Most people know that Nimit blogs at huntersuniverse, however I just stumbled on another of Nimit's blog (which he started writing during the psenti sem) and had a gr8 time reading about the post which describes his first meetings with some of the people who became his close friends...
I am including some interesting portion of the post.
Purnoor
" There i spotted a tall lanky Sardar standing. To me seeing a sardar that time in BITS was like finding an oasis in a desert. So i tried to make small talk. I asked where was he from ? Instead of an answer i was asked a question in return ….. “Guess where?” . So I thought a sardar how tough can it be … Punjab… no … Delhi … No … Mumbai … No …. now i gave up. The answer was Kerela and I thought to myself … ” Ek sardar mila aur vo bhi illad”. Sometime into the conversation some asked me my room number, on replying AH4 364 …. the Sardar gave me a wierd look and after a second said ….” oye me in Ah4 363… we are neighbours” ….. And thats how I met Purnoor Singh Sodhi."
Boxer
" So one day Gill calls me up and asks me Vasco chalega. I reply “ok khaane chalta hu “. He was accompanied by an imposing figure. The kind of materials which bullies are made of. Some one you better be in good books of. He introduced himself ” Hi I am Shashank Tandon ” ” Or Boxer” said Gill. Later I came to know about this shrek. The guy just looks imposing he wouldn’t even have hurt an ant till now."
Maddy and Puneet
" One day a person comes to my room and asks ” Hey today is my birthday … will you come and dance” ( yea thats what he said!) So i went to the birthday party of a person whom i hardly knew. Later that room would be the room where some debates would happen which would go on till 4 in the morning … Room of Mohammed kheezer Hayat. In the same party i met a sleepy drousy fellow who i thought i definitely on weed – Puneet Gupta."
Vishrut
" Seeing a lamp light on opposite from my window and me cursing that guy for giving me a scare and after 2 months coming to know he was Vishrut. "
Rao
" I remeber hearing about an IIT ranker aamir khan look alike who used to solve every problem in thermo book , who in his first meeting lent me his LOTR and thus met Rao for the first time."
The credits for the post to one and only Nimit aka Nimmo.
Check out the entire post here. and the blog here.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
1 year thence
Most people vividly remember where they were on the night of Nov 26, 2008. Well as on most evenings, I was with friends @ Monginis chatting about nothing in particular. While coming back to my room, I got a call from home. Amidst the general chit-chat, Mom told me about random shootings in various parts of Mumbai. The media till that time thought it was some gang war.
But as we sat in front of the TV in the common room and watched in numb horror as the magnitude of the incident unfolded and news of the casualties started pouring in.
It has been a year now and not much seems to have changed.
Yes, we do have a NSG hub in 4 cities now, but there is still a finite time that the NSG will take to reach any other city from the nearest hub. What we need is the local police to be trained in counter terrorism action so that they can hold fort till the NSG reaches. Not like in Mumbai where police were caught on the wrong foot with not even enough weapons or even bullet proof jackets.
The capture of David Headley by the FBI clearly exposes the modulus operandi used by terrorists during most of the strikes. A US passport holder would never be considered a suspect by Indian authorities. Our president can be frisked while boarding a US airlines flight at Delhi Airport but...
And now the police is asking people who Headley had interacted with, asking them how they did not know that he was here to plan terror strikes. Well if the embassy officials and immigration people did not find anything wrong with Headley, why and how do they expect citizens would have guessed his ulterior motives.
The fake passport racket busted in Lucknow, UP raises questions of how terrorists could so easily bribe officials to get passports made in false names, without any police verifications (and the address provided were obviously incorrect too).
This is an unrelated issue, but everyone know how porous our border with Bangladesh and Nepal is. What I don't understand is that why can't we fence the entire like that in Jammu and Kashmir to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and terrorists with arms, ammunition and fake currency. From the Nepal border anybody can walk in or out without any checks. A person entering India doesn't even need to declare what he/she is carrying etc. This makes it very easy for them to bring in fake cash to India.
Anyways even 26/11 couldn't make Mumbaikars come out and vote. The reason for not voting was given as not much to choose from- BJP in disarray, MNS with thier "marathi manoos" agenda and the Congress which had handled 26/11 in such a manner. And RR Patil, the deputy chief minister at the time of 26/11 who was made to quit has been promoted to the post of home minister in the new cabinet of Maharashtra within a year of the incident. And now the Congress is talking about a Rs. 350 Crore monument of Sivaji in the middle of the sea to counter MNS's marathi trumpcard.
350 Crore in a state where farmers are committing suicide everyday and whose police force does not have bullet proof jackets and modern day weapons, is SHEER WASTAGE.
Most people know that our media is always in overdrive, making huge issues out of non issues. So when they witnessed 26/11, they just didn't know where to stop. And the senior officers of Army and Police seem to oblige them with information that was classified and should not have been disclosed. Some of this info could have seriously compromised the operation. Reported incidents include that of a politician hiding in Taj who was giving a telephonic interview which was being reported by most channels. It was seen by the terrorist handlers and informed to the terrorists who started moving in that direction. Also while the NSG team was being dropped on the roof of a house close to Nariman House was shown live on TV and the terrorists were ready for the NSG team and a soldier of the NSG was killed. But the media seems to have learnt its lessons and have decided that from next time on they would have a delay of a minimum half an hour showing such an operation on TV.
Our politicians are yet to learn the lessons. They are still trying to politicize the issue one year on. And though I feel BJP is correct in asking the government while 1 year after the incident most of the victims haven't been paid any compensation even when both the state and central government is a Congress coalition, why did the BJP have to wait for a year to raise this question (as the timing of the question is what the congress seems to be protesting).
After the incidents the home ministry started to reduce and remove security cover of politicians who did not have a threat to their life but had a large number of soldiers of the SPG (who have been trained in counter terrorism operations) simply as a show of strength. But politics on this issue stopped it prematurely. Some of the soldiers have gone been removed from security, but most of the politicians have resisted and we still have politicians who have 10-20 trained men protecting them, and some more for their families. But no body bothers about protecting the AAM AADMI.
Inspite of all these things, 26/11 did unite the general public as suddenly everyone realized that no one was safe- even the richest in a metropolitan city. And they have forced the government to pull up it socks and to punish those responsible and take steps to stop further acts. Hopefully the government will continue to act and not let the sacrifice of 173 innocent citizens go in vain.
But as we sat in front of the TV in the common room and watched in numb horror as the magnitude of the incident unfolded and news of the casualties started pouring in.
It has been a year now and not much seems to have changed.
Yes, we do have a NSG hub in 4 cities now, but there is still a finite time that the NSG will take to reach any other city from the nearest hub. What we need is the local police to be trained in counter terrorism action so that they can hold fort till the NSG reaches. Not like in Mumbai where police were caught on the wrong foot with not even enough weapons or even bullet proof jackets.
The capture of David Headley by the FBI clearly exposes the modulus operandi used by terrorists during most of the strikes. A US passport holder would never be considered a suspect by Indian authorities. Our president can be frisked while boarding a US airlines flight at Delhi Airport but...
And now the police is asking people who Headley had interacted with, asking them how they did not know that he was here to plan terror strikes. Well if the embassy officials and immigration people did not find anything wrong with Headley, why and how do they expect citizens would have guessed his ulterior motives.
The fake passport racket busted in Lucknow, UP raises questions of how terrorists could so easily bribe officials to get passports made in false names, without any police verifications (and the address provided were obviously incorrect too).
This is an unrelated issue, but everyone know how porous our border with Bangladesh and Nepal is. What I don't understand is that why can't we fence the entire like that in Jammu and Kashmir to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and terrorists with arms, ammunition and fake currency. From the Nepal border anybody can walk in or out without any checks. A person entering India doesn't even need to declare what he/she is carrying etc. This makes it very easy for them to bring in fake cash to India.
Anyways even 26/11 couldn't make Mumbaikars come out and vote. The reason for not voting was given as not much to choose from- BJP in disarray, MNS with thier "marathi manoos" agenda and the Congress which had handled 26/11 in such a manner. And RR Patil, the deputy chief minister at the time of 26/11 who was made to quit has been promoted to the post of home minister in the new cabinet of Maharashtra within a year of the incident. And now the Congress is talking about a Rs. 350 Crore monument of Sivaji in the middle of the sea to counter MNS's marathi trumpcard.
350 Crore in a state where farmers are committing suicide everyday and whose police force does not have bullet proof jackets and modern day weapons, is SHEER WASTAGE.
Most people know that our media is always in overdrive, making huge issues out of non issues. So when they witnessed 26/11, they just didn't know where to stop. And the senior officers of Army and Police seem to oblige them with information that was classified and should not have been disclosed. Some of this info could have seriously compromised the operation. Reported incidents include that of a politician hiding in Taj who was giving a telephonic interview which was being reported by most channels. It was seen by the terrorist handlers and informed to the terrorists who started moving in that direction. Also while the NSG team was being dropped on the roof of a house close to Nariman House was shown live on TV and the terrorists were ready for the NSG team and a soldier of the NSG was killed. But the media seems to have learnt its lessons and have decided that from next time on they would have a delay of a minimum half an hour showing such an operation on TV.
Our politicians are yet to learn the lessons. They are still trying to politicize the issue one year on. And though I feel BJP is correct in asking the government while 1 year after the incident most of the victims haven't been paid any compensation even when both the state and central government is a Congress coalition, why did the BJP have to wait for a year to raise this question (as the timing of the question is what the congress seems to be protesting).
After the incidents the home ministry started to reduce and remove security cover of politicians who did not have a threat to their life but had a large number of soldiers of the SPG (who have been trained in counter terrorism operations) simply as a show of strength. But politics on this issue stopped it prematurely. Some of the soldiers have gone been removed from security, but most of the politicians have resisted and we still have politicians who have 10-20 trained men protecting them, and some more for their families. But no body bothers about protecting the AAM AADMI.
Inspite of all these things, 26/11 did unite the general public as suddenly everyone realized that no one was safe- even the richest in a metropolitan city. And they have forced the government to pull up it socks and to punish those responsible and take steps to stop further acts. Hopefully the government will continue to act and not let the sacrifice of 173 innocent citizens go in vain.
Labels:
26/11,
inaction,
Politics,
terrorists
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