Wednesday, December 3, 2008

In retrospect.......Mumbai

Well, it was a prolonged sense of nervousness during the entire siege..Prior to this, all terror attacks, be it Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore or Mumbai had been so quick that before you realise what had happened it was all over.
I guess that made us callous as citizens, but not this time. This time sure was different. The wait seemed endless..We were miles apart, yet glued to the Television, checked with all our folks in Mumbai, concerned.... And then waited...& watched with a thousand questions raging inside..

Worried about the role of media,

If we could so easily know when the commandos cam, how they are entering the Nariman House etc, wouldn't it be so easy for information to be passed to the terror groups as well..

It sure is a two edged sword- when the ordeal was over, realised that the information was useful for many family members were checking the news and passing the info through SMSes to their loved ones trapped inside...
Yeah thats good, but the details given out?

As Shobha De rightly said on a channel that politicians are not needed here right now, so that the security needed remains focused to combat terror rather than bothering about politicians' safety...But then the media kept hounding the NSG chief. Yeah, that sure must have kept him on his toes but, would his time not be better utilised in strategising the situation rather than answering the media. The Media could be briefed later.

And then our own careless attitude

We saw a US based anchor ( Sarah Sidner) covering the news so psyched by the proximity of the media to the Taj..After a few minutes, she said it was dangerously close and she instructed the crew to move behind and use the zoom lens....
I was pretty surprised as she seemed so tensed and scared for her own life, while the local media, was standing right beside the rope, not bothered.
And for a second I thought "who asked her to cover this or be a reporter in the first place" .. But I had to eat my words, as there was a bystander and a journalist injured soon after.
And it was then that i realised that she was just not used to putting her life in danger for her job. She just refused to be careless.

And We, over time have become careless. so much so that it takes a bystander to be injured before we realise how close to danger we are...

We wait for the authorities to define beyond which point would be safe for us...Have we stopped thinking what is safe for us..

Shocked to see the US media showing a different border for Kashmir..


Was shocked to see the maps of India flashed across the US media showing Kashmir seperately...Wondered how they would react if Russia occupied part of Alaska and then alaska was not shown as a part of US

Surprised at the term Hindu extremists


this was before the identity of the group was established and the US media was speculating whether it could be the handiwork of Hindu extremists. There was once a time when I thought of Hindus being a pretty docile race, And this term surprised me. ..And I remembered Narendra Modi and realised how far we have come from the Gandhi ideology...Colour, nationality, religion, ethnicity, in how many ways is the world dividing itself.

Lack of sensitivity to victims & family members

I cried when Barkha Dutt asked the husband of Sabina Saikia what he was telling his kids about her (when he had no clue about her safety).. and there was a long pause at the other end; When they showed a father with a photograph of his two daughters wondering what has become...
And i could only think how insensitive we are for thrusting a camera & a microphone on someone who is waiting for information about their loved ones or thrust it on someone who has just narrowly missed death....who may be in a terrified state seeing all the remains of what not...?

But then, would we have been so vociferous about it, had the media not constantly driven down in our heads & hearts the situation - as is.
Would we have questioned the security provided to the government, while we - the aam janta run helter-skelter, had the media not presented the gory details - as is?

Sadly, I dont think so...

1 comment:

Indyeah said...

beautifully said....all the dilemnas ,all the questions one was grapppling with..you have penned them so beautifully...This was how I was feeling too....