Team-BHP > Shifting gears


Closed Thread
  Search this Thread
13,802 views
Old 12th July 2006, 23:08   #76
Distinguished - BHPian
 
Sam Kapasi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Mumbai (but wat
Posts: 6,997
Thanked: 2,376 Times

It took me 4 hours to get home last night. I was driving, hence inconvenienced, but quite safe. I chatted with some boys who were guiding traffic, ate a vada pav, was offered water (Ghar ka pani hai, uncle).
Smiled at an aunty who had filled up her aata making steel thali with Marie biscuits and offered me those and asked if I'd like some tea.
Some may think that the Spirit of Mumbai is crap, they're entitled to their opinion, i like Marie biscuits and tea.
My sympathies are with the injured and with the family and friends of those that didn't make it. Be strong, it was unexpected and for no fault of theirs.

Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
Sam Kapasi is offline  
Old 12th July 2006, 23:24   #77
Senior - BHPian
 
agspins's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: MH-31
Posts: 1,652
Thanked: 508 Times

Hats off and salute to undying spirit of mumbai..
.
.
i pray for speedy recovery of injured
and
for the people who couldnt make it
.
may their souls rest in peace
.
still a question reamins in mind "WHY"
agspins is offline  
Old 12th July 2006, 23:38   #78
Senior - BHPian
 
iraghava's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Bhaiyyaland
Posts: 8,033
Thanked: 263 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi
It took me 4 hours to get home last night. I was driving, hence inconvenienced, but quite safe. I chatted with some boys who were guiding traffic, ate a vada pav, was offered water (Ghar ka pani hai, uncle).
Smiled at an aunty who had filled up her aata making steel thali with Marie biscuits and offered me those and asked if I'd like some tea.
Some may think that the Spirit of Mumbai is crap, they're entitled to their opinion, i like Marie biscuits and tea.
My sympathies are with the injured and with the family and friends of those that didn't make it. Be strong, it was unexpected and for no fault of theirs.

Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
That's the spirit we are talking about Sam and I think that has been the shining light in these bleak times. Keep it up guys we have been through this before and we will pass with flying colours through this again.

Incidents like this cannot keep us down whether we are in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Srinagar or Jammu. We have to be strong and face these obstacles in our finest spirit.

And I salute the spirit of all mumbaikers who helped complete strangers and helped people in these times of grave crisis. May everyone one of us learn a lesson for them.
iraghava is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 10:30   #79
BANNED
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bombay
Posts: 628
Thanked: 6 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi
It took me 4 hours to get home last night. I was driving, hence inconvenienced, but quite safe. I chatted with some boys......no fault of theirs.

Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
Hmmm.. and ALL THIS from a city that was just voted the 'RUDEST CITY' by Readers Digest... I think NOT..
Spirit of Bombay's UNSTOPPABLE.. you reading me Mr Terrorist Chicken Gutless Motherless Fatherless ...............(fill in the blanks)!

Last edited by 2L8uLoose : 13th July 2006 at 10:32.
2L8uLoose is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 10:54   #80
BHPian
 
hkanitkar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: pune
Posts: 668
Thanked: 109 Times

No question about mumbai's spirit .. its a city that never sleeps .. and should never sleep - the government knows that and people living in mumbai know that.

@ bashing up the IB / Police dept. / Govt. --- had a talk with a person from Pune cops - he said just one thing -- " i wish we could tell all the people, how many times such plans have been caught and foiled by police.. "
hkanitkar is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:03   #81
Senior - BHPian
 
Technocrat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: GTA
Posts: 14,813
Thanked: 2,700 Times

Got this one in Mail today donno how genuine it is but felt worth sharing.

================================================== ========

“STUNNED” - Mumbai Mirror.
“7 BLASTS ROCK MUMBAI”- yahoo headlines.

Which editor wrote these lines? Which abysmal mother f@#ker had the guts to talk about my mother land, MY CITY being stunned!!! I was there. I was on the train, in the hospital and on the streets and I didn’t see Stunned. I saw Stunning…stunning acts of kindness. And nothing rocked Mumbai. No self respecting Mumbaikar can believe that. No. Its not ‘blasts rock Mumbai’ cause Mumbai rocked, man. She simply ROCKED.

Here is my story.

For those who came in late…I have started working in a tutoring firm at Andheri. So it’s the night shift for me since the students are based in the States. So there I was standing at Dadar station. Waiting for the Borivili fast. She came bang on time. After the normal physical exercise routine (in other cities they call this ‘boarding a train’…we Mumbaikars know better) I got in. The train started. Next stop Bandra…Lots of people got in…some tried to get out. After the usual round of expletives, shouting and ‘chod do na yaar…are maramari mat karo’(forget about it, man…don’t fight guys) the train started.

BOOM!

My first impression was that the over head wire that supplies current to the train’s engine had snapped. There had been a flash like a yellow light and then the lights went out. People started panicking. I don’t know why but at such times I have the tendency to restore calm….a very close friend had once called this habit…tere mein kida kam nahi hain..(can’t translate this one) Neways, I roared out that people should calm down. Miraculously, they did. Someone asked for the chain to be pulled but by then the motorman had pushed the breaks. I jumped out of the train like the rest of the commuters and saw that the first class compartment ahead of us had blown up.

I moved towards the compartment. People had already started pulling others out. Lots of guys had climbed the harbour line bridge that starts near Bandra station. Slowly, the injured started emerging. The first guy whose hand I held was merely stunned. Didn’t have any money left…wallet gone I think. I gave him twenty bucks and he went his way. As I turned towards the train, I saw a guy with lots of blood on his face…thankfully none of it was his. He had temporarily lost his sense of hearing. Walked with him a lil distance. Bandra station was a stones throw away from the blown-up compartment. He recovered soon and some one took him to the station. I turned and saw four guys carrying a fifth. The injuired man was alive but i think, his hand would have to be amputated. A big guy was holding the patient's right shoulder was shouting for some one to steady the man’s head which had no support. With nothing else to do, I stepped in.

We took him to Bhaba hospital, Bandra. While the journey up till the auto rickshaw was tough the journey till the hospital was an eye opener. Carrying a 90 kilo man over the railway tracks, then over a 2 foot incline near the tracks, then over a railing and through the jam caused by the numerous autos which were ferrying patients to the hospital was tough even when four of us were carrying him. We reached the main road outside the station and got into the auto. The big saand (strong-guy) who had earlier called me for help, literally dragged a fellow who had hired the auto out and we got ourselves in. The big guy was sitting with the auto driver and I along with two others was holding the injuired man on our laps.

Then the most beautiful thing happened. The guy to my right told the one to my left to start reciting verses from the Koran and to blow on the man’s head. I think it is some Muslim prayer. The big guy said,”Oh lord! Have Mercy on this man!”. A few minutes later that injured man who was half awake all this time started saying ‘shiv shiv shiv…om namah shivay …om namah shivay.”

When I think back about that moment I smile to myself. We six of us in that small auto heading towards the hospital had done it. We had defeated the terrorists. Who can say we were stunned…we won guys. We won. We defeated the terrorists’ plan by that simple act of helping a fellow INDIAN. We didn’t have to invade Pak or kill Muslims. We had won. Of course we could have lost if the 2 muslims had walked away from the man knowing that he was Hindu but they didn’t. They continued working with me at the hospital for nearly an hour transporting bodies to the morgue, taking patients to the upper floors and providing a lil water to the other impromptu volunteers. Going towards the office after all this was over, was probably the stupidest thing I ever did but that gave me the chance to see the City become one. Guys in designer tees, shorts etc. were flooding out of their houses with water bottles. The rick I used was stopped in 4 places…two places for others to get in ( the driver lied saying we were going to parel.) and at two others, hands full of Parle-G biscuits were thrust in so that we and the thousands of others like us who had been affected by the Western railway system being shut down could have something to eat. The over crowded buses were being given food and water at some signals with people throwing biscuit packets into the bus…even good old Bourbon biscuit…yummy

All in all a lot happened yesterday but my city didn’t budge. We have been hit before, we have been hit yesterday and we will continue to get attacked. The only thing to do is to come together. Together as One. For that is what the terrorists don’t want to see. They don’t realise that the more they attack us, the closer we become. We can’t let ourselves go down so we can’t give up.

You may think what I did was pretty heroic…it was may be…but I like so many others wouldn’t like to be called heroes. It feels very uncomfortable. If you want to give us a name just call us Mumbaikars. That name is
all-inclusive.

Ishan I. Bhole.
================================================== ========

Last edited by Technocrat : 13th July 2006 at 11:06.
Technocrat is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:06   #82
Senior - BHPian
 
Technocrat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: GTA
Posts: 14,813
Thanked: 2,700 Times

One more

Please visit the following link and light an e-candle for the Mumbai Victims. For every candle lit - CNN-IBN channel is giving 1 Rupee for the relief of the victims. Please send this to as many people as you know


http://clients.ibnlive.com/features/mumatt/index.php

MODS: Please feel free to remove if you feel these posts are inappropriate to put here
Technocrat is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:09   #83
Senior - BHPian
 
Surprise's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Chennai
Posts: 2,523
Thanked: 453 Times

Quote:
In TQM/QA (Total Quality Management/Quality Analysis) terms, if we say that 93 per cent of probable incidents are prevented and 7 per cent leads to real incidents, we can say intelligence has three-sigma quality accuracy
Quote:
The arrests of some terrorists in the recent past revealed that terrorists are recruiting people trained in engineering, science, medicine and management.A lot of technical and managerial knowledge is flowing in to the terror industry. It seems clear that at least the planning process is done by technical and managerial educated minds
Quote:
In this scenario, the risk is very high that IT infrastructure and IT assets may be targetted in the future. This is one of the softest targets today, which can create maximum damage
Entire article at rediff
http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/12goyal.htm.

Whats that they gain: They create communal riots, bring down the economy to its knees & lots other where they target: how do they benefit once they do all these.

Last edited by Surprise : 13th July 2006 at 11:15.
Surprise is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:10   #84
Team-BHP Support
 
Rtech's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Bombay
Posts: 5,770
Thanked: 359 Times

Its easy for us to say "the cops should have done something to prevent this". But HOW! We are a city of 19 million people officially. Unofficially, who knows!

Bombs can be hidden in anything, from toys, to small bags to the tiffin box that was used. Can you imagine the chaos if airport style security checks were put in place for the local trains? Then people would be complaining about how the police only cause trouble.

If a lunatic wants to blow something up, there is really nothing anyone can do. Its just too vast and over-populated a city. So stop pointing fingers at the Govt. and police. This is not the time for that.

However, one aspect I would love to see changed is the VVIP visits barely hours after the blasts. This is purely a photo/press opp for the politicians, and does nothing but hinder the rescue operations by taken essential manpower away from the accident sites and directing them towards following the VVIP's around while they pretend to care. Its high time a law was passed that prevents these media hungry politicians from arriving at an accident/incident/hospital site within 48 hours.
Rtech is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:14   #85
BANNED
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bombay
Posts: 628
Thanked: 6 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtech
However, one aspect I would love to see changed is the VVIP visits barely hours after the blasts. This is purely a photo/press opp for the politicians, and does nothing but hinder the rescue operations by taken essential manpower away from the accident sites and directing them towards following the VVIP's around while they pretend to care. Its high time a law was passed that prevents these media hungry politicians from arriving at an accident/incident/hospital site within 48 hours.
Yea like thats EVER gonna happen.. how are those SOB's supposed to show that 'they care about the common man blah blah blah...' which everyone knows is a whole load of BULLHICKEY but they still pander to those BLOODY VVIP's
2L8uLoose is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 11:54   #86
BANNED
 
khaadu75's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: same as the proposed venue for F1 ;-)
Posts: 1,156
Thanked: 16 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtech
Its easy for us to say "the cops should have done something to prevent this". But HOW! We are a city of 19 million people officially. Unofficially, who knows!

Bombs can be hidden in anything, from toys, to small bags to the tiffin box that was used. Can you imagine the chaos if airport style security checks were put in place for the local trains? Then people would be complaining about how the police only cause trouble.

If a lunatic wants to blow something up, there is really nothing anyone can do. Its just too vast and over-populated a city. So stop pointing fingers at the Govt. and police. This is not the time for that.

However, one aspect I would love to see changed is the VVIP visits barely hours after the blasts. This is purely a photo/press opp for the politicians, and does nothing but hinder the rescue operations by taken essential manpower away from the accident sites and directing them towards following the VVIP's around while they pretend to care. Its high time a law was passed that prevents these media hungry politicians from arriving at an accident/incident/hospital site within 48 hours.
rtech, Very well said .... !! You missed commenting on the Media here , I feel they are another big pain ......

Cheers
khaadu75 is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 12:46   #87
Senior - BHPian
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: pune
Posts: 2,106
Thanked: 75 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by khaadu75
rtech, Very well said .... !! You missed commenting on the Media here , I feel they are another big pain ......
Largely true about Media, but they do help in a few cases.

Almost all the channels were showing how people are helping each other instead of pointing fingers at Govt./politicians/any community as such.

No matter how controversial they were, string operations must have been at least a mental deterrent for a few corrupt folks.
RX135 is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 12:58   #88
BHPian
 
autozealot's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Mumbai
Posts: 204
Thanked: 12 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rtech
However,. Its high time a law was passed that prevents these media hungry politicians from arriving at an accident/incident/hospital site within 48 hours.

I strongly agree with you Rtech. In addition to diverting man power (police etc) the Mumbaikers had to face mutiple problems with transportation.
Roads are blocked for them and what not. Huh!

az
autozealot is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 13:09   #89
BANNED
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: India
Posts: 4,347
Thanked: 27 Times

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi
It took me 4 hours to get home last night. I was driving, hence inconvenienced, but quite safe. I chatted with some boys who were guiding traffic, ate a vada pav, was offered water (Ghar ka pani hai, uncle).
Smiled at an aunty who had filled up her aata making steel thali with Marie biscuits and offered me those and asked if I'd like some tea.
Some may think that the Spirit of Mumbai is crap, they're entitled to their opinion, i like Marie biscuits and tea.
My sympathies are with the injured and with the family and friends of those that didn't make it. Be strong, it was unexpected and for no fault of theirs.

Let's hope it doesn't happen again.
I am just stunned by what Sam said. AWwesome Man!!!!

If a city can be as helpful as that, then no terror can break them.
Simply great!

May the Almighty help us all!
speedzak is offline  
Old 13th July 2006, 13:25   #90
Senior - BHPian
 
BUSA's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Bombay
Posts: 5,130
Thanked: 20 Times

You should have seen how people were helping each other and sadly people call Mumbai rude.
BUSA is offline  
Closed Thread

Most Viewed
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Team-BHP.com
Proudly powered by E2E Networks