The morning you wanted everything would be calmful but …
4.15AM Thursday Morning
I finally hit the bed after watching the news channels for over 6 hours in an attempt to keep up with the latest developments. Every loud explosive noise I heard was immediately being checked on TV to know where and what the attack was. Before I hit the bed, photos uploaded by Vinu on flickr confirmed that the loudest blast we heard was at the BP Petrol Pump, not more than a 500 meters away from our house.
7AM
A phone call by my colleague awakes me. He tells me the tension is not yet over and advises me to stay put and not make an adventurous attempt to reach office. I hang up and quickly switch on the TV only to see through very blurry eyes that the hostage situation is not yet over at Taj, Oberoi or Nariman House (Colaba). There is no end to the trouble which started at about 10PM last night. Early morning phone calls from relatives, friends and office colleagues start coming in to check how the night has been and also advise to STAY put at home.
I don’t expect the newspaper to come in on time thanks to a STOP PRESS that may have been issued after last night’s activities. And with Colaba Causeway under siege by police I doubted if the newspaper vendor will make it. But it does come in and times of india carries a pretty clear photo of the young terrorist at the CST station creating havoc last night.
Meanwhile news reports a curfew around that Colaba and areas around Gateway of India. So there is no scope to venture out and reach office. I send out twitter updates requesting daredevils not to venture out.
10AM
Tired and sleepy I doze off for a few hours.
12 noon
Awakened by yet another phone call from a friend to check the situation around home. I tell him all is peaceful but within 1 hour I hear yet some more noises – either from Oberoi or Taj – only new reports can confirm that. Before I sit for lunch I see some more smoke coming out from the dome of Taj.
It’s 2:30PM and now over 15 hours since the drama started … and the militants are yet to be knocked down at either of the 3 locations.
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