The horror continues

After my post of midnight, I was up till 1.30 AM last night, watching with increasing horror at the situation in Mumbai. For the first time since I left college I think, i was up before 6.30 AM, to see the latest updates, only to realise that, far from being better, things were the same, if not worse. I did absolutely nothing productive at work today, spending most of my time tracking things on Twitter. This is by far the most horrifying thing to happen to India in my living memory, although the parents may counter that.

I am also feeling extremely guilty about the way I spoke of the Taj and the incident in my last post; considering the gravity and the widespread nature of incidents across our "commercial capital", it was completely unjustifiable.

There are people who have been inside their hotel rooms, unable to leave, for more than 20 hours now. Luckily, in this modern age of technology, almost all of them have mobile phones and are in touch with their near and dear ones. But does that lessen their trauma in any way?

Amidst all the reactions in the blogosphere, the most evocative first-hand accounts come from two of my favourite bloggers, who happened to be together at the time - Amit Varma and Sonia Faleiro. Another first-hand account which I heard on the news this morning was from a guy named Deepak, who was/is a guest in the Taj. He talked of how the hotel staff had kept him and his neighbour updated through the night, how he could see the terrorists from his room window, and how he was staying calm by reading the Hanuman Chalisa. Does it ever strike you as strange, how religion can calm and destroy at the very same moment?

I'm so very scared for the future of my country.

And again

My one and only visit to Mumbai was in May this year. It was soon after the Jaipur blasts, if I remember correctly, and we happened to go to both the Taj and the J W Marriott. The latter had actually beefed up security to the extent that my purse was put through one of those screening machines - the kind you see at the airport.

The day of the second Delhi blast in October - the one which happened exactly a week after the GK ones - I was in Connaught Place. A friend called from Mumbai to find out if I'm fine and mentioned that he's actually made groups in his phone's contact list - one for each metro city of the country. Makes it easier for him to react and find out about family and friends every time a blast happens.

I'm beginning to realise he has a point.

Back in May, the Taj had no security to speak of. What're you betting that'll change for the next six months at least?

This is sickening.

Wouldja look at that?!?

This is what the 47th over of the third ODI being played today between India and England in Kanpur looked like (Read from the bottom; makes more sense that way!):

 1 . 1^nb 1^nb 5^wd 1 W W 1^wd . 

46.6 I Sharma to Broad, no run, good length outside off stump, Broad swings and misses Ishant runs in for the tenth time in the over. 46.6 I Sharma to Broad, 1 wide, and he's sprayed it wide outside off stump! It's a huge wide! Stuart Broad to face the hat-trick ball. 

46.5 I Sharma to Prior, OUT, what a crazy over this is! Ishant's now on a hat-trick! Prior walks across his stumps to try and flick the ball towards long leg, he misses and the ball swings past him and clips leg stump. Two no balls, one wide that cost five, and two wickets in the over so far

J Prior b I Sharma 5 (13b 0x4 0x6) SR: 38.46 

46.4 I Sharma to Patel, OUT, caught in the deep! Patel charges to loft Ishant down the ground, it's another slower ball from Ishant and Patel mis-hits it high in the air towards long-off where Raina settles under the catch and takes it easily 

SR Patel c Raina b I Sharma 26 (29b 1x4 1x6) SR: 89.65 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 run, Prior chips the free hit towards midwicket, and Ishant hasn't over-stepped this time! 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 5 wides, Ishant's lost it today, the ball slips out of his hand and goes way down leg side, Dhoni had no hope to reaching that and the ball goes down for five wides, the free hit carries over to the next ball 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 no ball, Prior swings and misses the free hit outside off stump but would you believe it, Ishant's over-stepped one more time, Prior gets another opportunity 

46.3 I Sharma to Prior, 1 no ball, now he's got beaten by another lower one, this time outside off stump, Ishant's over-stepped yet again, that's his fourth, a criminal offence in this age of free-hits 

46.2 I Sharma to Prior, no run, Prior attempts a wild heave over the leg side but gets completely foxed by a slower ball that just misses the leg stump 

46.1 I Sharma to Patel, 1 run, Ishant looks for the yorker and Patel plays it towards the off side for a single

 

As time goes by

All our lives, my father has always made sure that he's not traveling on our birthdays. If it was unavoidable, he would always try and either get back on the D-day or leave the next morning, or something. But he would be there.

Tomorrow's my mother's birthday, and I'll be catching the night flight out to Mumbai for work. For the first time ever, I won't be there for the family birthday dinner in a restaurant. For the first time in many years, my mother won't have either of her kids with her for dinner on her birthday.

Feels weird.