The 'Mumbai Spirit' - A Short Story - Part I

Part I

26^th Nov 2007

“Where are we going?”, I asked Abeer. We got engaged 7 months back, after seeing each other for 5 years. We were going to get married in another 20 days. “When can I open my blindfold?”  I asked him, fidgeting with the blindfold over my eyes”

“In some time. Just stop fidgeting and stay still”, he said, as he held my hand and led me somewhere.

“Why can’t you just tell me what my surprise is? Why all this? But what is my surprise, tell me no”, I said. It was our 5^th anniversary.

“If you’re going to keep on asking such irrelevant and redundant questions even after marriage, then I have some serious rethinking to do”

“How is asking what my surprise gift is on my anniversary an irrelevant question?”, I argued back

“Aaaarooohiii…the only way I can shut you up is this…..” he stopped, lifted me in his arms, kissed me on the lips and started walking again.

After a while, he stopped and put me down. Then it seemed like he was opening a door with some keys. He got me in. All this while I was wondering where on Earth he had got me in the name of our 5^th Anniversary celebration. He opened my blindfold and I after a couple of moments of disorientation, I realised we were in his living room standing by a table with a real big, fat candle which was lit in an otherwise completely dark room.

“This is your gift”, he said with the widest smile he could manage.

“A candle?”, I asked, perplexed, flustered and angry. I was blindfolded to be given a candle!

“No! This is your gift….” He said, taking my right hand in his and started walking around the table ahead of me. “I promise to always provide for you….”, he said, looking directly into my eyes. It was then when I realised what my actual surprise was!

“Your wish would be my command”, he said, taking a second round. When he saw my eyes sparkle, he added, “Only the reasonable and affordable ones!”

“I promise to be with you in sickness and in health”, he said, taking a third round

“I promise to always be faithful and loyal to you”, we took the fourth round

“I will always be supportive of you, in whatever you do” we took the fifth round

“I will be with you till death do us part”, we took the sixth round

“And when death comes, it will have to go through me to get to you” and with that we finished taking seven rounds of the table.

“No, death will have to go through me to get to you”,I said with tears in my eyes.

“Shut up. These were my vows, so my wish” he said. “Anyways, there’s more. I take you, Aarohi Sharma as my lawfully wedded wife. Do you take me as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“Obviously I do!!!!”, I shouted excitedly.

“Can the groom kiss the bride now?”

“We’re married now!!! You don’t need to ask for permission anymore”, I winked.

“Not that I used to ask for it earlier also, but still”, he said and we kissed for the first time as man and wife.

And that day, my love for him multiplied manifolds. I remember, after we got engaged when our parents sat down to finalise a date for our wedding, I wanted it to happen on 26^th Nov, which is our anniversary  day but we couldn’t find a decent place to get married as all of them were booked, so the fixed date was 16^th December. But, looking at my dejected face, Abeer had promised that we would get married on 26^th Nov and we did!! I had completely forgotten about it, but he hadn’t.

26^th Nov 2008

It was our first wedding anniversary (between us, we always maintained that we got married on the 26^th and not on the 16^th) and he was already an hour late. I was sitting alone at Wasabi at theTaj Mahal Palace playing with my phone and waiting for him to turn up before the waiters threw me out for not ordering. He came running towards the table where I was sitting, looking gorgeous in his white shirt worn over faded blue jeans. Men shouldn’t wear this combination…it isn’t easy to stay angry for long if you find the other person irresistibly hot! He bent over and kissed me on the forehead, hoping to placate me.

“Sorry baby”

“I don’t want to talk to you.”, I frowned. Well, faked it.

“I got late because I was hunting for this for you”, he said showing me a complete Twilight series in his hand. I wanted to smile really badly, but I controlled.

“I’m over Twilight”, I showed him some attitude

“Then, this will help you fall in love again”, he said handing me the book series.

“Fall in love with whom? Edward Cullen?”, I said teasingly.

“I know you’re a one-man woman…and I’m your man! That blood sucking vampire can wait”

“You should consider yourself to be a very lucky guy…. Your wife just can’t stay angry for long”, I said.

“That’s because of my pure genius sweetheart!”

“Whatever!”, I said, throwing my napkin at him.

“Yeah, I love you too”, he said with a smile on his face. I couldn’t hear him as some other crazy Punjabis were bursting a lot of noisy crackers to celebrate someone’s wedding. “I’ll just go to the loo and come”

“Abeeer”, I complained.

“2 minutes baby”, he came forward and kissed me before walking off.

The Punjus outside Wasabi were getting crazier and sound levels at which their crackers burst could actually deafen humans! Abeer came back soon as promised.

Soon after he settled in his chair, 2-3 men dressed in black, like commandoes entered Wasabi with their huge guns and started firing randomly.

“Abeeerrrr”, I shouted in terror, unable to process what was happening, unable to hear anything, totally confused.

 I stood up, wanting to run. Abeer sprang up the second he saw me stand and jumped on me across the table and we both fell on the floor. Everything happened so suddenly that I couldn’t comprehend what was happening. All I knew was Abeer was on top of me and his mouth was on mine. I understood that it was a signal for me to shut up and not start crying. Those commandoes were still firing randomly and I kept my eyes tightly shut lest they know Abeer and I were still alive. I kept on reciting prayers for Abeer and my safety. I had a barter deal with God… that if Abeer and I make it out of here safe, I wouldn’t ever read Twilight. That was a huge compromise.

For what seemed decades was only a couple of minutes when the firing stopped and there was a deafening silence that gripped Wasabi. A couple of minutes later, I could hear people cry. I still didn’t dare move. Abeer was on me, he didn’t move either, I thought that was a cue for me to stay still. He was rather heavy today. He isn’t so heavy when he’s on top of me while we’re making love. I couldn’t breathe because his weight was crushing my lungs and I kept my hands on his back, trying to shake hi, without talking, to signal him to take his weight off me. When I moved my hands over him, his back was all wet. I feared the worst and when I brought my hand to my face, I couldn’t breathe. And that wasn’t because of his weight…. It was because of his blood……

This can’t be true!!! It must have been someone else’s blood on his clothes. He can’t…. I couldn’t bring myself to say the word….even think of it….. he’s just 28 for God’s sake!  And we’ve been married only for a year! There’s so much more to life ahead of us….. I cupped his face in my hands and shook it. A stream of blood came out from his mouth onto mine and it was like someone dropped at 100kg stone on my chest.

After minutes of struggling to get out from under him, I finally found the strength to move out, sit upright and keep his head on my lap. The white shirt that he was wearing was everything but white now. Red was my favourite color, but not when his shirt was full of it……

I know he was just kidding with me for still liking Twilight and Edward at 25. And he knows how much blood freaks me. He’s just plain mean!

“Abeer, listen na baby”, I said, shaking him. “Open your eyes no baby. Abeer….”, I said, with tears rolling down my cheeks. “Abeer, sweetie, I promise I won’t read Twilight again. I won’t ever talk about Edward to you… I’ll not like him. I know you hate me liking him….I’m sorry baby…please open your eyes no….just tell me once more you love me. Abeer, I won’t ever get mad at you for getting late. Come whenever you want to…. I will not say anything. I will never pester you by asking you stupid questions….but please just talk to me once. Abeer….. you can’t go…..you can’t leave me alone…… What happened to the kids we were going to have. Ok, I won’t force you for a son…. I’ll name our child whatever you want… I won’t fight with you on it….but baby, please just once, talk to me na….open your eyes Abeer……”, I shook as I spoke to him. He was just not responding. He can’t be so upset with me for liking Edward.

“Abeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr open your eyes Abeer”

***

Part II Coming Soon.

There still is blood on the streets

If I hear/read/watch/write one more word about Terrorism, I'll surely need to be sent either to a Depression Healing Clinic or some Terrorism Rehab Center! I'll talk about Terroism later... not any more. I've even stopped reading papers and watching NEWS because the entire episode makes you melancholic. Obviously, it was really egregious what those bastards did, but then just being sad and remorseful of what happened isn't going to be enough. We gotta keep this anger alive. We can't let the fires of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for us go off so soon. Their sacrifices won't go in vain. Ok, so I'm doing exactly what I said I'd refrain from!

OK, in a way there's not much I feel like mentioning expect for terrorism. But I'll try.

Ever since I started blogging, I wanted my friends to blog as well. At least then would there be no 'Blog it you blogger' statements from them! Now, I'm really glad that Aanchal is blogging. Even if it means fighting!! Atleast there'll be one person less to maro that statement!! And yeah, there'll be more of Dhoni-Irfan wars in the comment sections of our blogs!!

Ok... where is this heading... what am I writing? Chuck, I'll write about terrorism.

Did you hear what that asshole of a State Home Minister(I don't even feeling like taking his name and spoiling my mood) said in a recent interview?? It was something like: Bade bade shehron main aise chote mote haadse hote rehte hain. In my life, I've never wished for any person to be dead,not even the cockroach who irritates me!! But, I seriously feel like saying that for R.R Patil. Mr. Patil... probably it was a 'chotta haadsa' to you as you weren't in there, you weren't in there as an NSG commando, woken up from your sleep to go and gun down terrorists with AK series of guns in the dark. Total darkness, mind you. You had a Z level security for yourself... you had 10 people to take bullets for you, but the people trapped/fighting at Taj and Oberoi didn't have that. Sometimes, I wonder, why these politicians need security. They're never attacked. It's we, the common people who're attcked, we're are dying. After, Rajiv Gandhi, I don't think any politician had been shot at.

In one of the reply to comments to my earlier post, I mentioned that I wouldn't have felt the way I am right now, had they attacked a hotel full of politicians and done a A Wednesday on them. If there are people like the Patils.... R.R and Shivraj... I'm sure I'll have people to second me on this. There's one more question that I want to ask Raj Thackeray.... TUMCHI Mumbai was hostage to terrorists for 3 days, where were you. The people who saved the city were all 'outsiders'. You didn't mind them? Why? They were 'uttar bhartiyas' and 'dakshin bhartiyas'... Don't you mind them taking all positions in NSG and not leaving anytihng for your 'marathi manoos'? I just loved what Ajay replied when I asked in anger, where the fuck Raj Thackeray was hiding! It's just too obscene for my blog!! Typical Ajay!!

Mumbai is angry. If you are not, watch the clipping of Maj. Unnikrishnan's mom talking to his dead body. TV has never made my eyes moist before. I could actually hear the song Lukka Chuppi being played in my head with Lata Mangeshkar and A.R.Rahman's spine chilling vocals... Prasoon Joshi's heart wrenching lyrics... damn... God, why didn't you just damn it??!! Please lets keep the fire ablaze and do something because these so-called leaders are as good as a Tamil newspaper to me. Or better, what RGV's visit to Taj was. Completely useless.

Democracy,my civics textbook defined it as, a government OF the people, FOR the people and BY the people. I see none of the three things. This govt. if definitely not FOR us. It's for themselves and the thing they love the most... their chair and the money and power that comes along with it. It's not BY us. I don't see how I can enter politics without having a 'godfather' in politics. India has a huge population. A billion! In school, we only learnt how it is a bane. But, it can be used as a boon. It is upto us how to do that. We're always short of personnel, they say. Are you freaking kidding me? One billion!! And you say you don't have people! Either you must be blind or I must be dyslexic. I remember when India needed people during Kargil, people joined the army by the dozens. Trust me, if I were physically strong (and tall!!), I'd have joined the army, or at least tried to. I know, India now needs people, and she'll have them. There is a peace rally on 3 Dec at the Gateway at 6.... please show solidarity to the cause.

1500 years ago, it was an Indian who taught the world to count. Aryabhatta. The father of medicine was Indian. Sushruta. It was an Indian who invented wireless communication. Jagdish Bose. 90% of world's computers run on chips made by an Indian. Vinod Dham. A man who fought a war without fighting was an Indian too. Mahatma Gandhi. Just imagine what a billion of us can do. Together. When we stand for what we believe in, we can change the world. Shakespeare said, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Isn't Mumbai scorned enough? Let us help Mumbai get back on its feet and not on crutches called MUMBAI SPIRIT. Let US stand up. Change we need and change we can, because change WE are.

And There Was Blood On The Streets....

*Disclaimer: Long post. Reader discretion advised.*

And there was blood on the streets.... yet again. Yet again, Mumbai bleeds. Yet again, politicians pass the blame, yet again innocent people lose their lives. Yet again. Yet again, there is gonna be an avalanche of blog posts being posted, numerous articles, TV shows, debates etc on terrorism, but then after a week, this night will remain in history books and statistics as yet another terror attack. We, the common people can make a difference.... by voicing our exasperation and choosing the next government that will do what US did post 9/11. I don't want Indian govt. to ruin another country, but nab and curb terrorists and terrorism. Or at least, just prosecute them quickly.

First when the news of some firing was reported, I assumed it was a gang war, as not much was known about it then. After 10 minutes, while I was talking on the phone, I heard a huge sound but dismissed it as someone shutting the door rather loudly. After some time, there was a news flash that a taxi exploded near the airport. It was a low intensity blast. Nobody had shut the door, it was a low intensity explosion that took place in Vile Parle East, which I heard clearly in West. I can only imagine what a high intensity blast would be like. Could see smoke of the blast from my terrace. The entire feeling of having heard a blast was ghoulish.

But then the what the city faced was above what I went through. Indiscriminate firings, bomb blasts, hostage situations.... urghhh. The terrorists targeted posh hotels in South Mumbai at peak business time, of course to maximise the intensity of their attack. Two terrorists opened blind fire at CST on anyone they set their sight upon. Very much like the Virginia Tech incident last year in USA. Before people could get a grip of what was happening, it was all over. Either they were dead, or some miracle happened and they remained alive. Similar kind attacks took place at Taj Hotel and Oberoi Hotel.

While I was watching the News, Arnab Goswami,Times Now, mentioned that one woman from Taj messaged them at Taj, there were no lights and the terrorists were indiscriminately shooting. We, sitting in our living rooms cannot even imagine that scene, of staring death right in its fate, actually not even being able to stare. Worse even for the people from the forces who're going in to fight terrorists.... fighting for people whom they don't know....and at the behest of people who don't care for anything besides their 'kursi'. RIP all the people who left for their heavenly abode.

Mumbai Mirror, the next day carried a picture of a terrorist who wreaked havoc at CST. He didn't look more than 20, wearing jeans and t-shirt, and looking from a very well-to-do family. Must be educated as well. Looking at this I was just marvelling at the convincing powers of these terrorists who can convince these young educated guys to renounce everything to kill themselves and others.

I know, I may sound uninformed, but I really don't get what jehad is for. I mean what are jehadis fighting for? Money, land, love, religion? Religion, I presume. I have no clue about what exactly is in Quran, but I'm sure that it doesn't preach killing others even to protect Itself. My friend said, they do this for "Aman", peace... peace?! You've gotta be kidding me! You don't cause cancer only because you want to cure it. But then in a way, they may be doing it for peace. If everyone's dead.... there'll be peace... isn't it? At least then, after that there won't be anyone who'd have to die again, only because of someone's fanaticism. Once again people will start hating Muslims. And Muslims will hate non-Muslims for generalizing them. And the hate game will continue and the main reason behind it will be forgotten. Why can't we just see terrorism as a human v/s human game? Why categorise people as Muslims, Hindus, Pakistanis, Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis, Indians, or Brits? They're all human beings at the end of the day who are suffering. I think this should be the bottomline regardless of the name on their passports. This point was very poignantly shown in A Wednesday, when Anupam Kher never asked Naseerudin Shah's name.

Morning papers mentioned Advani blaming the Government for being soft on terrorists.Raj Thackeray, again blamed 'outsiders' for everything. Can't these people for once stop snowballing every event into a political opportunity for one-up manship. Learn something from John McCain who accepted defeat so graciously and pledged to lend support to Obama resurrect US from the crisis it is in. I don't see this happening in India anytime soon. I hope and vehemently wish I'm proved wrong. I think, I'm beginning to be proven wrong, just saw on TV, Narendra Modi offering all kind of help without indulging in cheap politics. I really feel that BJP should've had him as their PM candidate.

Barkha Dutt very rightly said that the modus operandi of this attack belonged to the old school fidayeen attacks, seen rampantly in Jammu and Kashmir, where fidayeens use grenades and hold people hostages. Counter attacks go on for hours, eventually culminating in days and the building down in ashes. I don't want the entry point of Mumbai down in ashes. I just refuse to even think of this possibility. Hope we don't have to come to a time where the entrance to Mumbai is a dry, barren land marred by blood stains and remnants of weapons. Mumbai is the city that never sleeps..... yesterday, for the first time, She was scared to sleep.