[Click on the thumbnails to enlarge]

It could be you, me or anyone amongst us confronting the death at CST on 26th November 2008. The terrorists killed innocent people spraying bullets indiscriminately. Of course, all those who lost their lives at Taj and Oberoi were innocent people too. But the people killed at CST were the most common. They were not from the elite class. Unfortunately they didn’t receive much of attention from media and the government. Some of the dead bodies with their restless souls are still lying in the mortuary for their relatives to come over and pick them up. In this era even deaths are discriminated in a very insensitive way.

Now here I am at this same CST station where terrorists killed a number of innocent people. It is not a big problem capturing such monuments. If you are taking pictures from a long distance, just set your camera to Landscape mode and shoot. That’s it!

Now the new Taj has been reopened for the public from 21st of December 2008.  At present the old Taj is completely evacuated and is under repairs on a war footing. Currently no lights are lit inside the old Taj during night time, which was glorious to watch till 25th November evening. This beautiful monument has been completely shattered from inside. It is believed that the darkness at old Taj building is to continue for at least another six more months.

The inhuman terrorist attack on this prestigious monument of Mumbai has disheartened all the Indians. It was an attack on our pride and not just an attack on Taj, Oberoi or Mumbai. Lack of patriotism, inactive and ineffective leadership combined with widespread corruption and indifferent attitude have all contributed to magnify this tragedy. Self centered citizens like me have easily allowed the terrorists to encroach upon our city borders and deliver a cruel blow which lasted for nearly 60 hours at a stretch. Live telecast of the events by irresponsible media helped the terrorists to understand the situation in fighting with the commandos. The media seemed totally chaotic in bringing live pictures throughout in contrast to the brave efforts of the commandos, the police and the hotel staff who confronted death while fighting with the terrorists. Fire brigade was of great help rescuing affected people. They managed to save nearly 500 lives though they didn’t have adequate life-safety equipments in sufficient quantity. Salute to all those brave hearts!

All these images are silhouettes, because I reached there in the evening and the Sun was going down behind Taj. For security reasons, people are still not allowed to go near the monument. I knew the pictures would be silhouettes, so I concentrated more on compositions than on anything else. I shot the pictures using Auto/Landscape modes and fortunately the sky was awesome that evening.

Move to Part – V