Life after Death: Are we secure now?

The Times of India (TOI) Student Edition carries a special feature, ‘Words Worth, d of d day’ and the December 4 word of the day was AK56! Rightly so, now that the politicians aren’t working in the direction of ensuring security for the individuals, the media has taken up the job.

With concern in every citizen’s mind over the issue of personal security, a man carried his (licensed) revolver in and outside the station. No, that attempt wasn’t to counter the possibility of another attack, but it was just another disclosure of the lack of effective checking methods at the station which had been attacked not a week ago. After his successful attempt to carry the gun, the man questioned the security men as to why wasn’t he caught when the metal detector rang an alarm. Surprisingly, they answered they couldn’t hear the alarm!

Exactly a week after the Mumbai aftermath, an eight Kg RDX bomb was found in a bag lying with the bags and luggage of the terror attack victims at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST). CST was the first place where the terrorists opened indiscriminate firing on the fateful night of the 26 of the last month. People running for their lives, in an attempt to save themselves ran out of the station leaving there luggage/bags behind. The terrorists, who came with the sole purpose to cause maximum devastation, left the bomb amongst the bags before fleeing the station. After the attacks, the police sanitized the station and locked up the left behind bags in a room. Gradually usual crowd resumed and unexpectedly a week after the bomb, in an unclaimed bag, is discovered when the police officials were distributing the bags to the kin of the deceased.

Fortunately the bomb never exploded but this again puts a question mark over the work of the officials who sanitized the area and declared it safe. This has again uncovered the negligent way in which our police force works. Had the bomb exploded the causalities would have been much larger. What more that the bomb lay there for a complete week! Is that how the police sanitized the entire railway station, without checking the bags? Where were the sniffer dogs? Where were the metal detectors? How did the police declare the station safe without a meticulous check-up?
And now after the discovery of the bomb at CST, fresh grilling of the caught jihadi, Azam Amir Kasav, has sent a chill down the spine of the Mumbai police force. He claims that each of the ten terrorists carried a bomb which leaves one bomb un-accounted for…is he again fooling the police as he has been taught in his training by his bosses? Or is it the truth?
In a larger perspective: Are we safe now? Within a week of such unprecedented attacks, twice has been the negligence of Mumbai police uncovered. And this wouldn’t have been any different had it been any other part of India. When the police or the government officials will work towards the safety of the individuals? Every citizen’s blood is boiling, protests are raging in every part of the country, and fear of security has filled up everybody’s mind. Instead of sympathizing with the families of the deceased, the politicians too were busy, busy throwing dirt on the opposition leaders and producing a vote bank for themselves in the process. It was pity to see the politicos blaming the opponent and pleading votes in favor of their party! Can anyone please ask these political gurus to keep their mouth shut for a while? We don’t need their expert opinions on the failure of their opposition; instead what we need is an accountable, responsible government. What we need is security for every individual who runs a risk of being victimized, dying an untimely death.

Life after Death: A question unanswered…

Mumbai, Nov. 29 : An official of the Mumbai Disaster Control Office on Saturday confirmed that the death toll in the terrorist strikes has risen to 195. He also said that the number of injured is presently pegged at 295.
Revealing the statistics, Shantaram Jadhav was quoted by an agency as saying:"The death toll is likely to rise because there are still bodies in our vans that are being brought into hospitals."
His comment came as commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) were continuing with their mopping up and sanitising operations at the beseiged Taj Mahal Hotel after killing the four terrorists.

Exactly a week after the 60 hour terror strikes, Mumbai is back on track. Still on its way to recovery, “Mumbai never stops for this long”. Numerous protests are raging in every corner of the country, some against the politicians and some against the terrorism.

And amid all this, their looms a huge question mark over the body count at the Taj. A couple of hours after the aftermath ended there, the national media claimed that it has received the estimated body count but were not revealing till the official confirmation was done. This was keeping in mind the sentiments of the people who where still, hoping against all hopes, searching for their loved ones who have been victimized by unprecedented terror strikes.

The media kept speculating about the lapse of time as the official confirmation wasn’t coming. The media even speculated about the toll being as high as about the double of what the government officials had by then revealed.
Yet none did reveal the exact number of causalities there, nor came the official word on the same.

Non official sources claim the body count to be 99 alone inside Taj on the evening of 29th, when the sanitization process was still underway. NSG chief said the body count couldn’t be revealed because the hotel was yet to be searched room by room. Every other official echoed the same comment when questioned on it.
November 30th, the Taj handed over to the management by the NSG, yet no one reveals the total number of causalities. Now it has been closed down for a year. A year, they say, is the anticipated amount of time required to rebuild the Taj.

The question is if keeping the public updated on the status of the attacks and rescue operations via LIVE coverage was the so called duty of media then why isn’t the media fulfilling its duty by updating the people about the exact number of causalities? Why is media now only focusing on the dirty politics being played? Why is the public being kept unaware of the total devastation caused by the militants? When will the figures be confirmed? And by whom?

To do or NOT TO DO…

How apt was it to telecast a LIVE coverage of the Mumbai rescue Operations inside Taj, Nariman House and Oberoi Hotels?

With negligible empathy for the person, a journalist interviews a husband whose wife was trapped inside the Taj about how he feels and what was he telling his children about their missing mom. Following the military instructions (very ironically) she says the media have been requested not to divulge the details of the operations and then goes LIVE on air reveling the number and positioning of the commandos at each of the three places while the operations were still in the crucial stages. Precisely an hour after the world knew that the militants have been shot dead by the commandos, the same journalist does a ‘thumbs up interview’ with a commando and goes on top of her voice to ‘inform’ the world that there were ‘no more terrorists inside’.

The NSG chief himself condemned the media for divulging important details like the airdropping of commandos and their positioning in and around the complexes saying that “it took away the element of surprise for the militants and might have jeopardized the entire operation.”
Of course the calamity was of national importance and the citizens of the nation needed to be made well aware of the situation. But was the entire bullet by bullet, LIVE coverage of the epic necessary knowing that it might compromise with the safety of the hostages?
The media went on record mentioning the Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmiukh’s visit to the Taj Hotel along with his actor son Ritesh Deshmukh and director friend, Ram Gopal Verma, labeling it as insensitive and ruthless act. But if this was insensitive and ruthless, so was the no coverage of Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station or any of the hospitals and of the situation of ordinary people, their travails and trauma. For media, the prime focus was to cover the journalist Sabina Saikia, actor Ashish Choudhary’s sister, Yes Bank chairman Ashok Kapur’s tragic and untimely death, and the miraculous and (ironically) lucky escape of Israeli and Italian two year old kids. The media by its callous conduct and attitude showed that its sensationalism that sells and gets you TRPs!
The media need to have some respect for the people, their sentiments, before doing what they are "best at" -sensationalize the issue. Not to blame the junior journalists who have to serve media organizations which, amongst themselves have a cut throat competition in terms of TRP ratings and sensationalism, but the heartless reporting of the whole issue by some of the eminent senior and reputed journalists left the entire nation awestruck. The media, it seemed was immune to the sensitivity of the situation, especially when the operations were still happening and no less when it got over.

I have followed the news coverage very closely, for 48 if not the horrendous 60 hours, I am a media student myself but I overtly condemn the media’s LIVE Video coverage of military operations as sensitive as these. After watching the LIVE coverage of the terror attacks I am petrified to step out of home, thanks to media and not the terrorists who have been brilliantly portrayed so. Watching it LIVE was my choice, but after all that I strongly feel that had the media been blacked-out during the span of the operations, the fear and panic instilled amongst the common mass would have been of much lesser degree. Talking in terms of the Mass Society theorists, however limited effect of the media have been empirically proven, media especially the new age media still have the ‘Magic Bullet’ effects amongst the youth at least.
In my opinion, the media has played a very immature role in the recent attacks whether it is covering the rescue operations LIVE or thrusting microphones at those who were in a state of shock just after being rescued. The protection and safe rescue of the hostages should have been the prime concern for both the commandos and the media and keeping that in mind the key information about their hideout should not have been aired publically. True, immediacy has been one of the major reasons for the roaring success and popularity of the electronic and new age media and the ever escalating dependency upon them, but so driven by the hunger of TRPs and sensationalism the media totally compromised with the lives of the hostages.

Co-incidence..?!!?

It had been a long, boring and very monotonous week at college designing the department newspaper till about 8 or 9 in the night every alternate day. By Saturday I was exhausted yet was busy doing some fine tuning of the final design from my side before the scheduled class with our design teacher at 1:30 P.M.(the session with eventually began at 3 P.M.).

I knew I was not getting anything, I wasn’t able to concentrate and suddenly in the middle of the class decided to leave stating the reason that my system had crashed and dad was not able to repair it!

On my way back home I got a call from dad that he called up a hardware person and system is working again. I was in no mood to go back to college and work till late again!
Luckily as I cancelled dad’s call, I got a call from my friend asking my whereabouts. And then came the tempting offer to spend the evening at India Gate†. I got down from the bus at India Gate but could not trace my friends there. After an effort of 20 minutes of finding each other, we decided to reach Connought Place(CP).

I got down at PVR Plaza and walked to the metro station of B block asking my friends to meet me there. Standing outside the metro station I looked up for the busy Barakhamba Metro Station* stop and made a mental note of the way to be traced while going back to home(I get a direct to home bus from Barakhamba metro station). Next I got a call from my friends to reach Regal Cinema†, Connought Place. I refused to walk as I had already proceeded towards Barakhamba road and so could not see the Regal Cinema and hence was very much confused about the directions.

We finally met at 5:25 at Central Park* lawns near the B block CP and all of us were hungry much because of the Mc Donald’s right in front of us. Two of us went and brought our burgers and Coke. We roamed in the Central Park lawns, enjoying our coke, noticing the kids playing there and then Shruti suggested going to Greater Kailash M block market* near my college instead of staying in the park! Majority refused taking into consideration the distance to be covered. i refused going near to the college! Shoppers of our group suggested Palika Market and yet again majority refused. “Lets go and check the next show timings at Regal”. Just then, before we could even think upon the (not so bright!) suggestion, a little girl in pink dress and a pink balloon gathered the attention of all of us. She came to me and pointed at the balloon wala (from where she apparently bought it) standing above the underground Palika market, almost adjacent to the park I played with her for a few moments and then we decided to sit and enjoy the pleasant weather. Before that we threw our napkins and coke bottles in the dustbin* lying nearby.

And just when we were about to sit a friend of mine got a call about the Gaffar market blasts(the area just next to her door!) and was ordered to reach home ASAP! We left the park that very moment It was 6:24. We could not cross the road for another two minutes because of the traffic and meanwhile I thought of calling my grandmom who goes Karol Bagh area (some famous mandir there) every evening. Failing to recall her number, I called up dad and told him about the blasts! It was 6:30 and I just took the metro tokens. We proceeded to board the train and even before we could board it a dustbin in the Central Park blew up!

In the metro train we got another call about the blasts at Central Park near Palika market at CP! We all were shocked and all the more puzzled. Everybody else thanked god for being lucky enough to escape the deadly blast, everybody else…I could only see the face of the little girl. The blast had happened in a dustbin in Central Park near the Palika! OMG!

Next came the call of the blast outside the Barakhamba Metro station and for a moment I froze. I looked around and saw the underground CP metro complex...for I would have usually rushed to the same metro station to catch the earliest bus but I don’t know why I joined my friends for the CP metro station despite knowing this would not take me home directly and I will have to walk half a kilometer to reach home if I take the metro route.

“That was damn close you idiots, I suggested going to M block (Greater Kailash)” said Shruti. “Had you followed my suggestion we could have left considerably before the blasts…” she continued. It was 6:54 and we get the next call of the serial blasts at M block Greater Kailash! None of us spoke for next few minutes, Shruti stood frozen at her position. Then wishing each other safe journey ahead we got off the train at respective metro stations.

The third bomb blew in Delhi barely a few hundred meters away and the fourth one as well! Though I could not even hear the explosion yet I have this strange feeling of luck having left the place barely five minutes before the blast. For moments I was shaking but to be really honest, I felt frustrated as if I missed ‘something.’ And the frustration grows up as I write this…. Throughout the evening I have been to as many as four places which were the targets (two blasts happened and two were later diffused). I actually felt like going back to Central Park right that moment...
Why? I myself cannot answer this at the moment! All I know is that I have a trip pending to...


* Places where the blasts happened in Delhi.
† The places where the bombs were later diffused!
Too much of co-incidence…wasn’t that??!!??
I would like to state here another strange fact.
In the afternoon I was asked (rather ordered) by some one to post another article at my “dead” blog! I was given the deadline of Sunday 7 P.M.(I know I am 3 hrs. late but at least I did!).
So I was wondering what to write in such a short span, matching to the genre of my blog (if I can call it so!!), that too when I was expecting a lot of changes to be suggested by the design teacher which means a lot of homework! At the same time I knew I will have to write something. But what? Nothing striking at that very moment, I went for the designing class not bothering much about it! (I am so very sorry!).
I could hardly concentrate in the class and thought of doing something more interesting and again the blog came to my mind. I thought hard but could not figure out anything. Left with no choice, I tried concentrating at the computer screen praying for something ‘strange’ to happen for me to write!

A Protest Against Insanity...!!

In the course of a single day itself, hundreds of devotees visit Akshardham Mandir, thousands of workers land up at the construction site of Commonwealth Games Village and as many commuters traverse the Nizamuddin Bridge but literally a very few takes the notice of it. The traffic woes over the bridge forces them to spend about an hour crossing the 750m stretch, the time they spend appreciating the beauty of the Mandir or commenting at the plight of the deteriorating Yamuna river. The sight of the upcoming Commonwealth Games Village excites them all. But nearly all are either unaware or ignorant of the fact that between the two colossal structures and on the periphery of the bridge lays unrest! A movement that took birth over a year ago and, sadly enough, is still in its infancy.

I have been one of the commuters and had been noticing the banners since the past couple of days. To be honest, being a sports enthusiast, I never read the banners on the day I noticed them because the first thought that came to my mind was that the protest is against the Commonwealth Games! “How insane is this? These people don’t want games to happen, spoilsports!” The banners and the whole idea of the protest against kept repeating in my mind all through the day and I made it a point to remember reading their ‘words’ the next day. To my surprise...yes it was a protest, a protest against the Commonwealth Games Village, but…but for a humanitarian cause! I felt shocked and more than anything else, I was embarrassed by my thoughts…but the very next moment I resolved to bring to the notice of every person I can…

It was raining heavily ten minutes back and its shining brightly now. But these conditions don’t affect their spirits. Everyday they worship the huge framed portrait of Mahatma Gandhi-their mentor. The trunk and the branches of a huge tree supports their plastic shed beneath which they spend their entire day in protest…a protest for a noble cause…a plea to save the Yamuna and hence mankind…
“The Yamuna Satayagrah was launched on August 1, 2007 under the leadership of Rajendra Singh against the construction of Commonwealth Games Village on the riverbeds of Yamuna…mind you, its not against the games...” one of the members started briefing me about the history of the campaign(in hindi) and continued till we were joined by the vice president of the movement, Baljeet Singh.

“Sarkaar ko isse kya matlab hai, wo to iss sab se paise kama rahi hai…humare pet pe laat maarkar…hum kisaanon ko beghar kar ke…” (Government isn’t bothered about this issue; they are only earning money…leaving the farmers starved and homeless!) remarks Baljeet Singh, a retired teacher, PGT Economics and the vice president of the Satyagrah.

“Vote humara wohi lega, jo yamuna mein sanan karega” (We shall vote for the one who will take a dip in Yamuna) says a banner, “Kutab se Taj, ek hi awaaz, jiye Yamuna to jiye jan jan” cries another! But depressingly, their cries are confined to their shed only. They lament the progress of their cause due to ‘occasional media coverage’. “Haanji media ka kuch saath to mila hai lakin uske bavajood bhi ye abhi tak ek mass movement nahi ban paya hai…media aur logon ko isse kya lena hai…” says Mahavir Singh. He continues “Aap future ki soche, aage to pani ki kami sabko satayegi…tab pal bhar mein ka kar lenge ye log? Hum to aane wali peedhi ke bare mein soch rahen hain…” (You think about the future, in near future we all shall face water shortage…what will they be able to do then within seconds? We are thinking about the future generation…)
Baljeet Singh further elaborates on the same focusing on the reasons for people’s and media’s ignorant behavior. “More than eighty percent of the residents of Delhi are not migrants from other states who have settled here either for education or work/money. Why would they be concerned about the Yamuna and its deteriorating water quality when there are getting packaged water in the market? It is we, the poor people who depend upon natural water resource, who are being affected the most…. Media hasn’t been able to transform this into a mass movement because we don’t have a celebrity attached with our protest. Is this justice?” He then points to a white board with ‘368’ written on it with green, blue and red ink, signifying the 368 days of their protest against insanity…

I was wondering ever since we sat down for the chat that why these people were against the progress of the riverbed-DDA’s conscious effort…but already being too embarrassed by my thoughts I could not muster the courage to question them… “Here they are echoing about the usefulness of riverbed… Of course it would be a crazy question to ask” I restricted myself a ten times. But fortunately Mahavir Singh’s further criticism clarified the residual doubts. “Hum ye nahi chahte ke sarkaar is kshetra ka vikas na kare, kare, lakin riverbed ko riverbed he rehne de phr chahe ye jameen hum kisan ke paas ho ya phir reliance k paas…aur jahan tak khel ka sawaal hai, aur bhi kayi jagah hain jahan iska nirmaan kiya ja sakta hai…” (We don’t say that the government should not develop the region, it should, but the riverbed should remain a riverbed irrelevant of the fact that its ownership is with the farmers or with a private company! And as far as the games are concerned, the village can be built at many other alternative places…)
“The riverbed is now being converted into a concrete jungle! Moreover they are building multi storey flats, malls, hotels and other residential quarters inside the Games village. It shall even include the metro complex! Is this what I riverbed is used for? This will severely impact the survival of the river which is already under stress. Ask the government or us the farmers whether the sand here can withstand concrete?” complained Baljeet Singh, almost in tears by now… “Moreover mukhya mantri Sheila Dikshit ji kehti hain ke ye waste land hain…hum sirf isko beautify kar rahe hain…” (Moreover Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says it’s just a wasteland and we are only beautifying it!)

By now I was convinced, and I am sure many of you would also be, that this site isn’t the best place to host foreigners for a twelve day event leaving behind our own farmers homeless, jobless and starved for their entire life!

“The protest isn’t just against the construction of the Games Village at this place, a similar protest, at a much larger scale, was launched in 2000 as well when the site got the approval for the construction of the Akshardham complex. But the government, using the police force, suppressed the voice of the protesting farmers and succeeded in vacating the area for the construction”, continues Baljeet Singh. “Hum kisaanon ko to pehle he beghar kar chuke hain…humari rozi roti ka saadhan cheen liya…ghar cheen liye…mandir hata diye, ye sab kuch sirf ek Akshardham banane k liye…” The moment I heard those words, I was shivering. It was pity and anger, anger against the government. His words were extremely provoking! And the beauty of the temple, that I too once appreciated, seemed to be of no relevance anymore!

Welcome!

Hi
Well here's another beginner-this is my first ever blog(as well as my first homework as a journo student..!) so it might just not be very well updated(an excuse I can give just for the inital phase!).
However I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep...

Anything in the limelight becomes a point of discussion, sure you will find my opinions on them as well, but things that go unnoticed is something that interests me...covering them would be a perfect blend of fun and work...
I shall connect with you as and when I have something good, unobserved and interesting to share...

Cheers!
Purn!ma