COURTESY: R B KISHORE
Dont miss to read Sri
KRamanans 1st hand experiences of 1993 Mumbai Bomb Blasts
Sri K.Ramanan's 1st
hand experience of 1993 Mumbai Blasts :So vivid, so telling, so
thrilling,so intimate, so sombre, so solemn,so touching,being 1st hand,filled
with human emotions, tears roll in our eyes too when we go thro line by line,an
inhuman, barbaric ,terrorist act ,100 s of lives dead, 1000s injured,families
destroyed,
Look at the pandemonium,
citizens helter skelter, air of shock, disbelief, uncertainty, a pall of gloom
& doom,how such monstrous acts are perpetrated againt Humanity with
clocklike precision.Brutal,quite unlike normal Human Nature
Read every line so
nicely portrayed,Also it gladdens our hearts that LIC Employees acted as
Samaritans, to sprinkle water on fading faces, offerred blood donation, so
timely.The hands that work are more glorious than the lips that pray
Read the last 2 paras of
Sri KRamanan,so poignant,so meaningful .Mauled & maimed,friends & relatives
lost,who will console them, what answer they will get, a tragedy of unknown
dimensions,
Only decisive
action,the 3 Judge SC B ench constituted by CJI, had Hon Dipak Mishra & Hon
Prafulla Pant who also incidentally happen to be the Hon Bench for our Twin
Benefit case of Civil Appeals coming up for hearing on 23 September 2015,acted
swiftly & ended the final legal processes dismissing Yakubs petition &
application. PLUS
See the shining
contrast of venerable,inspiring,patriot & nationalist dreaming of a
brighter ,shining India, our Motherland,embodiment of simple living & high
thinking,Peoples President, the scientist, the Rocket man being laid to rest at
Rameswaram,Sri APJAbdul Kalams birthplace today 30/7/2015 &
Yakub Memon,a Charterd
Accountant, most educated of the brothers, as KR points out, being hanged this
morning on time, a blood-thirsty,scheming gang of ultraroyal terrorists out to
disrupt peace,destroy valuable human lives, raze to the ground property &
infrastructure & do incalculable damages to society & nations.
All of u know Sri
KRamanan is the architect who designed, planned ,executed our AIRIEF WEBSITE
airiefvision.wordpress.com,stays at Coimbatore.He will continuously
enrich the get-up, beauty,utility, merger with permanent treasure-trove of rich
contents adorning & stream of news on kaleidoscopic items getting flashed
everyday with dedication.
Only few months
before, we have inserted his 1st hand personal experiences during the worst
NEPAL tragedy when he & his family had a brief sojourn & the story
& narration by him then too was gripping ,pointing out the courage &
confidence displayed at such critical, dangerous times with uncanny common
sense & sound public relations
R.B.KISHORE,VP,AIRIEF
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1st hand experiences
of MUMBAI Bomb blasts 1993 as narrated & depicted by
Sri K.RAMANAN
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The man
has regained consciousness and realizes he is in the middle of a busy Mumbai
road. Looking around he is shocked to see the mayhem; dozens of
mutilated human bodies strewn around. Looking down, his eyes notice his
blood soiled cloth and widen in disbelief. He tries to get up and does
not yet know why he is not able to. He could now see his legs are no more
attached to his torso, still tries to get up and stand, obviously his brain has
refused to acknowledge what his eyes conveyed.
Out of nowhere, another guy appears with a mug of water from a footpath stall, splashing water on the victim's face and pouring water down his throat. I recognise that Good Samaritan - an employee of ours - don't remember his name - but unmistakeably he is a Maharashtrian and a Shiv Sena activist. He was not alone - there were others - I could see more of our employees helping around. Some had been stopping taxis if necessary with some mild force and loading the passenger and requesting the taxi driver to take him to the nearby Bombay Hospital in Marine Drive. The hospitals by now are fully geared and ready to receive the victims of the Mumbai serial bomb blasts 1993.
Tears well up in my eyes as I write this. This is one scene that has been haunting me off and on for the last 22 years. What I have written is the first hand experience of what I had witnessed.
It was one normal working day in 1993. We were on our routine in office, after the lunch break a few minutes back.
A co-worker informed us after attending a call, there was a bomb blast in the BSE building about a Km away. In a city like Mumbai, misfortunes keep happening and nobody pays much attention unless one is a victim himself or the incident happens before his eyes.
In the next 30-45 minutes there were reports, confirmed by several sources, of blasts at different places in South Bombay and even as far as Juhu which is very near our staff quarters. Having realized something is terribly wrong every one was tense about family safety. Wanted to know if the kids are back home safe and also alert them not to go out. People did not have residential phones (remember the long waiting period under OYT). The few phones that some had were busy obviously.
Suddenly our Corporate Office building vibrated after a blasting sound. Some of the wall clocks fell on the floor shattering. Our minds were toying the options with the speed of a computer - whether to run down 5 floors through stairs or wait a few seconds to take a saner decision. An alert colleague, looking out of the window, observed people were rushing TO OUR BUILDING for shelter, so blasts must be at a neighboring building. I had a brief talk with my boss and told the employees they can leave office, even before the competent authority could formally take a decision.
Like others a few of us decided to go down to the streets and feel more safe. It was pandemonium, and public was rushing towards the Churchgate railway station, considered a safer and secure place and also to get out of the area quickly.
The blast was in the basement of AirIndia building, a prestigious landmark and a neighboring building. Just across a busy road from our Corporate office. Just facing the AirIndia building were a number of footpath eateries offering a lot of food options and just about an hour back we were there relishing the delicious dosas.
We were looking at the pieces of limbs and bodies in utter shock, disbelief, fear, worry. The scene looked like we are viewing some movie. It dawned on me a little late, that these are parts of scores of human beings, who were breathing literally, just a few minutes back, the same air that I was breathing now. I vomited. For weeks to come, I was to sleep only with the aid of pills, which even my wife and children were not to know.
As I reached the Churchgate, found a surprisingly a long long queue before the ticketing enclosure. People have season tickets in Bombay; they don’t buy tickets everyday. The queue was for donating blood in a quicky organised camp. I could see more about a dozen of my colleagues in the queue including some senior officers. Could see the silent anger in their faces. People were very angry against an unknown enemy. Donating blood in such a crisis was perhaps their way of showing revenge against the enemy, to show to the world that they would not panic. I joined the queue and donated blood – first and only time ever in my entire life
The local trains were heavily crowded and I decided to take a BEST bus – my routine everyday for my return journey. And that was a foolish decision – putting my family and friends in tension for hours..
When I reached home at 10.30 pm that day – I was the last person to arrive, having taken a city bus, which took more than 4 hours to reach, as the main roads were closed.. More than a hundred colleagues and their families were waiting anxiously at the main gate, worrying about my safety and checking with every bus conductor and driver for news. The bus terminal was across the road, and almost every staff of the bus terminal knew us by face. There was a big sigh of relief as I alighted from a bus and entered the gates. Lucky to have such caring friends.
There were 11 blasts across the city, but the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced there were 12 blasts by including fictitiously the name of a minority community dominated area, trying to mislead that it could be the handiwork of Tamil Tigers.
The blasts were masterminded by Dawood Ibrahim and executed by the Memon brothers. Memon Brothers were a respectable rich family in Mahim. And Yakub Memon was a Chartered Accountant, the most educated of the lot. After planning the blasts the key members of Memon left for Dubai days before the blast. And Yakub was the last to leave the country hours before the blast. The serial blasts took a toll of more than 350 fatalities and 1200 heavily injureds per official count.
Later, Yakub was caught accidentally in Kathmandu airport more than a year after. He was travelling to Karachi and the security found the bunch of keys in his briefcase looking like a handgun in the x –ray display. The brief case was inspected physically and Memon's Indian passport was found. As there was a red corner alert, he was detained and ultimately CBI took him in custody.
Yakub Memon was hanged today at 7 AM, on his 53rd birthday, in a Nagpur Jail, just an hour before, as I write this.
My inner heart is still restless and I hope it will get peace when Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim are given their one way ticket to hell.
And what happened to the victim who lost his legs and impacted me so much? Did he survive ? Did he have a wife and children? Parents whom he had to care for ? What happened to them? Are his children now grown up and settled in life ? I will never know. I can never forget His blood splashed face and that will continue to haunt me for life.
KR / 30 July 2015 / 8.00 AM
Sent from my iPhone6+ 64GB SG
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