Wishing You All A Peaceful New Year

Its been over a month now

Most of the people have forgotten 26/11 and the Bombay incident

Both the Taj Hotel and The Oberoi Hotel have re-opened and people appear to have returned to their normal routines.

Ghajini has opened with much fanfair and two Cricket Tests have also been played that seem to have reduced the tension

Then there are the Holywood releases - The Forgotten Children of Afghanistan, Kashf-The Lifting of the Veil, What Would Jesus Do?, Freedom's Gate and Ones You Love

All seem to bring back memories !!

Ofcourse Christmas was merry and people are looking forward for 2009

But little do we know that during this one month there have been over 23 such incidents all over the world, with about 150 dead and over 400 injured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_2008

Tomorrow it could be in a place that we all know and again there would be Hemants and Unnikrishnans

It's become a disease - somehow, I fail to understand how they plan in fighting it - it is something so unpredictable

Whatever said and done, I hope their needs are also met and we treat them more like humans rather than isolating them - they are not the enemy, the system is, and they only happen to be a part of it.

Anyway, I hope it turns out to be a great 2009 for all of us with a lot less violence.

Wishing the best to all of you for a peaceful and fantastic 2009.




PS.... Hope Osho Rajneesh was still around - then we could use him as an envoy and send him to all such places - soon we will be having nudist camps all over with a lot less violence -

With all due apologies to the Osho, I just can't think of something else !

Stimulus Just doesnt have to Economic

The Terror attacks may have come to a stop and the painful process of rebuilding hearts, minds and the city of Mumbai begins.

Life will never be the same again even as details begin to emerge amidst a painful, eerie silence..

The internet and news media is rife with individual stories of heroism,matryrdom and tragedy of a complete proporations.Moshe turned 2 yesterday and his parents are no more.

Sabina Saikia Sehgal's children's life has been indelibly marked. Her violent death at the hands of the barbarians represents only a iota of the mortal wounds Mumbai and its people have suffered.

An onerous task lies of ahead of each of us who choose to rise up and sieze this ocassion to make a difference...

As Suketa Mehta says he is going to head out to Mumbai...grab a beer at Leopold's ,walk to the Taj lounge for Samosas and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro.

After all as he says, Stimulus just doest have to be economic.

Pakistan president warns India not to over-react

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday warned India against any "over-reaction" after the militant attacks in Mumbai and vowed the "strictest" action if Pakistani involvement was proved. "Whoever is responsible for the brutal and crude act against the Indian people and India are looking for reaction," Zardari said in an interview with Indian CNN-IBN television.

"We have to rise above them and make sure ourselves, yourself and world community guard against over-reaction," he said according to an interview transcript issued by the Press Trust of India.

The Indian government has blamed "elements in Pakistan" for the attack by Islamist militants against multiple targets in Mumbai that left nearly 200 people dead.

Zardari promised that he would take immediate and strong measures if proof was provided of Pakistani involvement.

"Let me assure you that if any evidence points to any individual or any group in this part of the world, I shall take the strictest of action in the light of this evidence and in front of the world," he said.

A number of Indian officials have suggested the militants were from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba -- notorious for a deadly assault on the Indian parliament in 2001 that pushed New Delhi and Islamabad to the edge of war.

The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Zardari argued that reducing the Mumbai attacks to an India-Pakistan problem was counter-productive.

"This is a world threat and all the more reason we have to stand up against this threat together," he said.

Source : Agence France-Presse

Mumbai Death Toll

It is believed that the Mumbai terror attack death toll could reach over 250 as there are bodies found piled up in rooms

The Telegraph reported:

Piles of bodies were found yesterday after commandos stormed the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the last of three buildings that terrorists had occupied in the city. Three terrorists were killed in the battle.

The end to four days of carnage came as tensions grew between India and Pakistan over the atrocity.

It is believed that just 10 highly-trained terrorists took part in the attack. Nine were killed and one suspect is under arrest.

British and Indian authorities were yesterday playing down reports that some of the attackers were British, although this had not been comprehensively ruled out.

...The official death toll stood last night at 195, but authorities acknowledge that scores of bodies have not been included in the total. At least 22 of the dead are not Indian nationals, including a Briton, five US citizens and six Israelis. At least 295 people have been injured. Of those, 23 are foreigners, including several Britons.

A final death toll will not emerge until the end of operations to ensure the hotel rooms and corridors are cleared of booby traps. However, S Jadhav, from Mumbai's disaster management unit, predicted the figure would approach 300.

More than 600 people escaped from the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the Oberoi-Trident hotel and Nariman House, which were held by the attackers.

Moshe Turns Two Today

VIDEO Footage of Mumbai victim with son

The BBC has obtained footage of one of the victims who was killed after gunmen stormed the Jewish centre in Mumbai.

Rabbi Holtzberg is seen with his young son Moshe, who was rescued from the building. Mark Sanders reports.

The above video was filmed a few weeks before Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka lost their lives.



Moshe has been orphaned as his parents Rabbi Holtzberg and wife Rivka were murdered by pious Muslims because they were Jews.

The Rabbi had managed to cover his dead wife with a tallit before he was shot. Then he and his fellow rabbis were found dead, clutching Torah books. Evidence indicates they had probably been killed early on in the episode and not during the commando attack.