Forgive me readers for talking once again about Bombay terror strikes on 26/11. The hurt is too deep for me to forgive and forget! These damn-tears just don’t know when to stop trickling down my face. Every time I see the images of families grieving, my heart weeps and prays for their loss. I am too old to forgive the people of Pakistan this time. They have insulted our hospitality. We are used to their government lying and cheating but we trusted the Pakistani civilians to accept their responsibility and grieve with us. Instead they went on the defensive and justified their government’s complicity in the terror raid on my beloved Bombay. Please help me God!
Bombay was the city of my dreams when I decided to move there as a teenager. Jemal Bhatty (a commercial art student from Uganda, Africa) and I shared a paying guest accommodation in Colaba for four long years during our design course at Sir J J Institute of Applied Arts, Bombay. We first moved to the ‘Round Building’ on Arthur Bunder Road and then moved to ‘Gitanjali Building’ in 1968. Every evening we took a walk to the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Gateway of India and often had ‘anda paratha and boti kabab’ at ‘Barhe Mian’. We could only afford to visit ‘Taj Art Gallery’ or the ‘Nalanda Book Shop’. We were both happy and had very fond memories of Colaba, Bombay, Taj and Gateway till Jemal passed away in England in 1998.
The city never harmed anyone. Why would somebody try to hurt my Bombay? There were creeps like Bal Thackeray, Dutta Samant, Haji Mastan and Karim Lala who terrorized the city once in a while but nobody took them seriously. In any case, most of them were killed at some point except Bal Thackeray, the ‘Ghati’ and his ‘Shiv Sena’ (now a rat sena) is still to hit-the-bucket. Bal Thackeray managed to deface the city by changing the name to ‘Mumbai’. Besides he would leave his ‘pilla’ (Raj Thackeray) behind till some other goon bumps him off! The city was built by the British as Bombay and for all of us it will remain so. Working class ‘ghatis’ always called it ‘Mumbai’, let them call it what they want. North Indians called the city ‘Bumbai’ and they would continue to call it by that name. I will continue to call the city Bombay and the central railway station as VT (Victoria Terminus). Long live Bombay!
Our heart-felt condolences must go to the family of Assistant Police Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble who gave his life to apprehend the lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab. We hope his family is looked after by the good people of Bombay. If there is something we could do for them from America, it would be our honour. I am also touched by the thoughtful gesture by Kishore Luthria, Tanya Chhabria and Samita Sawney, who reportedly collected Rs 30 lakhs to buy 100 bullet proof vests for the Bombay Police. These vests are similar to ones used by American and Israeli forces and cost about $500 a piece. The state government must immediately remove any import duty if these have to be procured from overseas.
Filed under: Indo-Pak relations Tagged: | 'anda parotha and boti kabab', 'Barhe Mian', 'Bumbai', 'Ghati' and his 'Shiv Sena', 'Gitanjali Building', 'Nalanda Book Shop', 'Round Building', 'Shiv Sena' (now a rat sena), 'Taj Art Gallery', Ajmal Amir Kasab, Arthur Bunder Road, Assistant Police Sub-Inspector Tukaram Omble, Bal Thackeray, Bombay Police, Bombay terror strikes on 26/11, Colaba Bombay, commercial art student from Uganda Africa, Dutta Samant, forgive the people of Pakistan, Gateway of India, Haji Mastan, hit-the-bucket, Jemal Bhatty, Karim Lala, Kishore Luthria, Mumbai, my beloved Bombay, Pakistani civilians, paying guest accommodation in Colaba, Samita Sawney, Sir J J Institute of Applied Arts Bombay, Taj Mahal Hotel, Tanya Chhabria, VT (Victoria Terminus), We all wept silently and privately
Dear Pawan, I am also still having tears in my eyes, I had stopped posting images on my Flickr stream out of protest and I did not want to scream. I knew that if I will post then I will insult, hurt and shout at those who are responsible in our country for such situations. It seems that most Pakis are born of whores, have no emotions and respect for life. Our politicians who are high class ‘thuggs’ are on the wheel to steer around this country to darkness, are no less. Look at the way our brave citizens in uniform die for the stupid acts of these `thuggs’, they do not give even good equipment to our soldiers to fight and face such eventualities. More we curse these `thuggs’ lesser I find it. I am living on hope that one day India may be a better place to live, but I am sure it will not happen in our life time, the way things are going from bad to worse by the day.
Bombay has always been much different than rest of the country, in terms of discipline and civic sense.
I have my fond memories of Bombay, I used to come from Deolali, where I was doing Young Officers course at the School of Arty. My weekends used to be at Bombay, where I had my girl friend and I took her out for dinner to Taj Hotel on our first date. I knew Bombay more than Delhi, I have fond memories of Bombay.
Another thing I hate of India is, our selfish attitude, which poisons our such a great culture. Look at the press, it was grinding its own axe and nothing else. Most of them descended in colourful attire, which was changed every morning. All over the world there is some decorum followed when one attends mourning or goes to see dead, to express solidarity. Oh, God bless these `innocents’ some wisdom and make India a better place.
Sadly, this time rich and famous were touched by the dastardly act of terrorism and it had earned international flak. How poorly organised we are for such eventualities. This incident has made glaring revelation about the working of our system and leaders. How long we have to live in shame? May be our life will go like that, but younger lot may like to change.
I admire Kishore Luthria, Tanya Chhabria and Samita Sawney who collected Rs 30 lacs. I am sure it will encourage others. We are here collecting money for paraplegic soldier who is inactive neck below, got injured in a parachute jump. He is not been taken care by the system. We, few army officers got together and raised Rs 2.75 lacs to get him a suitable wheel chair. This is our great nation, use them and dump them. Who love this country, it seems no one. You and me are very few who get diluted in the ocean of these mighty corrupt. But will keep working.
Let us hope. Long live India !
Jai Hind !
Capt Suresh Sharma, I was touched by your response but I am a little more of an optimist. My generation has memories of our humiliation against China in 1961. We as a country have come a long way since then. We have a very long way to go, no question about it. But we must work towards a better India. We all have a vision of a strong and happy India, that day in not far. I look forward to a day when India would have the largest and the best trained and equipped defense force in the world. I also hope to see our servicemen well paid and well respected by our citizens in future. We all need to educate our fellow Indians about the importance of our national security!