BLOODY HELL..!!!

Bloody Hell..!!!

Only this is how I can react to what has been going on in Mumbai city. I get angry every time such an attack takes place anywhere. But this time, its BAD. I guess, cos’ its on for 24 hrs. 30-40 terrorists storming the city on a normal-going day. How worse can it get? Probably this is the question most people are asking. Well, the problem is.. IT GOT WORSE.
So called terrorists, most of them in their teens and the average age being just 22-23yrs attacked Café Leopold (one of my most loved joints) and killed people indiscriminately. Then Victoria Terminus, Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel and not to forget..firing in ‘bits n pieces’ all across South Mumbai.

All this, as the modus-operandi shows is not possible without the logistical and training support from across the border..d country we know a Pakistan. The extremists apparently had AK-56 assault rifles, hand-grenades, dry-fruits and protein bars at their disposal, clearly showing that they came with keeping the ‘hostage situation’ in mind. Then these killer-kids spread across the heart of Mumbai. Obviously the targets were planned with particularly keeping foreign nations in mind. The puzzling part is that these bastards had done a recce of the locations, earlier already. The reason for this, I suppose was to inculcate a ‘Fear Psychosis’ not only within the country but across the world and sadly, they’ve done that. They wanted to hit India where it hurts the most-Mumbai and that too, to weaken its knees especially when India, economic growth-wise is doing great and is setting its footprints across the globe.

Some say, how much would our intelligence agencies take care of, as India has such long coastlines, such big cities and so many countries with which we share our border with. Well, still, I feel it’s a clear case of intelligence failure. Such attacks may be common in Kashmir but MUMBAI..!!!! It’s a clear message that they can target anywhere and anytime. Even in 1993 Mumbai blasts the terrorists and ammunitions came in from a port/dock far away from Mumbai but this time, bloody hell, this time they park themselves easily at the Gateway of India and storm in the city! Now who is to blame for this? The Indian Bureaucratic System, may be. Why are countries like China, Thailand and the list can be endless..targeted. Even the Government of US, which was attacked of what the world calls ‘The 9/11’..had after that particular incident gathered themselves and see what happened. No attack on their soil since then. Not even a ’minor’ one. Does God rule that country? Is GW Bush some kind of a super-human? No. Look at Spain, after the infamous Madrid Train blasts earlier in this decade. That was it; nothing after that.

Why India..year after year or rather days after days. The problem is our politicians. After such attacks, these fuckers either ‘announce compensations for the poor victims’ OR ‘offer condolences for the victims’. Fucking ass-no-holes of the worst kind. Worse than terrorists. Name any Indian city which has not been spared by these extremists. NONE. We’ve people like Mr.Raj Thackeray & Co. who do their jobs while terrorists are not attacking us! Don’t be surprised if this Raj guy starts protesting against why the Government is taking the help of North Indian commandoes to save Mumbai from terrorists. By the way, where is his mice-gang..not out in the city protecting the Marathi Manoos. What makes me angry is Mr.Shivaj Patil, our Union Home Minster, always overtly calm, not doing his job and rather passing statements like “Agar Soniaji kahengi toh I’ll resign”. Mr.Patil, I am just an ordinary citizen and even I know that YOU are supposed to report to or do what the Prime Minister says and not what the Soniaji says.

Everybody talks about the ‘Spirit of Mumbai’ on camera. And I personally hate this phrase now. Its been used every time something of this sort happens and Bloody Hell, what else do people of this country do but to gather themselves from pieces and start life again the next morning. Do we’ve a choice? We pay our taxes regularly, the money with which these bastard politicians live their lavish lives. Citizens of Mumbai pay the highest amount of tax in the country..FOR THIS??? We’ve to depend on the ruling government be safe..sadly. What upsets me the most is in such cases, I personally/physically can’t do anything. Except may be write this blog!
And while I write this and while your read this, the constant fear of WHERE NEXT is always lurking in our minds. If this same attack (Mumbai 26/11) was carried out in lets say, Guwahati, then we would not’ve been looking at it the same way as we are, in case of Mumbai. And more so because it’s the Taj Mahal Hotel, The Oberoi Trident, Leopold Café (love u)..basically South Mumbai..THE SOUTH MUMBAI. What if they had attacked on a Saturday or Sunday night. I am so sure they’d have got hold of handful of ‘Celebrities we adore’ which would’ve made this much more of an attention grabber. Not that I am not hurt with innocent people dying/dead. Its all so scary.

Gone are the days of fairytales. Gone are the days of sweet ear-pleasing talks. It was always the time to face the truth. This Mumbai-26/11, this utterly sad incident has asked us to take the issue of urban terrorism very very seriously. One thing what India did and was well appreciated was that we did not negotiate with these killer-kids from Pakistan. Like the way we did in Kandahar hijack episode (IC814) and released Maulana Mashood Azhar- who went on to form the dangerous Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist outfit; Omar Sheikh who later went to kill US journo Daniel Pearl and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. India needs to keep this stance in order to give a clear message to the so called destructors of peace.

We Indians are so used to such acts of terror, which in a way is not healthy at all. With hand on heart, ask yourself, when was the last time you took a terrorist attack so seriously as a citizen. Terrorists strike almost every week in Kashmir, Eastern states of India but do we bother to care? Does media bother to highlight the way it is doing now? We don’t even bother to bloody care if 10-20 innocent lives are lost. We, as Indians have this ‘chalta hai’ attitude built into our system. We tend to take terrorist attacks the same way we dump kachra on the road OR spit/piss anywhere. As an Indian citizen, even who is not living in Mumbai, it makes me feel my country is being raped, repeatedly..again..n again..n again..

GOD HELP US!

..Ms.Lobo - my Mathematics teacher..

It all started in 1996 when I was in 8th std. It was St. Mary’s School in Veraval. Since my early school days only, Mathematics used to be my ‘favourite’ subject...only that Mathematics didn’t think so, like it continues to do so, continues to loathe me, continues to insult me..!!!

Anyways, it was 8th std. and Ms.Lobo was our Maths teacher. Partly that was the reason I loved school. Ms.Lobo, I mean..NOT Maths. She was strict, ruthless, punctual..virtually all the qualities that any student would dread to have in his/her teacher. But at the same time she was beautiful...or may be that’s the adjective we would use for her then. She was actually very sultry, tanned and all.

As it used to happen, practically everyday with me…I never was able to do the Maths H/W (homework;) a reason due to which Ms.Lobo never liked me. But what I used to like was this only:

Ms.Lobo: As usual Pankaj, you’ve not done the work today as well. I am not surprised. (She would say this walking towards me)
Pankaj: Sorry ma’am but even I am not able to understand why does it happen to me only and that to..EVERYDAY! (I would actually love her presence near me, although I knew she was in an angry mood but at the same time I knew she would ‘slap’ me..on my face that is)

And so it would happen. She would raise her hand (she was an ambidextrous…virtually good with both hands...no pun intended, strictly) then pinch my ears with her thumb on one side & the pen-nib on the other…with my earlobe practically sand-witched between the two. Yes, it would hurt. Then she would use her other hand (which was free until now) to pinch my cheeks, like the way teachers do when they are angry and not when they are happy with you! And I loved this ‘pinching on my cheeks’ part, I mean. She would continue to do so for at most a minute, while giving the rest of the class a pragmatic lesson. And I only wished it lasted even longer. If you were the third person viewing this, it was a very funny sight, with Ms.Lobo’s one hand on my ear and the other on my cheeks!!! And no it didn’t stop here. As I was her ‘special’ student, she went a step ahead…by slapping me. Not even today do I regret being slapped though. And she always went away saying this…Pankaj, I hope this was the last time I slapped you but well…what she didn’t know was how much I loved being pinched and slapped by her..!!!

Freak, some would say but I pity them as not everybody is fortunate enough to have a Maths teacher like Ms.Lobo and above all…have the ability to be her ‘special’ student..!

Such ‘encounters’ between me & Ms.Lobo continue till 10th std. i.e., 3 more yrs although by 10th std. she understood that iss ladke ka kuch ni ho sakta …and she was so right - I still liked her.

Years went by. I did my graduation, did my Post-graduation…many more Maths teachers went by…my Maths continued to be the same as it was in 8th std. but as they say, some people (teachers..or rather a teacher in my case) CANNOT be replaced.

Whatever is it with FIRST CRUSHes and tTEACHERS...its such a cliché..!!!