The Awakening.

The massacre of the 26th of November in Bombay has scarred all of us in some manner or the other. It scares me till this day to think that I escaped that bloodbath. I left VT station at 8:30 pm. The atrocities at VT started at 9:30 pm. The killers were planning to open fire at 7 pm. It could have happened any time that evening. My friend was at the station at 9 pm. My classmates from my French class were bang opposite Leopold Café when the bomb went off there. They could not return to Thane that night. They spent the night at a friend’s place at Peddar Road. I slept that night thinking that the mayhem would end by the following morning. I was foolishly mistaken. What happened next was witnessed by the world. The Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident, Nariman House and VT station had turned into scenes of carnage. I was simply numbed by the thought that it was a marine invasion. What were our Navy and Coast Guard guys doing? My brother’s classmate lost his father in the Taj. His father was the Head Chef at the Taj, the captain as they call them. An acquaintance lost seven of her colleagues in the Taj. She did not sleep for 3 nights after hearing the news and had to finally be put to sleep like an infant. My friend escaped a blast at the Trident. She was right inside the building. My French teacher lost two of her neighbors in the Taj. The Director of my former workplace lives in the building right next to the Nariman House. He witnessed the tragedy up-close. Radio France International called me up for my testimonial. So were my French teachers and many French expatriates. But I finally lost it when I saw the funerals of Hemant Karkare and Major Sandip Unnikrishanan. I cried till the point that I looked diseased. That happened to a whole lot of other people too. The city is angry and united. This time our anger won’t die down. We won’t let it. We are going to use it a positive force against the enemies outside and the enemies within. We will come up will solutions and get them implemented too.