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  Confessions of a concerned Indian. 

I remember getting up suddenly to my cell phone buzzing angrily at around midnight. I sleepily

 picked it up to see it was my friend. Before I could even say the customary hello he screamedexcitedly, “Go watch the news. The Taj is on fire!” That was enough to wake me up and run out

to the living room and switch on the television set. What I saw was what everyone else saw. Itwas the night of the 26 th of November 2008.

The siege lasted nearly for 62 hours and I do not exaggerate when I say that I nearly spent 30hours in front of the television screen. It was an unbelievably horrid feeling that I had in the pit

of my stomach-a mix of anger, fright and sadness. After around 4 days I was astonished to find

many of my classmates looking very happy and relaxed as if they had just come back from a

vacation. I did not expect anyone to be crying and grieving but atleast not be so indifferent. Hadyou walked in you would not have gotten an inkling about what had happened. It was then that I

realized that for them the 26 th November attacks(No need to call it 26/11 and ape the west)would be nothing but a couple of holidays.

The public reaction was apparently very explosive. We went attended peace marches, lit candles,

said a few prayers and said, “India will not be taken for granted.” A few ministers were sackedand fingers were raised. We entered 2009 and the number of people concerned about what had

happened on the 26th of November also decreased. At that time Mr. Kasab started asking for 

 biryani, Big B movies and what not. Till date more than 31 crores has been spent on taking care

of this guy. Why? He killed our people damn it. That money could have been used to feed themillions who die of hunger everyday or to buy arms and ammunition to protect ourselves but no.

Amir Ajmal Kasab continues to live. I was afraid that one day we would all forget and so I kept

reminding everyone how it was all our fault about whatever had happened that night. I didn’teven fall short of arguing with my parents. I didn’t even realize how quickly time flew. We

entered the biggest ironies that I have personally witnessed. We celebrated the first “anniversary”

of the 26th November attacks. Once again I visited all the spots where everything had happened.

In fact I and a couple of friends of mine traced the exact path that the terrorists took. We all wereaghast because every destination from Café Leopold was atleast a 20 minute walk. That is how

slow our police was and still is.

We all live in our cocoon of comfort that nothing will happen to his or her family. Till then none

of us will ever get up and act. I did not lose anyone in that massacre by God’s grace, but I lost

something which for me is even worse. I lost my pride. No longer can I tell anybody that mine is

the safest city in the country. Forget pride I fell scared to walk the streets. What really makes my blood boil is the fact that the terrorist is still alive and we are still floundering about wondering

what to do. No matter what anyone says the truth is that the terrorists have won.

We compare this attack to US’s 9/11. I wonder on what basis do they do that? The next day all

the Americans were together and united. Here we were ripped apart by divisive politics. A year 

later we still can’t fight terrorism. We can’t stop anyone from doing anything to us. Maybe there

was a time when India never waged war because we believed in peace. Today we don’t wage

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war or for that matter that we are unable to protect our boundaries because we don’t have

weapons to match our opponents’. 

Just remembering is not enough. I was there at the gateway on the 26th. I didn’t do anything but

remember and that is what everyone is doing unfortunately. Remembering. We need to work on

making our country strong as well. Or else it will keep happening and we will just be forced toREMEMBER....

In any other case I would have written Jai Hind to finish this article. Today is not that day.

Maybe 5 or even 10 years from now, we shall stand up and face the world together as a nationfree from its evils and proudly say JAI HIND!!!!