July 11, 2006

July 11, 2006

When you write and read about terror attacks and deaths very often it probably makes you numb and insensitive. My fingers froze on the keyboard for a moment when that thought struck me as I went about calculating the number of Gujaratis dead in Tuesday`s blasts in Mumbai. The official list from Mumbai’s hospitals wasn’t matching with news trickling in from friends and relatives of victims, who rushed to Mumbai from Gujarat. In the hurry to complete the story on time, check and confirm the facts, I completely became unfeeling and insensate. That is, until I picked up the phone to talk to the victims` relatives.Many were besides themselves with grief; a family member or relative listed as injured was actually no more. A brother from Bhavnagar who rushed to Mumbai hoping to see his injured elder sibling was quietly directed to the morgue. Apparently, social workers and rescue personnel who called from victims` mobile phones to inform relatives could not bring themselves to deliver the bad news. They just said `serious` or `critical`.I called several mobile numbers listed alongside names of injured, hoping that the owner would answer. When a lady answered Haresh Shah`s mobile, the words stuck in my mouth. What to ask? Fortunately, Hareshbhai is recovering in a hospital but unable to speak or hear because his eardrums are still ringing after the sound of the explosion. But it was the voice of Harish Doshi`s daughter which brought me down with a thud to the reality of Tuesday night`s tragedy. She was broken and distraught and probably in a trauma after seeing her hospitalized father`s condition. With that came the realization that behind what were simple numbers to me, there were hundreds of people who were suffering, and, scared and frightened by the experience. It is easy to become insensitive and get down to body count. This is not the first time that terror attacks or mishaps have happened elsewhere and the bodies came to homes in Gujarat. When grenades were thrown on tourists in Srinagar in the last week of May, the body bags came to Surat. Eight pilgrims from Surendranagar died at the Gateway of India blast. A tourist bus overturns in Shimla and there is a pall of gloom in Vadodara. But the high number of victims from Gujarat in Tuesday`s blasts is unnerving. Like me there are so many who are left wondering if Gujaratis were part of the target.