Thursday, November 27, 2008

I'm safe, though that's more than I can say for 100 others

Ram, Lakshmi, Nandini, thanks for asking. Yes all of us are safe. We had no clue. Sheela and I went for a movie last night (Dasvidania), which was lovely by the way and had me weeping all through the second half, while some of my friends went nuts trying to call me. Came back at midnight to find total madness had erupted in the city.

It is terrible, going by what we're seeing on the channels. There is no firm information. People are scared of going out of the house. Schools have been closed. I'm sure there will be no offices working today. Nothing, NOTHING, has ever happened on this scale here.

However, I would imagine that things are pretty much under control. The army, navy and police is out there in numbers, and the terrorists don't seem to have much of a plan other than spraying AK47 gunfire around. They are thus closely confined, and though some of them have hostages, I don't think any of them is going go get out alive. Hopefully, there will not be much collateral damage, especially to the hostages. Movement around the city is severely restricted, and is likely to be so for a few days. Flights are taking off (I can see that from my house), and the airport seems to be normal (though there was a large blast last night in its vicinity)

If you have relatives in Mumbai, they are probably safe, because the army and police have spread out around the city. Let's hope this ends with the minimum possible damage to life and limb. Already 11 policemen and 100 others are reported to have been killed.

This is the handiwork of a group called the Deccan Mujahiddeen, who are probably doing this to promote peace on the planet, or to avenge the Danish Cartoons, or the occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Really, this is the limit!

18 comments:

KD. K Bodhi said...

I think this is the worst attack ever!

The NDTV headlines was "Mumbai under seige!"

I really really hope we, along with the US, send the army into Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan and crush these bastards.

Anonymous said...

Narendra, glad you are safe.. but you are right our thoughts should be with the others you were not so lucky...

It is the limit.. something has to give

Sen said...

@ Narendra...agree with you..lets hope that this is over asap!!!

Anonymous said...

Good to know you're safe. Stay safe. Lets hope this doesn't last too long.

Lakshmi Bharadwaj said...

omg, i literally freaked out...even CNN here was running a story. it seems the US senate called a meeting today afternoon to discuss the issue n all...good to know ur safe. Stay home, sir!

Narendra shenoy said...

Just heard that they were 10 guys who came from Karachi in a speed boat. Behind this is the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Deccan Mujahideen is a fake id, sent from a ip in russia.

Etc Etc said...

Good to know that you are safe - at the same time there are some more "ordinary men" who are not so safe or even dead. Hopefully there is some action at least now by the politicians. Do take care and thank this blog which allowed many of your readers to know about your safety - people like us who love your wit but are anonymous.

Anonymous said...

hey narendra...truly fact is stranger than fiction.this looks straight out of cheap hollywood thriller.praying for all of us

Anonymous said...

NDTV says they come on a boat from Gujrat, u say from Karachi can u give the link please

Narendra shenoy said...

@anonymous - I read that on google news. it's disappeared now. At this stage, I think there would be a few grey areas and mis-reporting. But the ship thing points to heavy planning. That and the extreme military training of the terrorists. It' s got to be our cousins across the border.

Anonymous said...

Glad to know you're safe.

It's terrible watching the goings-on in the news..

Anonymous said...

yeah there are many grey areas and since the IB in the country is run by fuckwits and they say this is an unanticipated attack as none of the attackers have scrapped them in orkut nor sent them the new voice SMS they were caught wanking.If its the pakistanis then this is high time that something substantial should be done.That country is run by eunuchs.

Narendra shenoy said...

@anonymous - That's probably unfair to the intelligence guys. I have a couple of friends in the police and according to them, they get almost all their intelligence from grass root gossip. Rickshaw guys, hand cart pullers, tea-stall employees, junkies on the road, beggars.... This job was a complete import. Planned, co-ordinated, and orchestrated abroad and then brought in by boat.

I agree that Pakistan needs to be taught a lesson.

Anonymous said...

Agree that its unfair to blame any party, but then if its proven true that the attackers did come from Gujrat, then it casts serious doubts on IB and on the Gujrat police and on the ability of the country's police force in countering terror.

Vibushan L Narayan said...

Good to know you're safe. It was a real bad bad news in the morning. I know how you must have felt being there. of course i dont blame any specific region or religion. Just that the creed of terrorists need to be abolished and that HAS to be done irrespective of what it takes to do so.

Vivek said...

Good to know you're safe. It is very clear that security is poor on the waterfront and that's how they probably got in. Hopefully it wont last long.
Its amazing how you made even this funny? (Danish cartoons!)
lol

atul said...

Looks like the only way we're going to ensure peace in Mumbai is if we fight for it!

Praveen Krishnan said...

Hi,

Good to knwo that you are safe!! Really tragic state of affairs!! I hope we can find some sort of a solution to combat terrorism.