Sunday, September 10, 2006

Blast Mania and a Thank you

Its the blast time again. This time in Malegaon, in Nashik district in Maharashtra. Damn man, I don't know if there would be any end to the terror travail. It just springs up from just about nowhere. Everyone is caught napping. The whole situation is so hopeless.

I remember when the serial blasts happened in Mumbai couple of months back, it was just absolute panic. Fortunately I was on the other side of the town and thus escaped the blasts. Otherwise being a regular commuter in trains, I could very well have been one of the casualities. Things were so bad that I was not able to get in touch with any of my friends, relatives since the phone lines were completely jammed. Thankfully none of my friends and acquaintances got hurt.

My blog was completely inactive during that period. One of the reasons being, I was extremely caught up with work that I had no time for anything else. During those months, I rarely frequented even my own blog leave alone other regulars. I had almost forgotten what my blog looked like. Well, now the blogging bug has bit me again and I was going through the comment boxes of my previous posts when I chanced upon this message....

Anonymous said...

Hello Shobha,

I just wanted to let you know that someone in London( i do not know the name) was worried for you after the bombay blasts. They had given this link on mumbaihelp.blogspot.com and enquired if you were safe.Please contact them.

skk

When I read it, I was completely puzzled. Some of the UK bloggers whom I know of are Jag, Chakra and Dubukku. I immediately went to the site to check who might have wanted to get in touch with me. I surfed through some of the comments and found out that it was jag who was worried about me. I found this...



and this....



I remember Jag and Dubukku had left behind a comment on my blog inquiring if I am safe. I remember having responded in couple of days. However, I did not know that he had also made inquiries at the Mumbai help blog. {They have removed the comments on the blog wherein people have confirmed the whereabouts of their friends. However, I looked around for its cache and managed to grab a screenshot.} I would never have known that he had made inquiries had it not been for the stranger who left the above message.

To be frank,I am overwhelmed. I discovered this just a few days back. I did not know that there were people living miles away from where I live inquiring if I am safe. Though we have been around for just couple of years,my interaction with them is restricted to just comments on each other's blogs.Thanks Jag. Thanks Dubukku for making the effort. They needn't have done that, but they went ahead and did it nevertheless. It was really sweet of you guys to do that. You really made my day. I will never forget this gesture. I guess this is what Blogging has given me. So much goodwill, so much love and so many friends. Thank you.


P.S. While chatting with one of my colleagues, I wondered aloud about the exact motive of the blasts in Malegaon. He said, "Well if Lashkar E Taiba is caught involved as the popular perception goes, I guess they are trying to tell the world that they are secular terrorists, they kill people of all relegions." :|

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah!
Reminds me of a Munnabhai dialogue
"..dilse agar aawaj nikalti hai toh Chembur tak pahunchti hai.."
Blogging sometimes connects unseen people ,seperated by borders ,who share the same thoughts.

Terrorism knows no religion...you can say it's secular in a bullshitting way...bombs in trains din't see if those killed were a hindu or a muslim...thier only intent was to create chaos...which inshallah din't happen :)

PS:Security confirmation word below is petume :D

Jag said...

Hi Shobs, great to see you back in action! In my view, the strength of every community is defined by it's degree of connectedness and ability to look out for each other. Blogging community is no different. I remember when the London tube/bus bombings last year - I got lots of messages from fellow bloggers etc. One of them even phoned my workplace colleagues to check I was OK! (I was in Munich at the time.) Even though we all only "know" each other through occasional words on the computer screen!

By the way - your screenshots are fascinating! Like me - you are using Firefox, and you use Photoshop! Interested to see you have the tabs at the top - I have mine at the bottom!

Jag said...

By the way - what was your "predicament" ?

Shobha said...

Atlas: Petume? ROFLLLLLL...hehehehe :p :p :p

Jag: Wow, people called up at ur workplace? That's so sweet of them....I like Firefox and prefer it over IE anyday...Also, what predicament of mine do you wanna know?

Jag said...

I saw the word "predicament" in a toolbar at the top of your browser in one of your screenshots - perhaps it is a dictionary or search bar? Perhaps you were thinking of using the word in this blog posting?

Anonymous said...

Ohh...Ha ha..U seem to have observed everything about my screenshot ;) I was confirming the spelling of predicament, hehe :p

Shobha