What's going on? #5

I apologise for not having updated my blog in about two weeks. The last time you heard from me here, I was giving my own, unconventional brand of Thanksgiving. I wrote that post late Wednesday night, not realising the drama that was occuring at that very hour in Mumbai. I also didn't realise what was going to happen over the next three days in Chennai.

As most of you will have heard, read or seen at the time (unless you were incredibly engrossed in Thanksgiving turkey), a co-ordinated series of terrorist attacks took place in Mumbai between the 26th and 29th of November, 2008. Approximately 200 people (including nine of the ten terrorists) were killed, and many more injured.

While the nation (and possibly much of the world) watched with horror, one Indian city did not react with quite as much outrage. We in Chennai, and the areas to the south, had immediate issues of our own with Cyclonic Storm Nisha, which dumped record amounts of rainfall in a four day period. We had flooded streets, power outages and a general disruption of life in general. 204 deaths in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka have been attributed to Nisha.

Happy Thanksgiving to us, I guess.

Now, two weeks on, life has returned almost to normal. The waters have receded; the roads are bad, but not as bad as I expected; there has been no appreciable increase in mosquito levels in my neighbourhood.

We have survived...and we will probably forget.

A friend asked me if there has been any great change in people's attitudes to one another in the wake of the terrorism (dubbed by some as "India's 9/11"), much like the US experienced in 2001. It's unlikely. For one thing, acts of terrorism are not new in some parts of India. Mumbaikars have experience this sort of thing on a regular basis since 1993. For another, there is no one single terrorist entity operating in India. While these attacks are being attributed to elements in Pakistan (like almost all of them are at first), some of them, like the 2006 Malegaon blasts, are perpetrated from disaffected domestic groups (similar to the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995).

Most of all, however, I think it's just impossible for cities of 12-20 million people to stop and mourn together for more than a few moments. There are too many hungry mouths to feed.

In July, I posted a summary of terrorist activity in India since 1993. Here is an update to that list:

• September 13, 2008 5 bomb blasts in Delhi markets, 21 killed, 110 injured

• September 27, 2008 2 bomb blasts in Delhi's Mehrauli flower market, 3 dead, 17 injured
• September 29, 2008 Maharashtra and Gujarat bomb blasts, 10 dead, 80 injured
• September 29, 2008 Bike blasts in Malegaon, 7 killed
• October 1, 2008 Agartala bombing, 4 killed, 100 injured
• October 21, 2008 Imphal bomb blast, 17 killed, 40 injured
• October 30, 2008 Assam bomb blast, 77 killed, 300 injured
• November 26, 2008 Coordinated attack in Mumbai, approximately 200 killed, 239 injured

I apologise for such a sobering post to start off the Christmas season, a season of peace and goodwill, but I felt it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge these significant events. I'll try to be more uplifting (and silly) in my future posts.

What's going on? #3

I returned this morning after a great two days in Ooty (more details soon).

While I was gone, Dad caught a mild fever, and he was in bed when I came home. He was reading the paper, and I said hello and went to check my e-mail and the sports news.

This is what greeted me: in England Liverpool 2 Man Utd 1, and in American College football, Georgia 14 South Carolina 7, BYU 59 UCLA 0, Oregon 32 Purdue 26, Notre Dame 35 Michigan 17.

A clean sweep by my teams. I was thinking of putting in for long-term accommodation on Cloud 9.

Then I went back to my parents' bedroom for something and only then saw the front page of the newspaper: 20 killed in 5 bomb explosions in New Delhi.

I came back to earth with a pretty resounding thump.

What's going on?#2

Today, 17 bombs exploded in a 70 minute span in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, killing at least 29 people and leaving over 100 injured. Yesterday, 9 bombs exploded in a little over an hour in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, killing at least 2 people and leaving 20 injured. This is a summary of terrorist activity in India since 1993, taken from a list on Wikipedia.

• March 12, 1993 - Bombay bombings, 257 deaths.
• February 14, 1998 - Coimbatore bombings, 46 deaths.
• October 1, 2001 - Militants attack Jammu-Kashmir assembly complex, killing about 35.
• December 13, 2001 - Attack on the parliament complex in New Delhi, 7 deaths.
• September 24, 2002 - Militants attack the Akshardham temple in Gujarat, killing 31.
• May 14, 2003 - Militants attack an army camp near Jammu, killing more than 30, including women and children.
• August 25, 2003 - Simultaneous car bombs in Mumbai kill about 52.
• August 15, 2004 - Bomb explodes in Assam, killing 16 people, mostly school children.
• July 5, 2005 - Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya. One pilgrim was killed. Later, all five terrorists were killed in a gunfight with armed soldiers.
• October 29, 2005 - Three powerful serial blasts in New Delhi at different places. About 70 people died in this incident.
• March 7, 2006 - At least 21 people killed in three synchronized attacks in Varanasi.
• July 11, 2006 - At least 200 people killed in a series of 7 train bombing during the evening rush hour near Mumbai.
• September 8, 2006 - at least 37 people killed and 125 injured in a series of bomb blasts in the vicinity of a mosque in Malegaon, Maharashtra
• May 18, 2007 - at least 13 people were killed, including 4 killed by the Indian police in the rioting that followed, in the bombing at Mecca Masjid, Hyderabad that took place during the Friday prayers.
• August 25, 2007 - at least 42 people were killed in two blasts in Hyderabad's Lumbini park and a restaurant. The police reportedly managed to find and defuse another bomb in the same area.
• May 13, 2008 - at least 63 were killed in 9 bomb blasts along 6 areas in Jaipur.
• July 25, 2008 - at least 2 were killed and 20 injured in 8 low intensity bomb blasts in Bangalore.
• July 26, 2008 - at least 15 were killed and 70 injured in 18 serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad.

There is no political or social commentary that I wish to make. I have not been affected personally by any of these attacks, and neither has anybody else that I know. I'm just sad and bewildered for my country.