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SPEAK OUT REACH OUT
et again, terrorists walked into our city, planted three bombs and vanished into thin air. Unseen, they breached our national security. And yet again, the common man was the target. Can any one reason explain this endless, meaningless series of attacks? Why are we so unable to stop them? Think of 9/11. There has not been a single terrorist attack in the US after that. Perhaps it is because their politicians are so much more accountable. Perhaps it is because the world saw the level their retaliation; their commitment to protect their people. All our leaders do is condemn the incident, and then return to their slumber. A few renowned politicians even said all attacks cannot be stopped, they will happen. Terrorist attacks have become part of our daily routine. Every second day, people are killed in accidents, Naxal attacks, and minor crimes. And now, terror attacks have joined the bandwagon.
Akshat Goyal

metro |

S U N DAY H I N D U STA N T I M E S , M U M B A I J U LY 1 7 , 2 0 1 1

editormumbai@hindustantimes.com

whatshot
INDIE MUSIC

Message in a rock song

The true Spirit of Mumbai is being choked with every blast

readerof theweek
Every time, its the same rants
oliticians must be tired of ranting the same old lines that citizens are fed up of hearing. I am sure that the leaders themselves are tired of parroting the same thoughts: 'we condemn the act', perpetrators will be punished', 'we request Mumbaiites to keep calm'. There has to be a solution to end this helplessness. A candlelight vigil is not enough. The state has been taking our silence for granted. And this time, Mumbai has really had enough. The three blasts on Wednesday at Kabutar Khana, Opera House and Zaveri Bazaar shows how little the Mumbai police has learnt from 26/11.
Riddhi Mehta

thetimescrosswords
CONCISE # 5312
By arrangement with The Times, London

If the week has left you blue, attend Blue Frogs Punk Night, which showcases two indie bands The Riot Peddlers and Blek. The Riot Peddlers are known for their twominute rants on socio-political issues backed by radio-friendly riffs. Blek, on the other hand, is famous for its trademark monkey dance.
WHAT: Punk Night at Blue Frog WHEN: Sunday July 17, 9 pm to 11 pm WHERE: Mathuradas Mills Compound, NM Joshi Marg, Lower Parel CALL: 40332300, 65251716 COST: Rs 200

A birds view

We need an iron man of a PM

Sheba Chhacchi is currently showing a body of work titled Winged Pilgrims A Chronicle from Asia, at the Volte gallery, Colaba. All the birds featured in the collection are protagonists in myths, stories and lore drawn from across Asia. One of the paintings comprises a landscape, with a hovering bird graphically juxtaposed over a photograph of an Indian river chocked with industrial waste.
WHAT: Winged Pilgrims: A Chronicle from Asia WHEN: Till August 1, 11 am to 7.30 pm WHERE: 2/19, 1st Floor, Kamal Mahal Arthur Bunder Road, Near Radio Club, Colaba CALL: 22041220 COST: Entry is free

Almost a week after three blasts shook the city and caused 18 deaths, we still have no idea who could be responsible. The state is helpless and there is no value for human life any more. Chidambaram is no taskmaster and the various incidents taking place all over the country show his lack of competence. In his tenure as a home minister, we have witnessed total unrest in the country. The current ministers are sticking to their seats without any performance. We need an iron man of a PM now.
Jayanthy Subramaniam

We are no longer safe in our city

After the July 13 blasts, the one question on my mind is, how safe are we from yet another one? There is, as usual, the blame game with the CM stating the congress should have retained the home security position. It is sad to see patrol boats to be used by the police to man the seas lying idle. The fuel has been rationed to 100 liters, which allows the boat to run for an hour only. Crores of taxes contributed by Mumbaiites are being wasted. All the average Mumbaiite has is fear, anger, frustration, and loss of loved ones, nothing more. If the businessmen who have stopped their trips to Mumbai post the blasts do not have the confidence of getting back to business, what is the state of an average Mumbaikar? We will have more people moving out due to fear of security and continuous threat to their lives.
Ramesh Mahadevan

ACROSS 1 SeverAcross 1 Work for soloist and orchestra (8) 5 (Of bell) sounded (4) 8 Slow learner (5) 9 Manual labourer (7) 11 Japanese drama form (3) 12 Countryside picture (9) 13 Join the armed services (6) 15 Securely joined (6) 18 Dull appearance (9) 19 Juniper-flavoured spirit (3) 20 Surrounded by (7) 21 Tied up (5) 22 Monarch (4) 23 Not defeated (8) DOWN 1 Vocal inflection (7) 2 Beethovens Choral symphony (5) 3 Unceasing (11) 4 Pulling along (6)

6 Something worn around sleeve (7) 7 Nasty and sticky stuff (5) 10 Answerable; trustworthy (11) 14 Mean, unfair (3-4) 16 New Zealand city (7) 17 Jam setting agent (6) 18 Took to alcohol (5) 19 Lean, haggard (5)

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD 5311

CRYPTIC # 23029

ILLUSTRATION: SHRIKRISHNA PATKAR

Its not a good thing we are so unmoved

Mumbaiites were highly unmoved by the recent terror attacks. Our city was back on track the very next day. In fact, the city was unmoved even an hour after the attacks. The spirit of Mumbai has finally accepted that it is empty inside. This, however, is not the correct reaction. We have lost the faith.

Mumbai needs a real security system

Trusting the government and Mumbai police had lulled us into complacence. The bombs were planted strategically to wreak horrific damage, they were followed by agonising screams, panic and chaos. Yet, the next day, all was normal. The city is inured to terrorists. Our intelligence network and security system seem non-existent.

tweeterati
Our pick of the best tweets from your city

ON WEDNESDAYS SERIAL BLASTS IN MUMBAI:

sid_anantharam: Mumbai's "resilient spirit" has now become the cruelest Indian cliche! Abhijitmajumder: PM, Prez have condemned blasts. I condemn their inability to say anything more useful, less banal tee_v: For the first time it did not scare me...and that scares me...am i getting used to this city being targeted time and again? DKMahant: "Mumbai will bounce back" A famous line used by the Home Ministry to hide its intelligence failures. cricketwallah: Terror blasts show once again the utter failure of home ministry and police intelligence. Be ready for random groups to be blamed now... SuparnaMathur: Bombay Spirit: Resilience or Apathy? AnilKollam: Mumbai gov cudnt install CCTV due to lack of funds! We pay highest tax! badaboomtheory: We bounce back. It's not like we have a choice

Bhagwan Das

Nishit Dalal

photooftheweek

How Twitter saved the day

Speak Easy
Aditya Kandala

ONE CITY, ONE HEART Graffiti created at Marine Lines

after the terror siege of 26/11, 2008, expresses the solidarity of Mumbais cosmopolitan spirit. ANSHUMAN POYREKAR/HT

IN Loving & Fond Remembrances of Capt.A.S.Bagga

Those we love don't go away they walk beside us everyday unseen - unheard but always very near. Deeply missed & fondly remembered. Papa, Ammi and Relatives. Ph. : 9350010657, 9810352883

t could not have been a more regular Wednesday evening at work. But it changed at around 7pm, when my colleague got a call from his wife. She said there had been an explosion in Zaveri Bazaar and she had heard it at her Dadar home. Born and brought up in Mumbai, hearing of an explosion was not surprising. But how can an explosion in Zaveri Bazaar be heard at Dadar? In a while, though, a friend called asking if I had checked Twitter. I knew then. It had happened. Again. I knew because Twitter said it. I am a Twitter addict. It is my Wikipedia on everything. No question goes unanswered, no topic buried. The news you get is as reliable as the source. Cautious about the people I follow, I knew I could rely on every piece of information on my timeline. I had braced myself for a barrage of tweets blaming the government, the police, the intelligence and the cab drivers. But this time, it was different. Some people tweeted their phone numbers to reach out to those stranded at the blast sites. This soon snowballed into people offering rides, food, water and even blood. Somewhere in Delhi, Nitin Sagar realised that the information was moving too fast and the helpful bits were getting lost in the virtual stampede. He immediately made a Google Spreadsheet and listed five phone numbers which were being retweeted. Once he tweeted the link to his spreadsheet, the numbers multiplied to over 200 in two hours. Ajay Kumar also created visual hotspots on the map for those who were stuck, connecting them with people who were willing to help. It was beautiful pandemonium! All I could do was retweet every helpful tweet I

came across. Meanwhile, Twitters older cousin, Facebook, was being characteristically strident and pointless. There was not a shred of useful information on its walls. It became a channel for everyone to blame someone, anyone. At a time of crisis, people at large have always felt the need to help those affected. It started with people giving out food and shelter to 26/7 victims. This time, they had a medium to communicate with each other, thanks to smartphones. I know everyone doesnt have access to social media. And not everyone who has access is sensible enough to stay quiet if they cannot help. If the social media space truly has to be counted as a media, then every user becomes a reporter and has to show the same responsibility that is expected of a professional journalist. It becomes extremely difficult to parse through countless senseless updates to get to the really important ones. Mobile phone networks cannot sustain the traffic in such crisis situations. This time, the social network came to our rescue. If it eased the traffic of calls to some extent and put some people at ease. It achieved its objective. And had the colleagues wife been on Twitter, she would have realised that what she heard was indeed a blast which occurred in the lane next to her Dadar home. (Aditya Kandala is an accounts manager and lives in Thane)
Speak Easy is a fortnightly column that offers you, the reader, a chance to feature as a columnist in your favourite newspaper. Have something to say on an issue from the news of the week? Write to us at htmetro@hindustantimes.com

ACROSS 1 Tropical shrub is small, in places turning (8) 9 Change requirement before exam (8) 10 Oriental nomads objective not a day ahead (6) 11 Tending to charge in case (10) 12 Moons appearance said to be disconcerting (4) 13 Venomous type, the Chief Constable? (10) 16 Like cows, but showed revulsion theres no quiet (7) 17 Recover for the gripping part of a journey (7) 20 A few mechanical words the deciding factor (6,4) 22 Not one to show pleasure about rugged feature of country churchyard (4) 23 Exaggerated how one got out of the trenches (4,3,3) 25 Swollen, till seed bursts out (6) 26 For knight, surrendering castles a loss of one place of business (8) 27 Weaselly, tries falsely to get in relatively close (8) DOWN 2 Download new undeveloped site (8) 3 Sort of ring for fighting (10) 4 Dressing style of Cleopatras youth? (5,5)

5 Tax due in Aug., we hear (7) 6 Saint is beheaded (4) 7 To forgive is for clergyman (6) 8 Deliberate being party to 3 (8) 14 Start of arithmetic sum in exam (6-4) 15 Practical judgment in various points supporting heroin (5,5) 16 Complete burn-out on old range (8) 18 Sort of bearing left, after coming initially out of Brittany once (8) 19 Feels sorry about English hypocritical sentiments (7) 21 Row over church service (6) 24 Cat will find last of vermin in shed (4)

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD 23028

WEATHER FORECAST