Sad state of affairs :(

Yes!!! The most pressing issue of the hour. The mumbai bomb blasts :(. Like to highlight different aspects of the incident.

Foremost about the infrastructure of Mumbai to handle situations. One of the things noticed during the repeated videos of the scene is that much of the rescue - to quickly bring people to safety, was done by the local people. I wouldn't wanna blindly blame the police and allied services for not being present, but their absence was lucid and felt grossly. Were they waiting till all the blasts were over and the dust settled? Much of the rescue had been done by the people (porters, nearby dwellers, taxi's n henceforth) themselves before these people could pitch in. Is *this* the effectivity of the system we have to rescue our people?

Common people were scuffling for survivors amongst severed hand's, leg's and other body parts. These were the true heros of the day.

It felt ridiculous to know that the telephone (mobile incl.) network in almost entire mumbai was in shambles. Am not very comfortable to call this a coincidence, so am having questions of whether Indian cities can be brought down this way in a snap. Are we so blatantly vulnerable to electronic warfare?

And then of course the reporters. Off-late with a proliferation of yellow-journalism, I'v developed a hatred for these news channels (so beware if am being biased). As much as these channels are helping out, they are probably adding more to the chaos. Each channel have their own helplines service where people can report their whereabouts. Now with about 3/4 new sprawling channels where do you expect the eager onlookers to hunt for their loved ones? Government doesn't even seem to be in the picture?

Why don't these people orchestrate with the government to bring a unified service for people? Is all that they care about boosting their numbers?

And just to cover an all night story on the indident, they ask the most insipid questions. One for the home minister - "Did the government / intelligence know about the possibility of these attacks and was any measures taken" X-(. If they ever did and didn't act, would they go public about it. And then this female who has become the limelight of the news world asks here reporter to arbitly put a man from the street live (maybe she ran out of ideas). The old man hardly knew about the incident and didn't add any value.

Added to the fire, one absolutely smart reporter gives advice to people - "Don't rush to the train stations in search of your loved ones, instead go to the hospitals". Considering the number of commuters who by train to work, guess the hospitals shouldn't have any problems accomodating them *sigh*. There is as much worse things about these new channels as much as they are good.

Government needs to be lauded of all parties. People are mighty tired of these bureaucratic statements - "I solemnly condemn ... India will do all it takes to fight terrorism". If you didn't, then you have no right to hold your position in the office you do so give us a break will ya? Wondering if these politicians are nothing more than puppets who read out whats handed to them. It was the firing at academician at the Indian Institute, Bangalore and now this. Considering the populous of the country I do see the difficulty in enforcing security.

The worse part was that the railways was urging people in other parts of the city to continue using the train system. But when questioned as to whether security measures have been made on the other trains in operation - no answer, utterly shameful. How do they expect people to catch the next train, when no such security measure is promised especially at the onset of such an incident. Just to ensure that the traffic jam problem is resolved. Simple brilliant!!! I do know the value of life down here, but such wretchlessness is inadmissible.

Such incidents are bound to happen. The more secure a lock you device, that much more means the thief has to break it. The game just gets better and better. Guess its been evident from incidents in recent past that no country is all too safe. Its a question of how quickly you find the leak, fix it or at the least give the masses a cogent explanation to all. It about how quickly one can recover from an injury.

As always Mumbai will be back on it feet tomorrow making money for India, all thanks to the spirit of its people.

Reminds me of some of the tracks by A.R.R. The mumbai theme from the movie 'Bombay' (which talsk about the incidents at the onset of similar blasts in 1993), and Bombay Awakes / Sleeps from his musical theatre stuff.