A few precious lives have been lost and large scale destruction is still taking place in Bihar. Raj and his party have been successful in provoking hatred in the minds of people .It is really sad that he is successfully playing the game of divide and rule.
I would like to describe an incident that took place on 21st Oct 2008.
Raj had been arrested the previous night and there was large scale vandalism in many parts of Mumbai. My office ended at 5pm (as per schedule). I had recently seen Himesh Reshamiyya's KARZZZZ and badly wanted to watch the original. After office hours , snacks and surfing later,I sat to watch it on youtube. It was so well made and I wanted to complete the whole thing today. I was so engrossed in the movie that I did not notice I was the only left in my department.
It was around 10-.30 pm.
I left for home. It is 10 minutes walk from my block to the main gate(Yup,we have a huge campus). There was not anybody the way. Once I reached the gate,I had to cross 2 roads and then pass via a railway crossing. It is always dark in there and a Reliance employee was murdered the last week at the rail crossing.
Again,not a soul there. I gathered courage and crossed the huge rail crossing since there was not any auto or bus in the vicinity to take me home.
Once I was with the rail crossing ,it is another 3-4 minutes walk to the main road. And as expected, there was anybody on the way.
I expected to find a few people on the main road but alas, not a single one. The two restaurants I frequent were closed. And I was hungry .
Since there wasn't any vehicle,I decided to walk.It is 15 minutes from there
And I walked and walked...And then I passed through a bar- cum- restaurant. Normally,I would not goto such restaurants but today,was very hungry and all the regular ones were closed.
So I went in and got myself a table at the opposite corner of the door.
The place was,surprisingly,full of people...all in high spirits...
I kinda had some premonition that the place may be attacked and worse,I may be killed. And I thought it would be a shame if my body was found in a bar...People would say "Oh,he used to goto bars". So I messaged to two of my closest friends, Anwar(Thaslim) and Rahul that am in a bar for dinner since all the restaurants were closed.I hoped they would clear my name if something happened to me!!!!
But things went smoothly or so I thought. I ordered 'prawn masala' and '4 roti'. I was into my third roti when suddenly I heard loud noises( like bullets being fired).I immediately bent down my table.I saw the customers running towards the kitchen/toilet and I could see them totally frightened. 2 guys next to me were frozen but when they saw me bent down, they too did the same. The noise continued. Glasses were being shattered and the glass pieces were falling all over. I could see glasses falling on my chair (where I was perched moments earlier), on the table above( I felt it) and against my body. I immediately covered my eyes in case the pieces would fall into them.
As soon as the noise broke out,I did see the owner and security closing the main door. But still I was worried that the attackers may break in and pick us up. I dare not turn back, afraid those glasses may pierce my eyes but I could still see the terrified faces near the washroom. From their faces,I thought they were breaking in.
I was afraid,yes, but deep inside,I was not feeling that terrified,despite the fact that in the afternoon,2 people were killed in the violence. I am not known for being extremely intelligent or anything but I am really grateful to God for giving me the courage and act quickly and not panic.
Later i saw that the broken glass pieces did hurt some people, went into the eyes of a few.
I have been very lucky.
Anyway,the attack stopped after sometime and they left. I got up and sat on my chair. After dusting the glass pieces of my chair,I inspected my food.It was not touched. So i continued eating. But others were still at the washroom ,looking terrified..and some were hurt..Seeing all these,I lost my appetite.
But the prawn masala was too expensive (160 bucks),so finished all the prawns and asked the waiter to get the bill. Despite the situation,he was expecting a tip.So paid the bill and let him keep the change. I wanted to leave the restaurant. They wouldn't open the main door...finally,I was let out via a back door. Before stepping out,I did look around well and walked towards home. Another 10 minutes and eerie silence.
On the whole,I was quite lucky and shall be grateful for that.It is really sad such a non issue and a shrewd person's ambition resulted in the deaths of some people and destruction of so much property.
Our peaceful country has been caught in the web of hard line politicians who only preach divide and rule (region or religion) and terrorists in the last few years. We must all act before it is too late.
This is the time we should all stand together. We are human beings first..then Indians..then do we belong to a particular region....
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