World | India
Readers recall pain and love for their city
For three days all we did was watch news with tears in our eyes, woman says of family' attempt to come to terms with the tragedy
- By Huda Tabrez, Community Web Editor
- Published: 00:00 November 25, 2009
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Dubai: One year on and Mumbaikars continue to feel the pain in their hearts as a result of the carnage of the terror attacks. The pain is still there but they refuse to break.
"Two factors have impacted and shaped me the most — my father and Mumbai. My father's gone, but Mumbai will always stay," Sandhya Shetty said.
For someone who was born and brought up in Mumbai, she personifies the spirit of the city — unfettered, young and always on the move.
She said: "The city has had such an impact on me. I am really proud of being a Mumbaikar."
Shetty was flicking through channels on November 26, 2008, when a news station mentioned that the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus had been attacked. That was the start of the longest terror attack the city had suffered. She switched off the television only at 3am, but that did not mean that the night had ended.
"Honestly, I couldn't sleep. I had worked at the Trident Hotel as a teenager — it was my first job. You always have a special attachment to the firsts in your life," she said.
When Shetty returned to Mumbai last month, she made a point to stay at the Trident Hotel.
"All the gun shots had been covered up. I dined at the Taj Hotel, too, and all I can say is that it is back to safe Mumbai."
Amitabh Saxena, a Dubai-based advertising manager, spent most of his time during college at the Leopold Café, another site which was attacked during the three-day siege.
"When I was watching the news, I felt like I was away from home and someone had just attacked it," the 41-year-old said. He visited Mumbai in March this year, and took his nine-year-old son around the city to calm the anxieties, which had cropped into his young mind.
Good values
"I remember my son seeing the Taj Hotel's dome and saying: ‘Pa, it must still be burning inside.' I tried to make him understand that things were now back to normal."
It was not an easy concept to understand for the nine-year-old and his mother, Alka Saxena, used the opportunity to instil values of courage and goodness in her son.
"For three days all we did was watch the news with tears in our eyes. I kept telling my son that there are good and bad people in the world and these things happen," she said.
Alka, too, presumed like many others that the shooting at the train terminus was part of a gang war. When she heard the news of the injuries and then deaths of Mumbai's top police officers, the gravity of the situation sunk in.
"Our first reaction to the news was disbelief, then shock and then depression. Deep depression," Alka said.
Watching the attacks on television was exceptionally difficult for her, since both her husband and her son had special memories attached to the city.
"Mumbai is a city which welcomes everybody. We are not from Mumbai, but it is now home. To see your home being ripped apart is quite tragic."
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