Terror in Mumbai - What the world thinks

Even as the Mumbai continues its battle with the terrorists, the questions which should have been asked a long time back are being asked... India dreams of making Mumbai a financial hub of Asia but the present crisis only emphasizes that a lot is yet to be done... The brand Mumbai and brand India is being damaged...

Here's what Wall Street Journal thinks about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

India's perpetually squabbling leaders have failed to put national security above partisan politics. The country's antiterrorism effort is reactive and episodic rather than proactive and sustained. Its public discourse on Islam oscillates between crude, anti-Muslim bigotry and mindless sympathy for largely unjustified Muslim grievance-mongering. Its failure to either charm or cow its Islamist-friendly neighbors -- Pakistan and Bangladesh -- reveals a limited grasp of statecraft.

The full article can be read here...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122783260486063039.html

Terror in Mumbai

Yesterday night was a terrifying night for any Mumbaikar. A few unidentified terrorists attacked the city by resorting to indiscriminate firing and grenade attacks at different places. Even though the standoff between the security forces and terrorists still continues for more than 18 hours now, hundreds are feared dead and many more injured. This number is feared to be far more than what it is right now by the time the operation gets over.

At around 10:00 PM in the evening yesterday, the terrorists attacked The Leopold Cafe. Terrorists simultaneously opened fire with AK 47s at the iconic “Taj Mahal Intercontinental hotel” and “The Oberoi hotel”. Few more attacks were reported at “The Cama hospital” and “The CST railway station”. A bomb went off in a taxi in Vile Parle. This was followed by terrorists moving from places to places and firing indiscriminately at civilians and security forces. The terrorists held hostage a few guests at the hotels. Mumbai police and ATS retaliated to the attack but lost its important personnel in the process. The news reporters were relentlessly reporting the incidents of firing and portraying the general sentiment of fear which had gripped an otherwise energetic and fearless Mumbai. Telephone networks were jammed as people called their near and dear ones to ensure their safety. Blood, pain, fear and terror could be seen on the streets of Mumbai. As the things moved from bad to worse, the NSG and the paramilitary forces were called in to handle the situation. Kilos and kilos of RDX were recovered from different places. Live bombs diffused at a few places. It looked like a very well planned and coordinated attack on the financial capital of India. The world extended its support to India and vowed again to fight global terrorism with countless futile promises as Mumbai was still fighting the terrorist attacks. It was dawn and the standoff still continued. The people who escaped from the attacked hotels told that the terrorists were asking for people with US and British passports. The Taj Mahal hotel caught fire adding to the commotion. Several explosions were reported within the two hotels. Politicians condemned the attack and gave hour long interviews to the news channels. English cricket team cancelled its India tour midway citing security concerns. Businessmen demanded more security and a more conducive environment for businesses. Deccan Mujahidin owned up the responsibility for the act. Citizens grabbed their share of limelight on news media to report what happened. Mumbai was fighting terror all night as the world’s largest democracy watched. Mumbai was awake all night as the whole world watched.

Reasons for the attack?

Lot of theories will be cooked up and contemplated as to why Mumbai was attacked? I think it is not only Mumbai which is being targeted. It is the common man in the normal world being targeted. There have been several such attacks in different cities in India in the past few months. Mumbai, being a symbol of India’s strength is most obvious target. Mumbai has people from all over the India and in fact people from all over the world. An attack on Mumbai would be a symbolic attack on the peace and order in the whole world. Who were the attackers? The rift between the two worlds is pretty much obvious from what has been happening in the world since 9/11 in US. Every now and then we hear a new Mujahidin group popping up and carrying out different terrorist activities. Is there any solution to this? Resolution of long pending problems with neighbours and making efforts to close down the growing rift between the different countries in the Indian continent could be one possible solution.

Impact of these attacks?

Having stayed in Mumbai for 25 years of my life, I always thought that Mumbai is a very safe place. But this lifelong held belief is now being shattered. There have been sustained attacks in Mumbai from both internal as well as external factors. For the first time, Mumbai did not live up to its much celebrated spirit. The Mumbai was virtually brought to a halt by these attacks. These attacks will certainly damage brand Mumbai. Businesses will be moved. Venues of events will be shifted. Tourists will think twice before visiting Mumbai. I fear we are losing the ever accommodating, resilient Mumbai for past few years.

Will Mumbai bounce back?

Will such incidents affect the spirit of Mumbai? Time and again Mumbai has recovered from such terror attacks within days if not hours of the attack to get back to its original pace. Will Mumbai bounce back again? It sure will but I think this time, the attack has had an impact on people of Mumbai. At least I think that the so called land of opportunities is losing its sheen. May it be by being a target of external terror attacks or by being a target of internal friction. I strongly believe in Mumbai and would like to think that Mumbai will think its way out of the present crisis.

The Mechanic in me...

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I do not completely disagree I must say...
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Update: 21st Nov 2008
As pointed out by Chetan, the algorithm now classifies me as a 'Duty Fulfiller'... A couple of posts here and there and the algorithm has changed my personality in a day... Developers need to look a bit more into the consistency... The brain map hasn't changed though.... Now, analysis of my blog goes something like this
Update: 28th Nov 2008
It is 'The Mechanic' again... I think I for some unknown reason like 'The Mechanic' more than 'The Duty Fulfiller'. The brain activity map has changed a bit this time indicating that I have started using my brain a bit more since last week. Weird, immature but acceptable nonetheless.

Is it Marketing? Cajoling?? Or Begging???

I got this mail from ICICI Credit cards a couple of days back... I do not know who advises ICICI on marketing and promotion but I don't think this kind of promotion will help...

They say: ""We miss you and would love to see you using our card".
Does this mail connect to me or strike a chord? Hell No...
Will it serve its purpose with other consumers? I don't think so...
Would they still love me so much if I miss them (monthly dues)? No points for guessing
Am I overreacting? May be Yes but I hardly expected this from India's largest private sector bank

One last question: Did subprime happen because of such cajoling mails?

The Ironic Insanity of Modern Man

Second Life affair leads to real life divorce... Check out this Article in The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce

A real woman divorces her real husband for misdeeds in virtual world...

It is ironic that the more advacned we become technologically, the more insane we become. Foolish as it may sound to me, an average citizen in an emerging country like India, it is a fact and it is very much happening in reality... Gosh, God Help Western World...

Read Read... Till you are Dead...

Today, I received a couple of books from the college. While I was carrying the giants home, I realized that the 5 odd Kilograms of paper had around 1800 pages together. I have seven subjects in a trimester on an average. Now, simple mathematics tells me that I am expected to read around 6300 pages of textbooks this trimester. Please, note that this is only the textbook material and reference material suggested would be an equal amount of another 6300 odd pages. Add to these the daily ET and FT articles that the professors expect us students to read. Assuming the fact that I don’t read any of the reference material and I read about 3000 pages of blogs, newspaper articles, etc in a trimester, I am expected to manage about 9300 pages of reading.

As a normal B-school student, I can divide my work-day into following activities
Sleep – 6 hrs
Lectures and other classroom activities – 5 hrs
Other activities like competitions, projects, etc – 1 hr
News (Or should I say Bad News, etc) – 1hr
Eating, Travelling and other unavoidable daily activities – 2 hrs

This leaves me with about 9 hours in a day which I can solely dedicate to reading. Now with a speed of about 3 minutes a page, this will take me about 52 days to read the whole thing. Add to this the time that I should dedicate to internalise and contemplate on the matter and the figure crosses 2 months. I want the readers to appreciate the fallibility of the plan terms of tightness of the schedule here...

My term ends on 15th of December. This means that I have only 38 days left in this term. And unless I have a Time-turner like Hermione Granger has one in HP, I will not be able to complete the expected reading this trimester.

Conclusion:
Chetan (Class CR), please arrange for the books as early as possible in the next trimester so that I will be able to read the stuff... ;-)

Food for thought:
I wonder how Nidhi (Class Topper) manages to read it all in time ;-), faster reading speed may be...

Check your gender online...

Check out this simple script that tries to guess your gender based on the recent sites that you have visited. It works like this... If your surfing habits are skewed towards websites having more male/female visitor ratio, then your Male score increases and if otherwise, your Female score increases. Final verdict for me is that I am a male and so are my surfing habits...



You can check out your own gender at the following link ;-)
http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/using-your-browser-url-history-estimate-gender/