Chaotic Crisis

In continuation to my last post - the Mumbai Attacks are still taking place - 39 hours and counting as of right now when I write this.

It's heart wrenching to watch the current news coverage - the fact is that neither the media nor the police force is able to give an exact indication of how many people are currently held hostage, how many people are just trapped inside the hotels and how many terrorists are actually within the two hotel properties ... The media has been continuously changing its figures over the past 24 hours and it really puts a damper to ones' spirits to know that the news we are getting - is not even up-to-date.

It frustrates me to see things like policemen preparing for a show-down in completely inadequate protective gear - let's be honest - they had NO protective gear ! A flimsy so-called bulletproof sleeveless jacket that flaps around with a helmet does not account for protective clothing. As per news updates - anyone with common sense (or perhaps it's just my own perception) can tell that the attacks to the senior police officials on the first night of the attacks were in fact targeted. The aim of a terrorist is to instill fear amongst society - and what better way to do that than by provoking a large scale attack such as that taking place in South Mumbai and by targeting the country's most embellished police officers ? The media spent a fair amount of time focusing on how there was stunned silence amongst the police forces on hearing of the loss of lives within the department. The country's senior most Encounter Specialist was killed within a few hours of the start of the attacks.

These officers died in the line of duty and they will be remembered - today, tomorrow, a week or a month from now .. but what about 3 or 6 months from now ? What about the families they leave behind ? How does the family feel knowing that had their husband / father / brother had 'better' protection - there just might have been a chance for them ? It breaks my heart to think of what those families must be going through.

The media has talked about the entry of terrorists into Mumbai via the sea route ... Considering that we are a city surrounded by water - you would think that the Marines or Navy Officers would have a better command and knowledge of those entering our shores. We can't blame them - they may not have the facilities to keep track of every entrant - but we can't help but wonder 'how' was it possible for unidentifiable vessels to enter the waters and reach the shoreline.

Vilasrao 'finally' reaches the Trident hotel ... where was he on Wednesday evening or even Thursday morning - why bother making an appearance on Friday morning ? Really he shouldn't have bothered and just made a TV appearance wherever he was.

I have barely slept more than 4-5 hours in the last 40 hours or so - my eyes have been glued to the TV ... my house is around the corner from the hotel - and it would be 'great' to actually know what is going on ... And it's absolutely mind blowing to watch the members of the general public just wander across to the sites of the attacks to 'watch out of curiousity' and basically just get in the way of the police and NSG that are trying to secure the area ! What is wrong with the public - are they just stupid enough to go and make themselves obvious targets to terrorists who are firing indiscrimanatorily !

Even more frustrating is the way information is being provided to the public - in little bits and bobs - that are hardly clear ! I watched the Taj Hotel - a hertitage structure - BURN for over 2 hours on Wed night before fire engines got around to putting out the fire ... and I watched this magnificent piece of architecture BURN AGAIN over and over - whilst our firemen made a feeble attempt to try to put the fire out ! Guys come on !!! Use your initiative and brain cells !!! Even I as a layman can see - that if there is a fire on the 4th floor window on the side of the hotel, and there is a partial wall between the two partitions of the hotel - instead of standing on the wall and trying to put the fire out - (which was a highly pathetic attempt since the water from the fire house was barely reaching the base of the window!!) - why not get on the fire engine, use the damn ladder that is there for such situations - take the ladder to a height and start dousing the fire out !!! I was soo distraught by this feeble attempt that I had to keep yelling at my TV screen for the fireman to point the hose 'UP' instead of at 'chest level' !!

The media keeps stating that the 'operations will be over in an hour' - they've been repeating this for over 15 hours now ... what progress has been made ? We had NO news updates until 4 a.m earlier this morning - I succumbed to sleep by that time and woke up early again to find out what the latest scenario is ! The information provided by the press is quite contradictory - on one hand as of yesterday almost all the terrorists were killed and hostages released ... this morning - there are still a 'few terrorists' in the Taj and Oberoi hotels with more hostages ! The press is telling the public that the terrorists have been eating dry fruits, carrying foreign currency (USD $) and credit cards ... give me a break !!! Of course they will have the bare essentials with them !!! Money, credit cards and some sort of food ... are we that clueless as a society not to realise that if a full blown attack is taking place - the attackers won't have some sort of food with them ? It's not like they will tell the chefs of the hotels under seige to go and cook them a meal !!

And on that note - how on earth did the terrorists get INTO the hotels with bags full of weapons ? Does that mean that they had checked-in to the hotels a few days prior and set those rooms up as control rooms ? The hotels don't exactly screen the luggage coming into the property - they just check the exteriors of cars and hand bags (hmmm maybe now they will think of tightening security measures) ...Could it be that the terrorists actually booked rooms and came in with such advanced weapons and camped out at the hotel before meeting their comrades ?

It's logical enough to assume that the reason we didn't get any news updates last night was due to the fact that perhaps (for a change) the media was laying a false trail in case the terrorists were 'watching the news' ... as much as it has been said that the TV's and telephones at the hotels are not working .. these guys must have an outside counter part - perhaps in the city - perhaps in another city or even another country - watching the news and giving the attackers updates. It's a fact - they have more ammunition and explosives than the NSG, Army and Police force could imagine them to have ! One of the NSG reps has just said that the terrorists had over 700 rounds of bullets with them including spares !! jeeeeeez !!

This situation is not just a crisis at hand - it is a chaotic crisis ! As a society, as a city and country we must learn to manage unforseeable crisises and have a contigency plan ready and on hand should we ever need. There was a gentleman on the news - with salt & pepper hair - who was very vocal about his thoughts and it was good to hear that - finally - somebody went on national and worldwide television and publicly stated our pros and cons ! We need to stand up in a united front instead of this divided culture the politicans pave out !

I could go on and on ... so will stop now ... until later .... but think about it !

A Close Encounter ...

Last night, Wed 26th Nov was like any other day ... I went to work as usual, left work slightly early for a change and actually made it home by 8 p.m .. Instead of staying home, my adhoc plans took me back towards work and to my cousin's place as she was flying out and I was gonna give her a lift to the airport .. Normal right ?

No such luck ... sometimes I really feel that only I manage to end up in some very unusual situations ! My mother rang me around 21:50 and told me to take my time coming home as there appeared to be some sort of commotion near my house and that if I wanted I should stay at my grandparents place .. I didn't take this too seriously - as you can imagine generally how paranoid moms can get ..

I ended up at Hard Rock cafe for dinner and noticed the news ... CHAOS .. the Taj Mahal Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel in South Mumbai were under attack by terrorists ! People were being held hostage and the police were rounding up the properties ... I was in shock .. my apartment is about 200 feet from the Taj Mahal Hotel .. my whole neighbourhood was under-seige and I had no way of getting near my own home !

Having spent the night at my cousins' place - I have been receiving messages all night just checking if I was okay ! I've been watching the news almost shell shocked (1) how did such an attack happen ? (2) weren't the intelligence officers intimated about the attack as would be typical of most terrorist attacks ? (3) how is it possible that sufficient ambulances, fire brigades and cops weren't at the scene of attacks earlier than they were ?

There are dozens of questions running through my mind ... My cousin and I watched the news unfold before us for about 5 hours and as members of the public - I'm sure other viewers were just as confused about what was going on ! The news channels have been updating the viewers about what is going on - however there isn't much information on the 'progress' reported or about 'how' the attacks actually took place ... I watched the magnificent structure of the Taj Mahal catch fire on the top floor after a series of small blasts and it took over 2 hours for the fire brigade to get there and control the fire ... What I fail to understand is why weren't the fire brigades called on-site when terrorist activites were discovered ? It's only common sense that the basics such as ambulances and fire engines be on-hand shoud they be necessary. How often do you hear of a terrorist attacks and 'no casulaties' ? Shobha De, a reknowed columist made a public statement on TV about how it took over 2-3 hours for fire brigades to reach the scene of attacks.

The Indian Army was called in to rope off the two prominent hotels that were under attack - with over a dozen hostages held at each hotel. Without disrespecting the news crew and media present on-site - shouldn't they be updating us more on what is going on at the scene instead of actually disclosing what the police, army and navy personnel are planning to do .. there were numerous times that a news anchor actually stopped reporters mid-sentence and asked them not to publicly announce what the plans were to control the situation at hand ... I'm surprised that the reporters hadn't thought of that - especially since we, the viewers were already informed that guests trapped in the hotel were communicating with those outside the hotel, were trying to get out, had been eye-witness to some of the shootings -but had no access to TV in their rooms - and the reporters weren't sure if the attackers had access to TV.

Frustrating as it sounds - even more so is the fact that the news channels are not giving any further updates on the 'email' that was sent to the media or to the police (not quite sure who it was sent to!). There were also unconfirmed statements made about how the Pune Police Department knew about the attacks 2 days prior to the actual attacks ! It's sad to know and hear about how unprepared the police officials and government is with regards to potential attacks that could take place. Whilst waching CNN now, there are statements made about how the Deccan Mujahideen (the group that has claimed to take responsibility for the attacks) made a public announcement to release all the mujahideens in order to release the hostages ... where the hell was this news last night ????

Despite security measures being taken over the last year that I have been in Mumbai - those measures are really a 'formality' and don't actually enforce anything. Seriously - how effeciently and effectively can 2 security guards at any entry gate of a hotel perform checks with the number of vehicles and people entering hotels and public spaces ? e.g. at most of the 5* hotels I visit, at the gate, there are 2 security guards - one who checks the front hood of the car and one who checks the underside of the car with those floor mirrors and the they check the boot of the car. NOT ONCE have I ever had any of these guys check the inside of my vehicle nor check the boot properly - what if I was carrying something on my person or in my hand bag ?

How does it make you feel knowing that you are entering a public property and there are half-hearted security measures in place especially after seeing what happened last night ?? It could have been you or me at the Taj or Oberoi hotel last night on a normal evening out. It appears that Mumbai is unable to react quickl enough to the attacks that have taken place over the years - there is no emergency or contingency plan in place ! Throughout the course of the night - there was not one reassuring voice or statement made on TV to calm the public down. Where were the people of authority to tell the people of Mumbai on how to proceed and to tell them what to do ? It was the common man and the quick thinking of the people at the hotels informing people on what to do and how to proceed.

The scary thing about the whole incident is that my younger brother was about 300 meters from my house and was walking back home when he heard or saw the first blast of gunfire and ended up taking shelter at my dads' brothers' place which also happens to be about two streets away from the Taj Hotel. My sister luckily was at my grandparents home - close by to where I have been all night. During the course of the night - it got worse for me as I kept discovering that some of my friends were in the vicinity - and had been trapped at the local bars and restaurants as they had been out ... I've been hearing from them but it's actually scary to know that your friends and people you know are caught dead center at the scene of the attacks ...

The news states that this is 9/11 taking place in Mumbai and it does appear to be that way. The locations of the attacks have been in prime areas - targeting a large number of tourists, HNI's, and corporate individuals. There have been about 200 fatalities and over 300 injured - the fatalities include some senior ranking members of the police force which indicates a targeted attack.

I just hope that the communication between the police and the media increases and we, the public are better informed about the situation at hand. My heartfelt wishes go out to all who have been involved in the attacks of last night and to those who may have lost a loved one.

Where Do The Hours Go ?

Here I am sitting in my office at 19:49 on a Friday night ... and instead of making plans for a 'date', I am in fact making plans to hang out with a girlfriend at her place. So why not just go out on a date is what you must be wondering ...

Maybe it's because people are just too tired on a Friday after 5 days of work ... in a city like Mumbai where I am currently based ... this would incorporate a total of anywhere between 55 - 70 hours of ones week.

A week of 7 days has 168 hours; the average person sleeps at least 7 hours a day which is 49 hours - therefore leaving 119 hours for a person to fit in his / her personal, professional and family life. In my 119 hours that I have to fit in the above ... my work keeps me anywhere between 8 - 10 hours in a day (during peak wedding season - I've done close to 20 hours a day for 10 days !!) .. so taking an average of 9 hours per day for 5 days which is 45 hours. I typically spend almost 10 hours in a 5 day working week just traveling back and forth between my home and my office.

So really I have only 64 hours during the whole week for myself which is about 2.67 days. In those 64 hours - I have to find time for my family, friends, and again being in a city like Mumbai - I need to keep extra hours just for traveling between destinations as the traffic and commute is absolutely ridiculous. Believe me when I tell you that it has taken me almost 45 mins to travel by car a mere distance of 5 kilometers ! Seriously I could have walked a whole lot faster !

Taking the above into consideration - I figure I spend about 3 hours per day of 'my time' of 64 hours in my car ... so that leaves me with only 58 hours to myself during the whole week !!!

Now when you think about it - 58 hours sounds like a hell of a lot of hours ...In essence that's about 8.28 hours per day 'free' in a 7 day week ... however I've noticed that those hours tend to space themselves at very awkward time slots therefore leaving one with very little choice of what they can actually utilize that so-called free time for !

Using myself as an example ... I typically start waking up around 7:30 - 8 a.m, and then sit down with my dad for a bit, watch the news, talk about the markets (I finally joined the stock market world this time last year) and then head over to chill with my mom, read the paper, have breakfast, shower and then head to work by about 10 a.m. That's 2 hours gone right there. Once at work - everyone takes about 30 mins or so to settle into the day .. and of course then comes the inevitable 'lunch hour' that we are all meant to have but don't always take full advantage off !

Technically and legally - we are meant to have 1 hour of lunch break during the course of a working day ... most days I eat lunch at the office with my colleagues in the 'cafeteria' but I don't sit there the whole hour ... it's mostly a quick sandwich or some fruit or salad - hence taking only about 15 minutes of my time ... oh I'm one of those people who inhale my food in and don't really do the whole 'chewing' etc lol I tend to spend the remainder of my lunch actually catching up with some personal emails | facebook | msn or g-chats | or personal phone calls with friends who are also on lunch ! Ever so often - my boss, colleague and I all go for lunch together - which would typically involve at least a 15-20 minute car ride, 10 minute waiting period, 30-45 minutes of eating, 10 minutes for the bill and another 20-25 minutes for the drive back to work - so all in all about 2 - 2.5 hours IF we go out to eat for lunch.

As one's work day progresses - taking into account that no meetings are scheduled that involve another car ride - around 5:30 - 6 p.m typically everyone will take a break to grab a coffee | tea | snack ... Indian mentality - 'chai lo fresh ho' ... A cup of tea freshens you up ! (I just find that I get sleepy but that's another story altogether). This would normally take up about 30 minutes and its also the time used for teams to just gather together and go over their day and provide feedback on whatever they are currently working on.

I typically finish work around 7 - 7:30 p.m BUT I wait around at work till about 8 or 8:30 p.m just to AVOID the heavy 'going home traffic' ... I have the following options (1) Leave at 7:30 and get stuck in 1 hour worth of traffic and eventually get home by about 8:30 - 8:45 p.m OR (2) Leave work after 8:15 p.m and get home within 30 minutes. I obviously choose the latter because then I have 1 hour to sit back at the office and either catch up with some of my day's work or just catch up on some reading, writing, phone calls etc. Since I've not yet gotten myself a blackberry (I'll be working 24/7 then !!) nor a 'net connect card' for my laptop - I can't really work on my laptop whilst in the car if it involves browsing the net ... another reason to stay back at work before heading home .. another 1 hour gone ...

When I eventually do get home .. I try to spend some time and have dinner with the parents and siblings till at least 10:30 p.m 'cos that's when my parents retire to their room for the night and watch their tv shows etc ... another 1.5 hours of my time ... therefore by 10:30 p.m on any evening I have already utilised 6 of my 8.28 hours of free time !!

Now I am left with 2.28 hours - so what do I do with that free time ? I live in South Mumbai - and any good friend of mine that I would want to hang out with lives within 8-11 km's from my house. So given this - I tend to step out of the house again around 11 p.m and hang out with a friend, go for a drive or just chit chat till about midnight or 1 a.m. at the latest and then head back home to get some sleep and prepare for the next day.

Mumbai isn't the kind of metropolitan city that has 24 hour cafes and lounges or hang out areas - even parks aren't open after 8 p.m which really leaves nothing for one to do later in the evening aside from hanging out at a coffee shop in a 5* hotel (and really after a while that gets boring AND pinches the pocket) because those are the only coffee shops 'open' late in the evening. Gyms close by 10 - 10:30 p.m - there is one that's open 24 hours but that's in Bandra which is about 18 kms from my place ... a good 30 minute drive in the evening still !! Maybe that's why I'm not going to the gym - can't seem to find one that fits into my schedule and price bracket !!

Whilst talking to my cousin yesterday - we concluded that I spend most of my 'free hours' in my damn car !!

So now that I know where my hours go ... I just need to figure out how to go about finding more time to actually do the things I want to do !!!

Festival of Lights …or Endangering the Environment

"Deepawali" (also transliterated as "deepaawaLi") literally means a row of lamps (Sanskrit "deepa" = lamp and "aawaLi" = row, line). In due course, the popular name has shortened to Diwali, especially in northern India. While Deepavali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", a more appropriate significance is "the new year of luck and wealth" and it is celebrated with a variety of fireworks.

During the week prior and post Diwali, the city is full of lights … star lights lining the trees and buildings; and if you look towards the heavens, the dark skies are lit up with various colours – courtesy of the fireworks. Some of them are really truly quite spectacular and a visual treat for those who have never really experienced this before.

Having moved to India last year – I didn't quite experience 'Diwali' – so this year – I wanted to see what the big deal was and why everyone was so into it. Don't get me wrong – the concept and idea behind the festival and celebration is great (there's a lot history on this – so you might want to Google it or hit Wikipedia) but for the life of me – I couldn't and still can't understand why we would need to celebrate with such environmental harmful elements !!! and for a prolonged period of almost 2 weeks. I can get that for the first 3-4 days of the festival – people are celebrating … but after that … why use fireworks ??

It's bad enough that a city such as Mumbai is already heavily polluted and over populated. The city for me became almost unbearable during the week of Diwali due to the sheer nonsense I kept experiencing when out and about. Of course I admired the fireworks and also oohed & aahed at some of them … but really most of the time I just kept jumping in my car seat every time I heard an explosion !! This is NOT a good thing when one is actually sitting behind the wheel of a car !!! There were a few times when I got quite jumpy after seeing an explosion of light barely 2 feet away from me (and I almost hit the car in front of me) !!

As beautiful and in keeping with the spirit of the festival the fireworks are – I really don't see much sense in the excessive use of them. I noticed this more-so after taking a few videos of the firework displays on one of the main streets overlooking the water – known as Marine Drive. The after effects of fireworks are enough to give one reason to visit the doctors for a lung check-up !! There's just so much smoke everywhere and the fumes as well, not to mention the mess people leave behind on the streets or pathways where they play with the fireworks. Have a look at the video I took on Diwali day, it shows some really pretty displays but if you pay close attention you see all the smoke drifting across the skies :(

If that's not bad enough – the other day I was sitting with a friend on Marine Drive and we saw this family pull out of the car – Father, Mother, Grandma, and two twin girls – probably no more than 5 years old .. sweet right ? nice family outing … then I saw the huge bin bag the father was carrying and proceeding to empty out onto the 'seats' made along the divider. It was just left me a bit gob-smacked that here comes a family with a bag full of fireworks (even though festivities stopped last week!) and were just going to sit around and entertain their children with this. So I began to wonder – why couldn't they have done that within their own building / house with the rest of the people in the city. To be fair – I even thought that perhaps the kids were sick the previous week and perhaps that's why it was small private show for them.

Now to the amusing part of it all … the father and mother went about lighting sparklers, small rockets, and twisters on the ground whilst the twins … they just showed No Interest whatsoever in what their parents were doing. The grandma was just sitting there trying to engage one of the twins to at least hold the sparkler in her hand and twirl it around ! I only got around to capturing the below on video about 15-20 minutes AFTER they'd arrived so it may not have the impact I want it to have .. but it's well worth watching (and hearing my commentary if I say so myself heheh)

The point I guess that I'm trying to make is that - the fireworks look great for a few minutes but have we ever really given a thought to the consequences our natural environment faces after those few minutes ? In the above example - was it really necessary for the parents to continue lighting up fireworks for almost 45 minutes when their children were not really quite 'into it' ?

Fireworks take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials such as confetti. Fireworks produce smoke and dust that may contain residues of heavy metals, sulfur-coal compounds and some low concentration toxic chemicals. These by-products of fireworks combustion will vary depending on the mix of ingredients of a particular firework. (check google for more info).

There are various concerns about the effects of fireworks - but hey - who pays attention to them when used for a celebration right !!

Pollutants from fireworks raise concerns because of potential health risks associated with hazardous by-products. People suffering from asthama or multiple chemical sensitivity the smoke from fireworks may aggravate existing health problems. Environmental pollution is also a concern because heavy metals and other chemicals from fireworks may contaminate water supplies and because fireworks combustion gases might contribute to such things as acid rain which can cause vegetation and even property damage.

The most obvious and undisputed fact is that fireworks leave behind a considerable amount of solid debris, including both readily biodegradable components as well as non degradable plastic items. Concerns over pollution, consumer safety, and debris have restricted the sale and use of consumer fireworks in many countries. However it doesn't appear to be a restriction placed on the Indian consumers within India :(