Bomb-ay

Bomb-ay
….the 7/11 attack

I just don’t know what I would have done had I been in the compartment in which the bomb blast took place. One of the possibilities is that my hands and legs would fly up in the air rendering me handicap or the rest of my life. But as soon as I think of this, my heart starts pumping faster and somehow the brain just refuses to accept the thought. Hence my mind drifts and places me in the adjoining compartment…. This would perhaps cause me some injury, wounds and all that. Well, was I prepared for that? No, it would disrupt my entire year. And then getting back to normal would again take much of my time….as it is, I am a slow person…

Well so my mind takes me even farther in some of the remote compartments of the same train. And then it hears a huge blast which deafens my ears. I cannot hear anything and hence I try to just peep out of the train…I see people jumping out on the tracks…and unaware of what has happened, I too jump out seeing the people. Soon people realize that it is a bomb blast. Many of them rush for help…

What would I have done in such a situation? Rushed for people’s help…or rushed to get back home immediately, as soon as possible.

Considering the first case – helping people would require a brave heart. I start debating with myself about this…do I possess a brave heart or no? Most of the times the reply is negative. But deviating from this reality, had I been a bit brave, I would have helped people to take the injured bodies to the hospital. If not even that, I would have tried to contact the police and get them to the point of the incidence.

All this seems farfetched to my mind.

Hence I further go away from the blast site…where I would be one of the persons helping those who are mentally affected and tried to consolidate them, pacify them or serve them with some of the much needed water, tea or biscuits. Here I see myself doing the job much as a responsibility - as a responsibility of the citizen of Mumbai, and as a human first. Still, to distill it further and come to my situation then, I was at my apartment, unknown of the whole incident when the door bell rings…

My brother opens the door and finds the neighbour informing about the blasts… he promptly picks up the remote control switches on the television; and starts flipping through the many news channels. Every channel displaying the same images…it was horrific…I count all the people in my house and find my father missing (mom had gone to native place). Quickly I take my mobile and start dialing my father’s cellular number…just then I see the flash on the television - that all the phone lines are jammed…

However, incoming calls from outside Mumbai were still allowed…the telephone did not stop ringing till night, there were continuous messages of we being fine at our home, and dad too could be contacted via a distant call…every one was safe…

Nest day, the local trains were back again on their tracks transporting public…but the bulk was less. Evening, I too get ready for my music classes…all fine, I prepare to return….my train reaches Mahim (which was one of the stations where the bomb blast took place). Suddenly there was a shout… ‘run, run, run’…. People start jumping out of the train, within no time the train is vacated. The empty train reminds me of the blast scenes…my colleague holds my hand tight, and we enter the train again…a short announcement follows and the train moves…