Yesterday itself I wrote the post 'Life is sweeping by' and yesterday evening those Mumbai blasts took place in the local trains ! I came across the news only today morning so yesterday night when I got an sms from my uncle telling 'we are ok' I could not figure out that it was sent with a specific purpose. I have lots of friends and relatives who stay in Mumbai now but fortunately whoever I am in touch with are all safe and sound.
I have personally stayed in Mumbai for about three and half years and travelled in the local trains and it was really scary and horrifying to hear the news.
Life seems to be so fleeting and uncertain when you hear of such things. One fine day, someone goes to office never to return back home .... You come to realize how precious is life and how fortunate are we to have all our loved ones with us. I had a similar kind of feeing when I had heard about the 11-Sept attack in US. People would have left for office, not even imagining that they would never come back home ! We do not know what the next day or the next hour or the next second has in store for us.
Somehow I felt compelled to write a few lines today. After hearing the news, I called most of my friends about whom I did not have any news. One of them had not taken the train and had come back in the car of a friend. One of them was sick and he did not go to office and his wife returned early from office sice he was sick at home... both of them travel in the local trains and in the same route where the blasts took place and the usually the same time and in first class! Another friend had to go to Borivli but did not go. The person who fell sick would not have felt good about falling sick at that time, but his falling sick could well be the reason for his life being saved and that too of his wife's.
I don't know if this is relevant here but I am suddenly reminded of something that I had read many years ago :
We have, each one of us, a task to do, a role to fulfil, a place which we alone can occupy.
