “phoenix like” comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.

Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me, it read, Hisbul Mujahidin’s Most wanted terrorist ‘Sohel Faisal’ killed in Anantnag, India. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists’ whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp killed the Hisbul Mujahidin’s supremo and in the process lost his life….. To the bullets fired from an AK47…… He has a wife and a daughter (just like Sanjubaba), age …8 months.

Major Manish never said ‘I have a daughter’ …before he took the decision to attack the terrorist hide out on the darkest of nights? He never thought about having a family and he being the sole bread earner.

No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, an actor in real and reel life, a suspect who’s linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him……

Parents of Major Pitambare are still on this earth and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won’t ever see her papa again.

Definition of a Star has changed Major… it really has. So Sanjubaba always has a gun in every one of his movies then in real life if he has an AK47 then what’s the big deal we are used to see him with some ammunition without it he’s just a 49 year old hero so he did it for us…..so that we feel normal; Even if one of the bullets from one of such AK47’s took a Real Star’s life…….

Pitiful. Why are the real heroes relegated to the sidelines and the phony ones always put on pedestal.

A Global baby

Technology is truly amazing. Here is a story bound to warm your heart.

In a South Mumbai clinic, a global child is waiting to be born — after the prospective parents, of varying ethnicities, explored markets in three continents, gathered the ingredients that go into the making of human life and decided to create it using India’s medical expertise.

If all goes well, acupuncture physician Nicole Brown (45) and her husband Scott (39), an insurer, can expect to conceive in India and deliver a child in the US after a full term of pregnancy. A child for which they travelled through Argentina, Greece, Vietnam before landing in India on July 27. A child for which they have flown an egg donor from Vietnam to Mumbai, to retain Nicole’s oriental ethnicity.

Ah! The wonders of science. The rest of the article goes on to explain how India was chosen by this couple as the place to conceive and it’s a wonderful story about how a couple’s dream has come true.

But what really irks me how a national newspaper shamelessly inserts a glowing PR of India’s medical industry.

This multi-racial, transcontinental, two-and-a-half-year odyssey reflects the personal touch and professional maturity of India’s medical outsourcing industry in particular the skills that India can now offer the world, from running insurance checks for US companies to verifying genetic information for clients in Europe.

I know India is really doing well but one sign that Indians have “matured” is to stop calling themselves geniuses all the time. Every major publication in India is guilty of this fact. I mean come one!! Be mature and wait for the accolades. Don’t serve them and eat them yourself. That’s childish and not “mature.