They say that spirit of Mumbai never dies nor does the city ever sleep. This fiction is based on incidents of Pakistan sponsored terror activities in Mumbai when they seemed to be at peak. Inspired from true incidents but the story around it is all fiction… People born after the year 2001 would hardly ever know what people of Mumbai have gone through…
Chaitanya had boarded his regular local train at Mumbai CST. It was a fast train which halted at specific halts and skipped other stations. He was happy that he was able to jump into the regular compartment before the train halted and secure the normal seat he was accustomed to…
He looked around to see familiar faces and waived at an elderly gentleman who also had secured a seat one row near the entrance. He was sitting at a window seat where he could see the other side of the compartment separated by the wire mesh.
“Hey! Chaits… Nice to see that at least one seat has been occupied by one of us. I had to run quite a bit today to make it to this train. I thought I would be late but Thank God – I made it…” chirped the voice of Krishanan who was a regular traveller in the 8:50pm Karjat fast local train. People who were regular normally formed a group of people who had similar interests. Few played cards during the travel while some sang songs. It was a healthy way of travelling back home after a tiring day.
The regular bogie and regular place that Chaitanya and his travel friends occupied was the first class compartment toward the rear of the train with a window and a net overlooking ladies special first class compartment. They called it a video coach for they could see beautiful women who travelled back to their respective homes. Few of those women deliberately batted eyelids with them for fun of flirting… they were faces known to each other for almost everybody boarded the same train at same time.
“Don’t see Javed around – seems he missed the train.” Krishnan said looking around, “Or – he could be sitting somewhere else…”
“No way – Javed will not think of sitting all alone – he will be too bored by the time he reaches Kalyan. Perhaps he has taken an earlier train or missed this one.” Chaitanya said looking at a beautiful girl who climbed into her compartment in a hurry, “She is looking prettier today – what say?” Krishnan looked over his shoulder and nodded his approval and kept ogling at her even as she disappeared behind a seat and let out a huge sigh.
The train started to move out of the platform slowly when Chaitanya saw Javed running at his best speed in a bid to catch the train, ”Run Javed run – you can make it…” he shouted out of the window and Javed made a final bid and climbed into the train. After making his way in through the crowd his face showed relief that he had made it… Chaitanya offered him the bottle of water he was carrying and Javed thankfully gulped at it.
“You should stake your claim for the Olympics…” Krishnan said and laughed.
“I thought I had missed this train today but thankfully, I could make it. My Boss is a sadist – he makes people work even after the day is over. I wish I can change my job, I am tired of him…”
Chaitanya and Krishnan looked at him for a moment and burst out laughing, “It’s good for you both – you are in sales. You roam around and nobody knows when you start from your home or leave the fieldwork and start for your homes. I am stuck with accounts and I have a desk job. I don’t have liberties like you – now stop laughing – it’s not good to laugh at others…” This made them go into another fit of laughter and Javed first looked at them with mock anger and joined them in their laughter.
“You guys are really lucky that you don’t have a boss like mine.” Javed mused again.
“Grass is always greener on the other side my friend. You don’t know what happens when we fall short of target given to us. Only we know what kind of hard work we have to put to retain our jobs. You are lucky, in accounts, people are not thrown out for non-performance, sales people are…” Krishnan educated him about the hazards of sales profession and looked at Chaitanya who was looking out of the window.
“Hey! Let me take your seat today – now.” Javed pleaded to Chaitanya.
“No. You will get this seat when the train arrives at Ghatkopar not before that. I have had a hectic day and I want to sit in peace.”
“Please brother – I have guests at home and I won’t be able to read pages of Quran I wanted to read today – that’s why I am requesting you…”
“Ok… If you want to read the seat is yours. However, if I catch you looking around and not reading, the whole month you will forfeit the seat for me or Krishnan.” Chaitanya said looking at him.
“Deal…” Javed took the seat as Chaitanya got up and brought out his holy book and sat engrossed reading it with concentration. The train was entering into Byculla station and more rush poured in the compartment. He and Krishnan peeped through into the ladies side of the compartment and looked away as no interesting girl had boarded the train. They kept on discussing about trivial matters as they did regularly keeping an eye on the stations that appeared as the train sped towards its destination.
When the train reached Ghatkopar, they ogled at the girl who they had ogled at CST and kept ogling at her as she got out of the train and disappeared along with the crowd and let huge deliberate sighs to appreciate the beauty of the girl they had seen that evening. The ladies compartment was almost empty now and nothing of their interest could be seen through the wired mesh.
The train was now halfway to Mulund where they were supposed to get off – they looked at Javed who had just finished reading the holy book’s pages and was tucking the book into his bag. They waived him bye before starting to make way to the main door of the compartment promising to meet up tomorrow as usual.
It was some real hard pushing when they reached nearby to the door of the compartment. The climate was hot and they started sweating like pigs and they knew they had to sweat it out till the train reached the platform, “Hey! Chaitanya – how about a race to the top of the stairs – before the crowd starts pouring into the staircase of the over bridge?”
“I am a game for it – the one who reaches the top first gets a treat from the other for a smoke and tea outside the station. Ready?”
It’s a habit of people of Mumbai. They are always in hurry and even before the train halts, more than half of the compartment rushes out of the train. Today was no different – Chaitanya and Krishnan pushed away at the crowd in a bid to win the treat of smoke and a tea and were out in a flash and started running toward the stairs. The train had started to move out of the platform. They would have reached halfway over the stairs when a huge blast was heard from the train. They stopped running and looked around realizing that the blast had occurred in the train they had been travelling…
In a flash, they turned around and started to run down the stairs to understand what had happened. They realized that it was a bomb had blasted in the same compartment they were travelling. Javed was sitting there… The train had abruptly stopped.
They rushed to the bogie and found smoke emanating from the compartment. Chaitanya looked through the window and found Javed in horrible state lying unconscious and bleeding from the injuries from the blast. He and Krishnan rushed into the compartment and picked Javed between them. Looking at them others followed and lifted other people who were wounded and rushed them out of the compartment. They were rushed to nearest Government hospitals using any transportation that were available outside the station.
They could do nothing much as the doctors in the hospital tried to save the people injured in the blast. Few of them already were declared dead on arrival. Praying that Javed is safe and out of danger, they reached their respective homes.
Next day, they worked with heavy hearts remembering what had happened the day before. They met up at CST as usual and as usual they boarded the 8:50pm Karjat fast local train. They looked around to see familiar faces and not finding few, they assumed that those people had been affected in the blast. People travelling were wary of any unidentified objects they could see. Nobody dared to put their bags on the bag holder runner. Those who put were asked to remove and hold their bags in their hands. They travelled back to Mulund in silence and wary about anything and everything, making sure that there could be no untoward incidence that could have been planned by the terrorists.
It is the Spirit of Mumbai.
No matter whatever terrorism sponsored by Pakistan tried – it could never break the “Spirit of Mumbai”. The very next day same train was chock full with crowd knowing very well that a blast had occurred in the same train a day before. The crowd was wary but undaunted.
They made it a point to visit the hospital where Javed was admitted and being treated for his injuries. They met his parents and assured that Javed will be fine and they will pray for his quick recovery. Javed still was in ICU and doctors were trying hard to save him. They were also following the news and were trying to understand if the culprit who had planted the bomb was identified and arrested.
On the third day Javed succumbed to the injuries and it was painful losing a friend. The parents not only had lost their son but also the sole bread earner in the family. They stayed at Kalyan and now had a huge question mark written on their faces of what the future held for them…
In couple of days they attended the Janaza of Javed and met his younger brother Naved who had just graduated that year and was looking for a suitable job. Chaitanya offered him an introduction to his boss to see if he was suitable as sales person and following week, Naved was appointed as his team member in the office Chaitanya worked.
Soon, the bomb episode was forgotten as the life took the reign over and everything was normal. The life of sales person is such – whatever happens, the target has to be achieved… and Chaitanya, Krishnan, Naved, now joined by Alfred who also stayed at Kalyan were busy trying to achieve their respective sales targets.
Once in a while, normally on Saturdays, they used to miss their trains as they either had a party somewhere or were watching a movie… But, the 8:50 pm Karjat fast was their mainstay. The pretty girls who travelled on the same train were their crushes for that evening if they weren’t regular. It all seemed good and perfect as it was – sometimes, they used to remember Javed but had a realization that he no longer was with them…
It was June now and the clouds had started gathering. People knew that first major rains will disrupt everything, yet people were undaunted and were roaming around as usual apart from going to work. Then it happened, it started to pour heavily and people not carrying umbrellas were completely soaked – they were many of them. As usual, the rains flooded the city roads and rail, delaying everything and people knew that they were heading for those tough months where rains can disrupt everything on a given day.
Chaitanya and his friends looked at the train timing indicators and instantly knew that the trains had been delayed. The 7:15 pm Ambernath fast local hadn’t yet arrived.
Chaitanya was a Team Leader now and he held an impromptu meeting about what they should do and they decided that they would take the Ambernath fast local train today and didn’t know what time it would reach their destination.
They saw the train crawling into the platform number 6 and rushed to board it and were successful in boarding it but at a cost of seats that they normally would have seated on. They were a bit relieved that at least they were in the train and would reach home. An announcement was made on the PA system that the train had been converted into a slow train stopping at all stations to allow the stranded passengers to travel and they looked at each other knowing that it was going to be a long time before they reached their destination.
The compartment was so crowded that it was difficult for anyone to move around or turn around. They had made an absolutely close huddle so that they could be together. Chaitanya had his back towards the ladies side that was separated by a wire mesh and knew he wouldn’t be able to ogle at any beautiful girl that day. Naved and Alfred were facing that side whereas Krishnan was able to peek at only one side as he was standing facing sideways to that side.
“Hey! What a beautiful girl she is…” Alfred said and looked at Naved who nodded in appreciation. Krishnan tried craning his neck and approved of the beauty.
“If you can see beautiful girls – keep it to yourself and don’t discuss them. I won’t be able to see them today.” Chaitanya’s frustration could be seen and all burst out in laughter and they started teasing him by describing various beautiful girls they could see standing there…
It took them around an hour or so to reach Mulund and had to struggle their way out from the crowd. They were standing there huffing and puffing from all that pushing through the heavy crowd when Krishnan tapped Chaitanya on his shoulder, “Hey! That’s the girl we were discussing. She was constantly looking at us and mostly at you. Why don’t you take a look?”
Chaitanya turned around to see who these guys were raving about and saw a real beauty of a girl in her early twenties or late teens still looking at them. As Chaitanya turned around their eyes met and she gave a sweet smile to him, approached and said, “Hi…”
“Oh! It’s you. Hi… Jeevani” Chaitanya smiled back at her and Krishnan looked at them with his mouth wide open. He had not expected Chaitanya to know this beautiful girl they had been admiring the entire journey. He said bye to them and started walking toward his home still thinking about how Chaitanya knew that beauty.
Jeevani was beautiful. She was fair with wavy middle length hair which fell on her queenly shoulders. She had beautiful, attractive and expressive eyes. She had an athletic slim build as if she worked out heavily to maintain her figure. She was taller than most girls about 5’ 7”. She was a dream for most of the bachelors who were yet single and for those who had girlfriends as well. Krishnan had fallen for her the moment he had seen her and wondered if she had a boyfriend. Beautiful girls normally had a boyfriend and thinking that Chaitanya could be her boyfriend made him feel jealous of Chaitanya.
Chaitanya he felt was a good looking guy and tall about 5’ 11”. He also was well built and had a gift of talking that pleased most of his listeners, be it his colleagues, friends or customers. This had given him the edge over others when the position of Team Leader had opened up in the organization they worked with. He also had leadership skills and used it to his best when it came to handling his team though he was a friend more than a team leader.
The next day, though it rained hard, was a good one. The trains were delayed a bit but the service was not disrupted. They boarded the normal 8:50 pm Karjat fast train. Krishnan’s heart sank when he saw that Jeevani also had boarded the same train and was in the ladies side of the compartment. He tried hard not to watch her but failed to do so. His heart sank as he saw her intently watching Chaitanya with wide eyes who was speaking on his mobile. It was an official call from their boss trying to judge where his team was heading and he was totally engrossed in the conversation.
All the time Jeevani watched Chaitanya making Krishnan feel that he had no chance as she seemed obsessed by Chaitanya and his style. They say that when a competition wins makes you sad but it makes you sadder when the competition is your own friend. Along with Krishnan, Naved and Alfred also watched her watch Chaitanya with undivided attention. They also felt sad as much as Krishnan did. They were equally jealous of Chaitanya’s luck, whether it was work related or in romance.
He was still on the call as they got off the train at Mulund. Chaitanya could only waive bye to Krishnan and walked away with Jeevani, still on his call. He had a hard time overcoming the sadness and jealousy he had for Chaitanya. Next few days, they saw Chaitanya securing the seat and offering it to one of his group. He was content in standing near the window embedded in the wired mesh and chatting with Jeevani. His group had still not been introduced to her.
It was a Saturday and the train was not so filled up as it did on weekdays. The ladies side was almost empty and Jeevani had a seat which she occupied. Chaitnya was sitting by the widow as usual and noting the day’s briefing in his diary while others stood as there were no vacant seats for them to sit. All they could do till Chaitanya finished his notations was to ogle at beautiful Jeevani.
Chaitanya finished and looked up expectantly at others to see who wanted to occupy the seat he occupied. They were not in mood to sit they were busy ogling at beautiful Jeevani. He offered the seat to an old gentleman and stood up deliberately facing away from the ladies side of the compartment, away from Jeevani. As soon as he stood up, his friends could swear they saw a twinkle of excitement in Jeevani’s eyes and then a nonplussed look as Chaitanya stood with his back toward her. Did he not know she was sitting toward the ladies side?
His friends looked at him in astonishment and then lovingly at her thinking that Jeevani and Chaitanya had broken up the relationship between them. They looked expectantly at Chaitanya wishing he would introduce her to them.
“Don’t look at her… I want her to concentrate on her career.” He told them.
“We don’t even know her, you haven’t even introduced her to us and what career is she pursuing? Must be something in accounts or admin of some company…” Alfred tried imagining what she could be pursuing as a career.
“You are wrong Alf… she is a budding cricketer. She has been selected to play for Mumbai for the U23 one day shield tournament. She is in pipeline to be selected for the national side representing our country by next year. The job she is doing is temporary to pass her time. She works at a reception of a financial firm located on Dalal street. She finishes her day around 7:30 pm and whiles her time till 8 pm and then starts for CST so that she can return home along with me taking this train. I don’t want to be a hindrance to her fantastic career that’s shaping up…”
“Why a simple job at reception?”
“This is rainy season – you can’t play cricket in this season. So she has to pass some time somewhere than sitting at home.”
“Oh! I now understand how she started travelling by the same train we do… I would like to get introduced to her before she becomes a rage for the cricket loving crowd… you know, knowing a star before she actually becomes a star – will give me an advantage over others for creating an impression of knowing her…” Naved said dreaming of how people would react if he tells them that he personally knows a cricketing rage.
Chaitanya looked at expectant faces of his friends and turned around and waived to her. She just looked at him in a huff, blowing away at the tress of her hair falling over her temple. Chaitanya laughed at her reaction and beckoned her to come to the window between the wired mesh. She forgot her huff for a moment and got up from her seat and approached the window.
“You ignored me?” she still had the anger of being ignored by him.
“No dear, I wanted to brief these people about the sales meeting tomorrow. That’s why I was addressing them, how can I ignore a beautiful girl like you?” Chaitanya was sweeter than usual when he spoke these words.
She looked at him for a long moment and turned off her anger and smiled at him, “Why do you work so hard? You seem to work even here sitting in the train.” She said in complaining voice.
“Got to work and be in the work. Not like you sitting on a fabulous and glamorous career. Who will pay me and for my expenses?” and she just put out a teasing tongue at him and laughed, “By the way my friends want to meet you. He is Krishnan, this is Naved and he is Alf – I mean Alfred.”
“Hi! Guys.” She said in a sweet tone which melted every one of them.
“If I am not around or stuck somewhere, you can always ask these guys to help you out if you need any… I am sure they would do everything possible to help you out. Won’t you guys?”
“Ya – Yes…” was the immediate chorus from the guys and she nodded at them happily knowing Chaitanya’s friends.
From then onward, she was an integral part of the group and even accompanied them for evening parties and watching movies together on weekends. They were happy to accommodate her in the group.
Mumbai has one chronic problem of flooding when it rains hard and that too during high tide. The low lying areas get immersed in waist deep or more of flooding waters. The public transport services like trains and buses get disrupted during such times and cabs charge exorbitant during such times knowing it’s their day to earn profit they dream of during the year.
One Friday, the meteorological department was in panic. They had measured a cloud that was dense and had a thickness of about nine kilometres. They could sense a cloud burst over the city. It had started giving out warnings from afternoon to people in the city to stay indoors if they were at home or leave for homes immediately.
It was around 8pm and Chaitanya was near Metro Cinema. It had started to pour heavily and he knew that train services would have been disrupted by now. If not now, they would soon be disrupted. He called his friends and suggested that they immediately reach CST within half an hour. Jeevani was already on her way to CST when he called her. He had to see that his team was safe. If need be, they would have to walk it out – the entire 30 odd kilometres of the distance to their home.
By the time he reached CST which was 8:30pm, the rain had started to pour more heavily lashing the city with its fury. He stood near the indicator of platform number 3 awaiting others to gather and had realized that train service already was disrupted. The crowd gathering to rush home was growing by the minute. Estimated crowd pouring into CST was about 450 persons per minute and the outflow was nil because there was no train arriving or departing from CST. The station was heavily crowded.
He stood near the edge of platform 3 near to the buffers where he could see people around more clearly. He saw Jeevani walk in and waive to him. She quickly reached where he stood and knew that train services were disrupted. She was happy that she was with Chaitanya who would take care of her safety for the night till trains services started again. He was waiting for his team.
He saw a familiar face smile at them as they stood waiting for others. He realized that she was a TV reporter ‘Megha’ and she was approaching them with her cameraman. She approached them with a microphone in her hand and he knew she was reporting it on TV – maybe, she was covering the reaction of the crowd in these heavy rains and disrupted train services.
“Hi – I am Megha from TV channel and I was wondering what you think of the situation we are facing now? Did you hear the Met department warning of a possible cloud burst in the city?” she asked them who first looked bewildered at her and then smiled.
“You working in this heavy rains?” he asked her not ready to believe that she was actually working for her channel even in these condition of heavy rain.
“I have to – it’s my job. You didn’t answer my question – you are LIVE on my channel right now…” she informed them holding her microphone a bit away so that these words won’t get captured in the LIVE streaming.
Chaitanya was about to answer her when there was a sudden commotion and people started to run creating a stampede. This was followed with a couple of huge blasting noise and a gun firing sound. Chaitanya realized that something was wrong. It could be a gang war with goons attacking each other. He quickly grabbed hands of both Jeevani and Megha and jumped onto the tracks pulling them along with him. The cameraman jumped onto the tracks behind them. For a moment it was just chaos around…
In a minute or so they realized that this was a terrorist attack on the city. It wasn’t a bomb blast but a terrorist had walked into the station with guns and grenades. The huge noise they had heard was from the grenades he had thrown at the crowd before the crowd ran and jumped on to the tracks for safety out of the sight of the terrorist. Chaitanya took a quick peek to see many bodies of dead and injured where the grenades had exploded and the terrorist was looking at people who were still running away towards the far end of the platform to get out of CST from the exit there leading towards Crawford market.
The terrorist opened fire spraying bullets at the people who were trying to run away and he could hear terrified screams of people. The screams were from those who were injured in the firing and also those who were terrorized by the incident that was happening.
Then it was all quiet. Megha was reporting it on her channel with her cameraman showing the terrorized passengers who had jumped on to the tracks when they heard the terrorist laugh out a cruel laugh…
“I want you all mice on the tracks. If anyone tries to run they will be shot like dogs. You people deserve that…” his voice thundered and people who were still on the platforms quickly dived on to the tracks, “That’s better. I want trains to rumble into this terminus and run over you. That will save me bullets and trouble of killing you all. You Indians don’t deserve to live – you all will die.”
Jeevani looked at Chaitanya, terror shown in her eyes. So did Megha’s eyes showed the terror of being killed that evening. Chaitanya was blank for some time but recovered quickly. He quickly typed out a message on his whatsapp group to check if his friends were safe. He was a bit relieved when he started receiving messages. Naved was on the tracks between platform 4&5. Krishnan was on the tracks between platforms 2&3 while Alfred was on the tracks between platform 5&6. They were all safe for the time being.
The terrorist was threatening everyone with death as he paced up and down the main hall of CST. The CST management who was playing the ODI match between India and England on various screens switched the channels and started streaming the LIVE coverage of the terrorist attack on CST which was being reported by Megha. The terrorist saw the footage pleased with the LIVE stream of his nefarious activity was pleased at the sight.
“Now the entire of India and the world would know how we take on the cowardly Indians out and kill them mercilessly. I want to see the scared faces of the cowardly Indians crouched between platforms.” The terrorist thundered and a scared Megha looked at the cameraman and then at Chaitanya. Chaitanya grimly waived to the cameraman to do as the terrorist had said, showing the people on other side of his camera and not Megha or him or Jeevani.
The cameraman obeyed as Megha started to describe the fear on the faces of the crowd around. Chaitanya was still grim. He was not scared as other people were… he was thinking hard, negotiation with the terrorist was out of question. The terrorist had that insane look in his eyes which assured Chaitanya that people were going to be killed – no matter what… The terrorist was extremely happy looking at the scared faces in the crowd and laughed dangerously.
Then the NEWS was shown LIVE that 7 other stations had been similarly attacked by the group of terrorists in a similar way. The police couldn’t handle such a situation and NSG had been called which in opinion of experts put a time frame of 4 hours to reach Mumbai airport and further time with horrible rainy condition in the city.
“It’s not only you people here at CST who will die. There are others at various stations that will join you in death” the terrorist laughed dangerously again, “Feel the fear of death looming on your head. Think of how horrible is going to be your death. My ‘Aka’ is going to be happy looking at your scared faces before you meet death.”
Now Chaitanya’s eyes spit fire with rage and resolve, “I am not going to die a simple death. Before death comes to me – I will fight this terrorist, I won’t be an easy target for him. He will remember me before he meets his death.” He swore beneath his breath and Jeevani as well Megha looked at him astonished as well in concern.
“Are you crazy? All you have is your diary and mobile phone with you and that terrorist has sophisticated weapons he can use. You will be dead within seconds if you try to attack him.” Megha pointed out even as he pulled out his mobile and started to find some information.
Jeevani moved closer to him and snuggled closer knowing that a gruesome death awaited her, “I think she is correct – you don’t have a chance.”
Chaitanya was still operating his mobile, “Megha, could you use your connections in media and find out what gun the terrorist is carrying?”
“Those terrorists, all are equipped with AK-47 guns and may have few grenades which they can throw at us.” Megha informed him after a short phone call with her news centre, “why do you want to know all this?”
“I want to know which gun killed me before I die.” Chaitanya looked at Megha for a moment and operated his phone again.
“You really are crazy even to think about such an action.” Megha said and peeped in concern to see what the terrorist was doing. The terrorist was speaking on his phone through a Bluetooth device keeping an eye on the scared crowd. “How do you think we can fight him with the sophisticated weapon he is carrying? It’s simply impossible…”
“I have always told my team that Impossible is not a word you should have in your dictionary… and I want to prove it. I am sure if people don’t – at least, my team will support me in my plans… whether it is sales, whether it is hanging out or fighting a terrorist.” He continued searching something in his phone. “Look at it this way – this terrorist is here and out to kill everyone present at this venue. This means I am going to be killed by him and so are the others, including you. I don’t think my life is so cheap to be killed in this fashion. I would like to die a brave death fighting this terrorist if at all I have to die…”
Jeevani and Megha looked at him as the truth sank upon them – they all were going to die any moment and so were the people who were present at various affected railway stations. They looked at Chaitanya scared of the outcome.
“We are all going to die.” He looked grimly at both of them, “The only outside chance we have is if we fight it out. There is an outside chance that few will die before we overpower this terrorist. At least others would live to tell the story of what happened here… I am trying to think of a way to fight him and overpower him.” He looked decided and they couldn’t say any word. They looked at the TV screens around and saw visuals of other stations where the TV crew had reached and they were covering the situation LIVE from outside the railway stations. They realized it would be a mass massacre in the city. There were about 3000 people trapped in CST and about the same number at Churchgate and maybe about half at each railway station attacked by the terrorists.
“My Aka is extremely happy at seeing the scared faces of you bastards expecting death any moment and he is relishing the thought. He has fixed time of your death. It is going to be at 9:08 pm. It is 9:00 pm as of now – you have only 8 minutes of life left. I am going to break the hell loose at you and enjoy the scene of your death.” The terrorist shouted out to the already scared lot of people. “Hey! Cameraman, why did you stop showing the scared faces of people here? My Aka wants to see the scene…”
“I am covering it but it depends on the studio of what to show on screen.” The cameraman said in a quavering voice. He felt a relief as the studio switched to the visuals his camera was capturing. His death was on lease for few more minutes.
He typed a message to his group on the whatsapp group telling them that he was going to fight the terrorist and not going to die so easily, if they would join him and if people around them would join the fight it out and try and overpower the terrorist. Then he went back to the information he was searching…
Jeevani looked at his expression full of resolve to fight and not give in to death so easily which gave her the confidence, “I will join the fight for survival with you Chaits… even I don’t want to die without a fight.” She said with conviction. Looking at her conviction, Megha got the confidence and assured them that even she will join the fight for survival – no matter what the outcome. But she won’t die without a fight. People around got the feeling that they could fight it out looking at the resolve of Chaitanya, Jeevani and Megha and they started voicing their wish to join the fight. This gave Chaitanya all the more boost to his feeling of fighting it out. Further, they all were looking at him and his leadership skill to lead the fight.
“What’s your plan?” Jeevani asked him as she saw a smile of triumph on his face.
“Look at this information… he is carrying AK47 which can fire 30 to 40 rounds at one go in 3 seconds. Then he needs to reload another magazine. Considering he is a pro and he has tucked the spare magazines which he could reach easily – he will take up to 10 seconds to reload and start firing again…” he had pressed the option of speech to text on his phone and his phone was typing out the words he said on his whatsapp to be sent to the group.
“I have confirmation from the group that people around also want to join the fight and they are about 500 plus who would be with us in the fight. We have a stock of millions of stones or gravel as they are called. If we attack the terrorist with these stones at the same time – we will be able to attack with 1 stone per person per second which means about 500 stones per second of combined effort. This means in 13 seconds, about 6000 to 7000 stones by the time he finishes his first magazine and reloads it with the next… Think about it 30 bullets against 7000 stones in the same time gap. We are bound to win… are you with me? Give me the confirmation so that I will coordinate the attack for everyone…” he looked at the message which his phone had typed using his voice and sent it to his group.
He waited for the confirmations from his team and looked around and saw a man in his fifties crouching next to him with a whistle around his neck wearing a railway uniform. He asked him for his whistle which the person gave him and he was happy when he got the confirmation that more than 600 people wanted to join him in this fight with stones against the bullets of AK47.
He asked them to gather the stones they would be hurling at the terrorist in a heap for quick refill if need be and wait for a whistle which would be the signal to attack. This needed to be a coordinated attack by everyone at the exact same time.
“Jeevani – you play cricket and I know you are one of the best fielders in your side with accurate throwing capability. I want you to aim at his face thinking his face are the stumps and it is a desperate throw for a run out to win your match. Will you be able to do so?” and Jeevani nodded her readiness. “Megha, I want to call your studio and tell them they should show the action LIVE which may inspire other people stranded at other stations and carry out similar fight.” And she immediately got in touch with her studio even as people got ready with their pile of gravel stones.
Chaitanya looked at his watch 9:03 pm. He took a deep breath and collected as many stones he could in his left hand and held 2 more in his right. He put the whistle to his mouth, took a deep breath and blew the whistle. At the same time he stood up and hurled the stones at the bewildered terrorist who couldn’t understand why someone blew a whistle. Others joined him and the terrorist could see nothing except a number of stones coming toward him at great speed. He raised his gun to fire but couldn’t fire. One of the stones thrown by Jeevani found its mark on his nose between his eyes and he was blinded by the impact. At the same time the other stones started to injure him fatally.
Others who were sceptical about this move by Chaitanya saw what was happening and joined in hurling stones at the terrorist and now the stones were coming at him thick and fast injuring him all the more. Within a minute, the terrorist had fallen down and lying senseless or dead due to the injuries. Chaitanya blew the whistle again, jumped up on the platform and sped toward the terrorist and saw him lying senseless. He kicked the gun out of his hand. Naved had rushed from the platform where he was hiding and was next to Chaitanya and the terrorist kicking him hard relentlessly on his ribs and face shouting, ”You killed my brother now it’s time for you to die…”
The angry crowd was gathering around the fallen terrorist and were about to attack his senseless body when a couple of policemen with sticks in their hand intervened and pushed back the crowd, “We need to get more information from him about any hidden terrorist in the city or the country. Please don’t kill him.” They pleaded to the crowd and the crowd unwillingly submitted to their request. This all was broadcast LIVE and the people on other stations had seen what had happened at CST and took inspiration and carried out a similar war on terrorism. Soon, all the terrorists had fallen and the peace had returned to the city.
“You are the real hero of the evening.” Megha smiled and hugged Chaitanya. On an instinct she pecked him on his cheek, “What is your plan for the rest of the night? It seems the trains are not going to start plying till early tomorrow morning – that is if, the rain stops hammering the city. Any word you would like to say to viewers of my channel?”
“Yes – of course.” He turned to the cameraman who with a smile of replief on his face started to record as well post it LIVE on the channel, “This is a message to all those terrorists who want to disrupt the life of Mumbai – People of Mumbai have a spirit that will never die and anyone of you now dare to visit our city – you will be stoned like you are mad dogs.” He smiled at Megha “Well – I think, I will like to sip on a cup of hot tea sold in the stall outside CST across the road and then I along with my team and Jeevani will trek back to our homes or till we getpras alternative transport…”
“Ok then, I guess I will have to keep reporting till my channel wants to and then possibly they will call me to the studio to report this terrorist activity – because I have seen it first-hand. Here, take my card and do keep in touch.” She held out her hand to Chaitanya and he put her card in his pocket and shook hands with her.
He along with others walked out of CST and across the road and stopped at the tea stall. Thankfully, it was still serving people. The minute the vendor saw Chaitanya he was elated, “You are the guy who managed the show of showing terrorist that he is nobody but a mad dog, right?”
“Correct” said his team proud of Chaitanya.
“Tea will be served and at no cost to a hero like you, give me a couple of minutes as I heat it up and serve to you…” the vendor beamed at them.
“By any chance do you also sell cigarettes?”
“Yes. I do. Tell me which brand, even that’s a gift from me to you.” Chaitanya pointed to a pack of cigarettes and the vendor handed the packet to him. He pulled out a cigarette and was about to smoke when Jeevani pulled the cigarette out of his lips and smiled at him…
“You know Chaits, till now we were good friends. I think I need a boyfriend now…” she said and put her arms around him and put her lips on his and kissed him long and sweet, while others turned their back and let them enjoy the kiss.
Do out your comments on how you like this story…
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