SALUTE TO MUMBAI ( ONE YEAR OF TERROR )

Courtesy: The Times of India (Mumbai)

Victims recall the horror of the Mumbai terror attacks that left over 160 people dead.
Cost of keeping Kasab alive: Rs 31cr so far RELATED:   Antony says many steps taken to protect coastline since 26/11 26/11: Games, comics, movies hop aboard terror bandwagon Post-26/11, background checks must for new hires 26/11 ‘hero’ cop’s daughter returns aid 26/11: Fresh start after stray brush with death 26/11: Day when statute was adopted Pak acts on 26/11 anniversary-eve; LeT’s Lakhvi, 6 more charged   26/11 ‘hero’ cop’s daughter returns aid RELATED:   Antony says many steps taken to protect coastline since 26/11 26/11: Games, comics, movies hop aboard terror bandwagon Post-26/11, background checks must for new hires 26/11: Fresh start after stray brush with death 26/11: Day when statute was adopted Pak acts on 26/11 anniversary-eve; LeT’s Lakhvi, 6 more charged Don’t panic on 26/11, we are geared up: Bidari   India won’t rest till Pak punishes 26/11 guilty: PM RELATED:   Antony says many steps taken to protect coastline since 26/11 26/11: Games, comics, movies hop aboard terror bandwagon Post-26/11, background checks must for new hires 26/11 ‘hero’ cop’s daughter returns aid 26/11: Fresh start after stray brush with death 26/11: Day when statute was adopted Pak acts on 26/11 anniversary-eve; LeT’s Lakhvi, 6 more charged   Eerie silence cloaks untouched Nariman House RELATED:   Hope hides scars at Nariman House Nariman House cook recalls night of horror 26/11 trial: Witnesses at Nariman House depose Nariman House still throws up 26/11 bullets Rabbi Gavriel’s father intends to rebuild Nariman House Israelis to restore Nariman House on their own   Kasab should be hanged from a lamp post: Major’s father RELATED:   Headley stayed in Lemon Tree before 26/11 26/11: Taj, Oberoi paid Rs 167 cr as terror claims by GIC Advisory to TV channels on reporting 26/11 anniversary 26/11: Remains of the day Special: A year after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks Senior cop wanted NSG taken off 26/11 ops: Gafoor 26/11: Remains of the day Cost of keeping Kasab alive: Rs 31cr so far The cash-strapped Maharashtra govt has so far spent a staggering Rs 31 crore, or nearly Rs 85 lakh per day, to keep 26/11 attacker Ajmal Kasab safe and secure enough to stand trial. 26/11 ‘hero’ cop’s daughter returns aid Vaishali Ombale has lived up to her father’s ideal. The daughter of assistant sub-inspector Tukaram Ombale, who was martyred while nabbing terrorist Ajmal Kasab, declined aid of Rs 3 lakh collected for the family by a South Mumbai-based institute. India won’t rest till Pak punishes 26/11 guilty: PM Paying homage to victims of the 26/11 carnage on the eve of its first anniversary, PM Manmohan Singh said that India “will not rest” till it has brought the perpetrators of the massacre to justice. Eerie silence cloaks untouched Nariman House Baby Moshe’s room has been left untouched with his toys and building blocks left in a disarray on the bed, waiting to be put away. Kasab should be hanged from a lamp post: Major’s father 26/11/08, 11.30 pm. He last spoke to his father, asking him to watch the “interesting episode outside hotel Taj shown live on TV.” A day later, he was seen there, lying dead.	PAY YOUR TRIBUTES Light a candle Pay your tributes to those who died in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. DEBATE Is India a soft state? Is India’s ‘avoid-confrontation’ policy responsible for the country’s failure to check terrorism? POLL //

PHOTOS
26/11: Remains of the day	Mumbai a year later	Uncensored pics of Mumbai terror

VIDEOS
Bravehearts who saved Mumbai	Mumbai carnage caught on camera	CCTV footage of terrorists at CST

MORE STORIES

‘Top cops lay bleeding for 40 mins before help came’

Kartikeya //

Vinita, with the help of police call records obtained through RTI, has alleged in her book that the police officers lay injured for over 40 minutes in Rang Bhavan lane before help arrived.

Games, comics, movies hop aboard 26/11 bandwagon

TNN //

The aftermath of 26/11 fall at least one person who slunk in, in indecent haste, where others had feared to tread.

26/11: Day when statute was adopted

Manoj Mitta //

“That the Constitution as settled by the Assembly be passed.” Those were the words used by our founding fathers when they adopted the Constitution with great hopes and aspirations, exactly 60 years ago on November 26, 1949.

Watching chief die, he regrets inability to fire

S Ahmed Ali //

Tumweapon chaloo shakto kaa?’’(Do you know to operate weapons) was what encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar asked constable Arun Jadhav while inducting the latter in his team in 1996.

‘Kasab’s confessions began in the trauma unit itself’

Malathy Iyer, Kartikeya & Mateen Hafeez //

Police sources who were present when this conversation (a routine protocol for every medico-legal case) took place concede that it established for the first time the lethal link that the 26/11 investigations hinges on.

Newlyweds recall night of terror with pain, frustration

Swati Deshpande //

It was a shower of bullets and not rose petals that greeted them on the day of their wedding reception last year at the Taj Mahal hotel.

Full makeover for Oberoi hotel by April

TNN //

The Oberoi, Mumbai, and the Trident, Nariman Point, still throb with the shock and pain of last year’s audacious terrorist attacks.

OTHER NEWS

• Constable still can’t stomach Kasab’s bullet
• Background checks must for new hires
• Coast guards still at sea
• Moshe’s heart still beats for India
• Near-miss with death still haunts

BLOGS

The candles Manmohan missed

Shilpa’ marriage reception and Obama’s reception for our PM are the two most important stories hogging the space on the eve of 26/11, writes Tarun Vijay.

Ajmal Kasab Ki Gazab Kahani

What we have done in the 12 months since 26/11 then is a more accurate index, says Anshul Chaturvedi.

Stop jabbering about 26/11

Every time we revive memories of 26/11, we are actually encouraging the terrorists, says Pritish Nandy.

Terror: We’ve lost the plot

US response to 9/11 was over the top; our reaction to 26/11 has been under-the-table, feels M J Akbar.

Scared Kasab, Scary Kasab

Is Kasab a dangerous fanatic or exploited innocent, questions Bachi Karkaria.

ALSO READ

Victims forgotten

Arun Jadhav was in the jeep in which ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Salaskar were killed.

Cashing in on a catastrophe

Four days ahead of the first anniversary of the Mumbai attacks, a creative storm is building to cash in on the tragedy.

Shoddy care adds to wounds

Sabira was returning home on 26/11 after giving Arabic tutions when she met with a life-altering accident.

Man who injured Kasab’s partner

Assistant inspector Hemant Bhawdhankar says he cannot forget the midnight of November 26 last year, when the country’s most high-profile prisoner, Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive.

 

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Mumbai Re-Designed

Urbz, a Dharavi-based group that focuses on organically developing the city, will be exhibiting the information they’ve collected from their four-day workshop in the city on .
You can catch a glimpse of photographs, paintings, projections, films, music and audiovisuals created during the workshop by the 40 participants, who present novel ways to deal with change without harming the basic cultural fabric of the city.

“Most of the works feature old neighbourhoods such as Null Bazaar, Chor Bazaar and Bhuleshwar as we want people to think of heritage neighbourhoods in a different manner. For example- Bhuleshwar’s 125 year-old buildings are being redeveloped in a haphazard manner.

Complex issues, such as the relations between the upper middle and lower middle classes residing side by side for decades, are completely ignored. We want people to question such things,” states Rahul Srivastava, Founder Member, Urbz.

At: Girgaum Catholic Club, Khotachi Wadi.
On: November 1, 6 pm onwards
Call: 9823209788

City split wide open

Party hearties abandon driver to heart attack…

Three men holding key positions in one of India’s biggest private sector companies were on their way to a party at their boss’s swanky Cuffe Parade home, when driver Goverdhan Vaidya, who is in his mid fifties, suffered a cardiac arrest.

The men asked him to stop the car, which was at Cooperage, helped him out and sat him down on the pavement.

Then, they got back in the car and drove off to the party, leaving a breathless Vaidya holding his chest in excruciating pain.

… Man who gets him to hospital and gives him life

Three men holding top jobs in one of the country’s largest private sector companies were on their way to a party at their boss’s swanky home in South Mumbai at 9 pm on October 12.

At the wheel of the Honda City was driver Goverdhan Vaidya.

Hanging on: Goverdhan Vaidya was discharged on Thursday after three days in the ICU at St George Hospital. For daughter Sunita, getting her dad back  home is her “best Diwali gift ever”.

At the Cooperage junction, Vaidya, who is in his midfifties, felt the first symptoms of a heart attack.
 
“When I think back, I had been feeling uneasy for a while. But at the Cooperage junction, I felt terrible. It was impossible to drive.

My chest hurt like it was being beaten by a thousand sledgehammers and I couldn’t breathe properly. I told the three men in the backseat that I needed to stop for a while.”

Left to die

Seconds after he parked at the curb, Vaidya slumped over the steering wheel. “I saw the men open the door and drag me out of the car. They made me sit on the pavement.

I could barely register what was happening, as I felt really ill and I was sitting with my head on my knees, holding my chest.

Just then, I felt the car zoom past. I looked up and saw the men drive away, but I was in such severe pain that I couldn’t even shout at them to stop and help me,” said Vaidya, Enter Vijay Shekhar, who works with a TV channel.

Guardian Angel: Vijay Shekhar got Vaidya to hospital in the nick of time.

“At first glance, I thought the man wanted to defecate, but I looked closely and realised he was in severe pain. He was holding his chest and I knew he was having a heart attack.

I had seen the car zoom off and I asked the man for their phone number, so that he could be hospitalised.”

Vaidya managed to give him the number and Shekhar called, but it went unanswered. Shekhar’s wife Shobha, who was also with him, gave Vaidya Disprin, known to be effective during a heart attack.

To hospital

“I realised he had to be hospitalised immediately, as his condition was worsening every minute and we took him to St George Hospital in my car,” said Shekhar.

Doctors at St George, who were treating Vaidya, said, “His condition was very bad and he was breathless. It was a cardiac failure and had he not been rushed to hospital, it could have proved fatal.”

Meanwhile, Shekhar’s wife who had been continuously calling the men, finally got through two hours since the incident. “I told the man that his driver had been hospitalised after a heart attack.

But unbelievably, the man was reluctant to listen to me. I had no option but to threaten him with a police complaint, and sure enough, it worked,” said Shobha.

Reluctant return

The three men came to Cooperage where the Shekhars were waiting. “The men told me that they couldn’t be bothered with the police threat, as the party they were at was attended by several senior cops,” said Shobha.
 
In fact, said Shobha, “they behaved as though they were doing us a favour”.

And by way of explanation for abandoning the driver, the men pointed out they did not know him. He was the replacement for the regular driver.

“We left him on the streets so that he could get fresh air and feel better,” said one of the men.

Meanwhile, Vaidya, who has been discharged yesterday, is recuperating at home in Thane, out of danger.

“We were very scared when Shekharji called us and said my father had been hospitalised. He seemed perfectly fine when he left home in the morning and look what the night brought.

And I can’t believe people would actually abandon a grievously ill man to go to a party.

I thank the family who saved my father by hospitalising him. The fact that my father is well now is the best Diwali gift we can hope for,” said Sunita (25), his daughter.