Feeling the pinch…

I lost my friend Amresh in the Mumbai blasts.

The guy lost his life for no fault of his whatsoever.

I got the news of his sad demise next day afternoon. I could feel the cry in Amit’s voice when he told the news.

Till then I had a totally different point of view towards the entire blasts series.
I had not lost any near and dear ones so I could easily write about the blasts and the resilient city and all.

It all changed all of a sudden. I could not work for rest of the day. All those college days were were scrolling through my mind like a movie.

I went home. All news channels were bombarding with news about blasts. Busy blaming Police… Intelligence…. Pakistan… and so on…for the incident.

For me it was just another painful reminder of the fate of my friend.

Amaresh was my hostel room partner during college days. I shall always remember him for his practical approach towards life and the way he used to support his friends when they needed him…

Every news on TV brought up memories of the days we spent together… the fun we had…

Being in Bangalore I could not even attend his funeral. It became too difficult after that to watch the photo’s of the injured and the dead…. Somehow I could feel the pain.

By the evening all channels were busy showing how the people were courageous to return to their jobs very next day….

I now realized that it was more of a helplessness than the spirit… the same helplessness that make them risk life every day when they hang out of the door of local train.

A few days ago I came across email that talked about Mumbai’s response to terrorists and all… How easy it is to write that “Just 200” died when none of them is related to you…

Today it is after so many days that I could gather courage to write about this…

You will always remain in our hearts... Amresh……