The Night of Terror – An Unforgettable Day!

Posted on by
Reply

I woke up, excited and happy on the morning of November 26, 2008. I was going to Mumbai later that evening on a Jet Airways flight, flying with BB & GG alone for the first time since they were born. They were 5 years old and were equally excited to be seeing their grandparents that evening.

Everything changed around 7 am when I got a message from my sister, who was in the States at that point, asking me if I was still going to Mumbai. I had no clue what was happening in Mumbai. I waited impatiently till a decent time to call my parents to find out more, and in the meantime rushed to work as I was supposed to be working half day that day. I went online and was shocked by what I read. Twitter, which was around two years old then had exploded with tweets on the situation!

What had happened was that 10 Pakistani members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008, killing 164 people and wounding at least 308.

Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (VT train station), the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, (one of the worst places of the killings), Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Nariman House Jewish community centre, the Metro Cinema, and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier’s College. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai’s port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle (close to the domestic airport). By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj hotel had been secured by Mumbai Police and security forces. On 29 November, India’s National Security Guards (NSG) conducted ‘Operation Black Tornado’ to flush out the remaining attackers; it resulted in the deaths of the last remaining attackers at the Taj hotel and ending all fighting in the attacks.

Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker who was captured alive, later confessed upon interrogation that the attacks were conducted with the support of the Pakistan government’s intelligence agency, the ISI. Kasab was tried and later hanged in Yerwada jail in 2012.

S was on leave that day as he gets more leave than me. I quickly called him and spoke to him. My inlaws were scared of us travelling that evening and asked me to cancel the trip. I was torn – on one hand I didn’t want to risk the trip, on the other hand, I so desperately wanted to go home and meet my parents (I think at that point, it was a year since I had met them). I called the airline office in Singapore and was met with indifference. They seemed not to have any idea of what was happening in their head office city and told me they didn’t have directive from Mumbai (the head quarters of the airline). The flight will take off as scheduled was what I was told. My mother-in-law didn’t want me to travel, but I didn’t listen to her, saying since the flight was scheduled, we’ll go to the airport and decide then. I spent the whole day glued to the internet for any scraps of news that I could get. I told my parents that we are making the trip and to come to the airport to pick us up. Now that was a new problem – due to the trouble, the city was on curfew and there was no one willing to drive them to the airport. Finally around the time we left for the airport, my dad messaged me that they had finally found someone brave enough to drive his taxi to the airport and pick us up. One problem solved, loads more to go…

Praying to the entire pantheon of Gods in Indian Mythology, we left for the airport. We were one of the first ones to check-in. The mood was quite somber. There was a Channel News Asia crew near the check-in counter interviewing passengers brave (or mad) enough to fly to Mumbai. They were looking for Singaporeans against Indians and approached me to ask if I was willing to be interviewed. I did mention that I am not a local, but was told that I spoke like one, so could pass off as one! I was asked if I was scared of going to Mumbai while the shootings were going on and I remember replying that this was very far from the airport, and so the airport area should be safeish (is this even a word?)!

We flew into Mumbai and the airport was very somber and dull! Everyone working the shift was glued to the television screens which were showing live the places where the terrorists had held the hostages. None of the customs officers were really interested in looking at our luggage and we were out in record time. I was so relived to meet my parents and we quickly got into the taxi and drove home. At that point in time (this was before the new flyover which has dramatically shortened travel time from the airport to my home), the normal travel time between the airport to home was 45 – 60 mins. That day, we did the journey in 20 minutes! Once home, I heaved a big sigh of relief and then spent the next few days glued to the television….

This was the most unforgettable day in my life and a flight to remember…..

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri

Two brothers bound by tragedy; a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past; a country torn by revolution. A powerful new novel–set in both India and America–that explores the price of idealism and a love that can last long past death.

Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead of them. It is the 1960s, and Udayan–charismatic and impulsive–finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty: he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he comes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind–including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

2015 Week 46 Update

Posted on by
Reply

tumblr_lcvvx2phhl1qb09l7o1_1280-460x328

This week as the last one went by worrying about the PSLE results.

Work-wise, the usual. I actually don’t have much to do – I think I finish up what’s on my plate for the day before 10 am and then it’s trying to look busy…I am happiest when I am so busy I don’t have time to even drink water, wish those days come back soon! Intellectually I feel I am slipping, but like I wrote earlier, I will wait till I am back from my holidays to have a talk with Big B and also start seriously looking for a new position.

We looked at a couple of secondary schools this weekend and looks like both have zoomed into one. It’s not a brand name school, a bit far for us, but BB loved it for its niche programme in his area of interest and when we went there, GG also liked the school. I liked the school and my first impressions were positive. Now we’ll wait for the results to see if this will indeed be our school of choice.

Happy Monday everyone! This week I will be on tenterhooks, so please send positive thoughts our way as well as please pray to the higher being you believe in that both BB & GG do well when the results are declared!

PSLE Week 46 Update

Posted on by
Reply

With the end of this week, BB & GG have actually completed their Primary school journey! This is a bitter-sweet moment, as my children are now officially teens.

This last week of school went in a flurry of activity, especially for their school awards day which typically was the last day of the school year on Friday. GG was getting an award for excellence in music and BB was also performing with his class. The Primary 6 classes had a performance face-off a couple of weeks back and the best class would be chosen for the awards day. BB’s class actually won that, but since his form teacher has been on leave this week, they were prepared for disappointment since they need their teacher to ‘take them’ to the awards ceremony. Luckily another class form teacher volunteered to take BB’s class and so they made it to the awards.

I was also volunteered by GG to help with make-up for the choir group and so we all made our way to school at the ungodly hour of 6:45 am! S dropped us off and came back later for the ceremony. It was fun actually doing the make-up for the children and brought back memories of the Singapore Youth Festival that we’ve helped out at before.

The awards ceremony was nice and poignant and seeing the children getting the awards made me wish BB & GG also won for academic reasons. S, I think, has much more higher expectations from his children than me, wanting them to excel academically. While I too want them to excel academically, I also want them to enjoy the process and to do things that they are passionate about. I try to steer them to things they enjoy more than what they ‘should’ be doing. That’s different parenting styles I guess and the bottom line should be what is best for the children at the core of it.

While at school, at the end of the awards programme, I saw that I had a notification from Channel News Asia that MOE had finally disclosed what most P6 parents had known for at least a week now – the results will be declared next Wednesday 25th November from 11 am onwards. Ever since I read that notification and know for sure, my stress level has been in stratospheric levels! I am more stressed than the children and I am really hoping and praying that on the 25th we are not disappointed. I want them to do well enough that they get into schools of their choice.

GG has been pretty sad this week as she will most likely be separated from her best friends. One evening, BB tattled on her saying she was writing things about depression and all and so I decided to speak to her. She did say she was sad as she will now move to a new school and will miss her friends, but I countered that she’ll make new friends and who knows how many of her old friends will be in her new school! Also friendship does not die when you are not in the same school, you can still talk to each other, message each other and occasionally meet up for meals! Hopefully she was assuaged by these words and not be too sad….

I had written earlier about the ICAS tests that the kids gave in school. We finally got the results, though I wish these had come earlier. GG scored a credit for English and got a certificate for Maths and Science. BB was surprising! He scored a Distinction for Science and his score card said he was among the top 7% of all Primary 6 students in Singapore who took this test. In some parts of the test, his scores were off the charts for his level! He scored a credit for Maths (top 25%) and English too, but it was his Science knowledge that totally floored me. Also some of the books he has been reading recently is amazing – they are way advanced for someone his age….

With the children getting their results next week this Sunday series of weekly updates is now coming to an end – I’ll probably do one last post next week to let everyone know how BB & GG did. I’ll restart this series again in January with a new name to reflect their status as Secondary students as we work our way through teen angst, raging hormones and the minefield that is Secondary school. In the meantime, the six odd weeks till then, will be filled with regular programming, though I do have something in mind!

In My Hands Today…

Posted on by
Reply

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard – Kiran Desai

Sampath Chawla was born in a time of drought that ended with a vengeance the night of his birth. All signs being auspicious, the villagers triumphantly assured Sampath’s proud parents that their son was destined for greatness.

Twenty years of failure later, that unfortunately does not appear to be the case. A sullen government worker, Sampath is inspired only when in search of a quiet place to take his nap. “But the world is round,” his grandmother says. “Wait and see Even if it appears he is going downhill, he will come up the other side. Yes, on top of the world. He is just taking a longer route.” No one believes her until, one day, Sampath climbs into a guava tree and becomes unintentionally famous as a holy man, setting off a series of events that spin increasingly out of control.