11 July, 2006, started off as a normal day for me. I was on the morning assignment shift and had reached office at 8 am. Though I have worked on such shifts many times before, but for some strange reason I decided to go home by 5 pm that day. Usually, I leave after 7 pm. But I reached lower parel station and boarded the 6.04 pm slow local to borivali not knowing that my day had not ended but just begun.
The train was as usual crowded and packed. I boarded the 2nd class compartment right in the front. As usual there was no place to sit and was standing and started reading Mid-Day newspaper. There were people playing cards, reading books, chatting and laughing and involved in friendly banter. The train stopped at Khar station and after its usual fill of passengers moved to its next location, Santacruz.
When the train was just a stone's throw away from Santacruz station, suddenly there was a loud explosion - it is still resonating in my ears - and the train shook violently. I could feel my heart pounding and immediately lights and fans went off. The train came to a screeching halt and there was pin-drop silence. Everyone was looking at each other as if waiting for our compartment to explode. Within 30 seconds, people starting jumping from the train and running to wherever they could find shelter. I was hesitant to jump off since conventional wisdom has taught me not to jump off mindlessly from trains since it could prove to be more dangerous with trains running in both directions.
But then I had realised that everything was not right. I, too, jumped off. And just one compartment away from mine, the First Class male compartment lay blown to bits. There was a huge crowd and even as I moved to have a look, I knew my life had changed forever. I had just escaped certain death and was standing there to witness the most terrible scene that I had ever seen. There were bodies lying everywhere, some injured and some dead. The victims were wailing, some in pain and some in shock. There were some who were too shocked to react, while some were gasping for breath. The mixed scent of the remains of the explosives and blood was in air, freaking me out all the more.
But then, I called up office and spoke to my colleague, Ruksh, and asked him to run the news, knowing fully well that he was too shocked to hear it. The network by that time had already jammed with about thousand people standing near the train trying to convey the news to their friends and relatives.
The next 40 minutes was total confusion. I was online with our channel breaking the news that there has been a bomb explosion in a Mumbai local train. Even as I was describing the incident, I was nearly in tears seeing the heart-wrenching scene around me. Those images of the dead whose families have lost them for ever, of those injured who will never manage to recover from the shock and the loss of limbs in this terror act will forever stay with me.
Kudos to our fellow commuters and nearby residents who stepped into the compartment within minutes and managed to take them to hospitals in the vicinity. By the time the Railway Police arrived at the spot 20 minutes later, nearly every victim was evacuated.
I spent the next 36 hours reporting the incident and giving first person accounts not only on CNN-IBN but television channels and radio stations across the world. My role had been redefined, from someone who would have covered the incident like every other reporter to giving an account of my personal experience.
This space is too short for me to describe everything that I witnessed in those traumatic moments but it has no doubt left me more wiser. This incident has also made me value our precious life more than I would have earlier. And above all, a simple thanksgiving to my Lord Jesus Christ for saving my life and enabling me today to give an account of this tale and not ending up as a mere statistic in government records.
I would just like to leave all of you with a simple verse from Psalms Ch 23, Verses 1 and 4 from the Holy Bible which has strengthened me in the last two days:
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." About the AuthorJency Jacob Straight from Maximum City....Read Morefirst published:July 13, 2006, 19:13 ISTlast updated:July 13, 2006, 19:13 IST
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It's been a tough 48 hours for everyone in Mumbai. And especially for thousands of Mumbaikars like me who unfortunately happened to be on the trains in which mindless, brainwashed terrorists decided to make hapless innocent citizens the target of their most sinister terror campaigns. It is at moments like these when one feels that hatred is not just a six letter word in the dictionary but a reality which can force ordinary men into terror machines.
11 July, 2006, started off as a normal day for me. I was on the morning assignment shift and had reached office at 8 am. Though I have worked on such shifts many times before, but for some strange reason I decided to go home by 5 pm that day. Usually, I leave after 7 pm. But I reached lower parel station and boarded the 6.04 pm slow local to borivali not knowing that my day had not ended but just begun.
The train was as usual crowded and packed. I boarded the 2nd class compartment right in the front. As usual there was no place to sit and was standing and started reading Mid-Day newspaper. There were people playing cards, reading books, chatting and laughing and involved in friendly banter. The train stopped at Khar station and after its usual fill of passengers moved to its next location, Santacruz.
When the train was just a stone's throw away from Santacruz station, suddenly there was a loud explosion - it is still resonating in my ears - and the train shook violently. I could feel my heart pounding and immediately lights and fans went off. The train came to a screeching halt and there was pin-drop silence. Everyone was looking at each other as if waiting for our compartment to explode. Within 30 seconds, people starting jumping from the train and running to wherever they could find shelter. I was hesitant to jump off since conventional wisdom has taught me not to jump off mindlessly from trains since it could prove to be more dangerous with trains running in both directions.
But then I had realised that everything was not right. I, too, jumped off. And just one compartment away from mine, the First Class male compartment lay blown to bits. There was a huge crowd and even as I moved to have a look, I knew my life had changed forever. I had just escaped certain death and was standing there to witness the most terrible scene that I had ever seen. There were bodies lying everywhere, some injured and some dead. The victims were wailing, some in pain and some in shock. There were some who were too shocked to react, while some were gasping for breath. The mixed scent of the remains of the explosives and blood was in air, freaking me out all the more.
But then, I called up office and spoke to my colleague, Ruksh, and asked him to run the news, knowing fully well that he was too shocked to hear it. The network by that time had already jammed with about thousand people standing near the train trying to convey the news to their friends and relatives.
The next 40 minutes was total confusion. I was online with our channel breaking the news that there has been a bomb explosion in a Mumbai local train. Even as I was describing the incident, I was nearly in tears seeing the heart-wrenching scene around me. Those images of the dead whose families have lost them for ever, of those injured who will never manage to recover from the shock and the loss of limbs in this terror act will forever stay with me.
Kudos to our fellow commuters and nearby residents who stepped into the compartment within minutes and managed to take them to hospitals in the vicinity. By the time the Railway Police arrived at the spot 20 minutes later, nearly every victim was evacuated.
I spent the next 36 hours reporting the incident and giving first person accounts not only on CNN-IBN but television channels and radio stations across the world. My role had been redefined, from someone who would have covered the incident like every other reporter to giving an account of my personal experience.
This space is too short for me to describe everything that I witnessed in those traumatic moments but it has no doubt left me more wiser. This incident has also made me value our precious life more than I would have earlier. And above all, a simple thanksgiving to my Lord Jesus Christ for saving my life and enabling me today to give an account of this tale and not ending up as a mere statistic in government records.
I would just like to leave all of you with a simple verse from Psalms Ch 23, Verses 1 and 4 from the Holy Bible which has strengthened me in the last two days:
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
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