My 26/11 nightmare

Everything was perfect and I am sure it was Mumbai. My cousin, riki and I were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We had taken a bite of almost all snakes available and tried all rides in the fair. My father is a banker but for some mystic reason he was in charge of organinsing this fair which was the largest ever in India. I did not quite try to figure out the mystery…. (How the hell would it matter when you had such fun to look forward to).

So, off we went making the most of this “opportunity”. It was a huge field, which somehow seemed to be an extension of the field in my school. The exit gate was towards the south of the field and on its left was a roller coaster where both of us were headed. We had the tickets and were standing in a queue to enjoy the ride. Waiting in the extra-long queue, we were quite near the exit gate. Riki, suddenly pointed towards a rectangular flying object. We thought it was an unusually designed plane while it started coming closer. Soon it started emitting a ray of coloured lights in different directions. A panoramic view indeed. The lights started disseminating like the splinters after a cracker burst. As the lights started moving down without being eroded by air friction, we saw that they were actually jets….or some kind of rocket. The rectangular flying reservoir was still producing lots and lots of jets. I had almost concluded it was an air show when one of them came much closer than expected and in that last moment when it was still approaching….the thought hit me. Before I could hold riki’s hand and run away, the jet hit the middle of the ground and blasted.

In an instant, half the fair tumbled down as if made of playing blocks. Moving, jumping, laughing people lay scattered on the ground as if someone just blew sleeping powder over them. They smiled lying there because the death did not give them time to think it over. The rest of them shrieked, and moaned. And I just stood there…terrified. Finally, it was riki who pulled me to run with her outside the gate nearby. Somehow again, my house was just outside the gate. We rushed in and found my father and my grandmother in a room. My father desperately trying to sound practical in such a moment of frantic outburst said something we almost already knew. He said that it was a “terrorist attack”. We knew it…but somehow, after being pronounced so distinctly, it brought a fresh sense of strange fear that I had never experienced earlier…it was the fear of death. The images of those scattered corpse, kept recurring making me sick in the gut and reminding constantly of the closeness of death.

The deafening silence in the room was more like a boulder than a balm for me. I excused myself and took riki along to look for my mom who was taking unusually long to come back from the other room. I went out in the drawing room and turned right to enter my mom’s room when I saw a man in black…

“papaa…”I somehow managed to shout out while both of us tried fruitlessly to hurt him.

He was a terrorist.

What followed was a three to one duel with a terrorist. My heart was definitely beating at triple its normal pace. I finally got hold of a heavy rod with which I tried to crush his face, making him bleed. Suddenly the sound of my rod changed becoming more rhythmic. Thump…thump….thuuuump…and I woke up and switched off the alarm.

I was wet with sweat and tears.

(I am a person greatly influenced by my surroundings. To be precise, ‘I am only human’. So, frankly I was more surprised when I did not have such an obscure dream earlier, more closer to the attack. Now that it has come, I am sure it was an after effect of 26/11)

Pheww…my first post.
It took me so long to post this first one because I had something in mind which I was simply UNABLE to put in black and white. (I wish I had Vasu’s dictionary of adjectives, as described b Vay, so I could express myself s beautifully). However, threatened, yesterday, by Vasu I thought I should just say it.
So, here it goes…

I ate and slept on my mommy tree,
All the while yearning to be so free.
I had so many legs but no wings to fly.
How much ever I ate, I didn’t become a butterfly.
I loved my tree, my shelter and support,
But I wanted to go beyond, from here to another fort.
Then one season I slept so deep
I woke up to see my wings in a heap.
Crumpled and crushed, they were all over me,
My legs disappeared, wonder where they could be…
Oh! It was divine, ecstasy limitless,
I was ready to fly, though my antenna was in a mess.

So, I took flight and glided through the air
Adieu dear tree. I moved ahead…unaware.
The world was huge, beautiful and unbelievable.
My pupils dilated…I was viewing a fairy tale, a fable
I soared all day and the sun began to sink,
I looked all around for some water to drink.
I was lost, no familiar sight in view,
Many thorny bushes, green trees were so few.
Crows everywhere captured the sky,
They didn’t let me go ahead, they didn’t let me fly.
Ugly insects waited on the trees
The cacophony of the forest made me freeze.

Then I saw colours-blue, red and lime,
Green, pink, purple, yellow, all in a rhyme.
Bright butterflies against the dark woods
So like me, they were magic to my mood.
Before I could know, I was their friend.
We played on the leaves and slid with their bend.

I was so lucky to find all of them-
I thank them each for being a precious gem.


This was for all the great friends I made in such a strange place for me. I hope we remain friends forever.
For Vasu, Vay, Ru, Sh and Pu
(I hope the short forms of your names are fine)