My memories of the 1993 Bombay/Mumbai serial bomb blasts

NOTE: Readers who would like to avoid such topics may please skip reading this post.

Yesterday (15th July 2015) I saw a panel discussion on CNN-IBN (a leading English language national TV news channel in India) in the 9 PM news programme, related to the rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice planned to be meted out to one of the prime accused in the 1993 Bombay/Mumbai serial bomb blasts. Here's a recent Economic Times short news article on it, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/1993-mumbai-blasts-yakub-memon-to-be-hanged-on-july-30/articleshow/48079171.cms. I don't want to get into the debate on whether this rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice being meted out is appropriate or not, in today's world.

The panel discussion also had a young man who lost his mother in the 1993 blasts (and so lost the joy & benefits of being raised by his mother), who was strongly arguing that the rarest-of-the-rare kind of justice must be done in this case.

This brought back memories of these serial blasts which badly shook up Mumbai (and, it seems, a lot of India too) then, as I was in central Mumbai when these serial blasts went off!

Firstly, for those who do not know much about the 1993 Bombay/Mumbai serial bomb blasts, here is some info. on it:

Some extracts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Bombay_bombings (I am deliberately avoiding sensitive contents in these extracts; those who want to read the whole thing can read up the wiki page itself):

The 1993 Mumbai bombings were a series of 13 bomb explosions that took place in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India on Friday, 12 March 1993. The coordinated attacks were the most destructive bomb explosions in Indian history. The single-day attacks resulted in over 350 fatalities and 1200 injuries.
...
Background:
In December 1992 and January 1993, there was widespread rioting in Mumbai following the 6 December destruction of Babri Mosque in Ayodhya ... Two thousand people died in the Ayodhya incident, and a series of riots soon erupted throughout the nation, most notably in Mumbai. After five years following the December–January riots, the Srikrishna Commission Report stated that nine hundred individuals, lost their lives and over two thousand were injured. [Ravi: For more on this background, read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Riots.]
...
The bombings:
At 1:30 pm a powerful car bomb exploded in the basement of the Mumbai Stock Exchange building. The 28-storey office building housing the exchange was severely damaged, and many nearby office buildings also suffered some damage. About 50 were killed by this explosion. About 30 minutes later, another car bomb exploded elsewhere in the city, and from 1:30 pm to 3:40 pm a total of 13 bombs exploded throughout Mumbai. Most of the bombs were car bombs, but some were in scooters.

Three hotels, the Hotel Sea Rock, Hotel Juhu Centaur, and Hotel Airport Centaur, were targeted by suitcase bombs left in rooms booked by the perpetrators. Banks, the regional passport office, hotels, the Air India Building, and a major shopping complex were also hit. Bombs exploded at Zaveri Bazaar, area opposite of Century Bazaar, Katha Bazaar, Shiv Sena Bhavan, and Plaza Theatre. A jeep-bomb at the Century Bazaar exploded. Grenades were also thrown at Sahar International Airport and at Fishermen's Colony, apparently targeting Hindus at the latter. A double decker bus was very badly damaged in one of the explosions and that single incident accounted for the greatest loss of life – perhaps up to ninety people were killed.
...
Aftermath:
The official number of dead was 257 with 1,400 others injured ...
--- end wiki extracts ---

Here are 11 pics which are a grim pictorial reminder of the havoc caused on that day, and 1 pic of a memorial, http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/these-12-images-are-a-grim-reminders-of-the-1993-mumbai-serial-blasts-that-rocked-the-nation-234827.html.

And here's a map having the locations of these bomb blasts (the left hand side of the pic has, what seems to be, old data about the judicial process related to it), http://images.jagran.com/mumbai-1993.jpg. Here's another regular map of Mumbai with Andheri (place where I lived then) at the top (North) of the map, http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/mumbai/mumbai-office-location.gif.

So that's the background. Now about my memories of that day.

I had gone to some Mumbai telephone company (govt. owned) office building in or around Worli, to meet the PRO to know more about some new voicebox services they were offering, if I recall correctly. I had quit my job as a software manager in a start-up software export firm in SEEPZ, Mumbai, and had become an independent software consultant. In that connection, I was trying to understand how I could use services of Mumbai telephone company for my one-man software consultancy shop. At that time I was living with my mother in a rented flat in Andheri (E) [Takshila society, https://plus.google.com/110316132834737456211/about, quite near Dharmakshetra, Sai orgn. centre in Mumbai. I was not a Sai devotee then.]

If I recall correctly, as I was walking towards this Mumbai telephone company building, in the afternoon, I heard some loud noise and, immediately after that, birds flying away squawking and crowing. I didn't pay too much attention to it and went into the building. It was in the waiting area outside the cabin of the PRO, if I recall correctly, that I first heard about there having been a bomb blast. Now, I am not sure whether Mumbai had experienced a bomb blast prior to this. Maybe it had. Anyway, Mumbai had faced many riot situations in the past, including the very bad and extended rioting that happened just two to three months earlier, when many people lost their lives and some parts of the city were badly disturbed. Bombayites/Mumbaikars (residents of Bombay/Mumbai) had acquired the resilience to handle some such riot disturbances in some parts of the city, without it impacting them too much mentally, especially when it came to doing their job/work.

So the first bomb blast news did not shake me up very much, if I recall correctly. Neither did it really create panic amongst others. But then came news of other blasts; one after the other. The big landmarks of the city were mentioned: Mumbai Stock Exchange, Air India building, Century Bazar (in Worli quite close to the building I was in and which blast was perhaps the loud noise that I had heard when I was walking towards the building), ... I think this sort of chain bomb blasts was the first for Mumbai or perhaps any other place in India, then. It was a real sinking feeling! BTW I was 30 years old then.

PANIC set in. I don't know whether the govt. owned telephone company officers gave some instructions or not. But work would have stopped and people started thinking about getting back home, including me. So I made my way to the main road in the Worli area to catch a bus back. I did not see any blasts on my way to the main road. I waited at the bus stop. The traffic seemed very different than normal. If I recall correctly, some public transport (BEST) buses did not stop at the bus stop. One did and I jumped in. The conductors and passengers seemed quite confused and scared.

The bus went North, passed Shivaji Park and then got off the main road leading to the Mahim causeway linking south Mumbai to north Mumbai suburbs. It took the road next to the railway tracks (not the regular route for most bus routes) and then turned towards Mahim causeway. That's when I directly experienced a riot-like situation. A group of boys (& perhaps men too - I don't recall clearly) were running, shouting slogans with a look of fury on their faces. I was looking at them from the bus. Then came the sound of some thuds as stones were thrown by them on the bus!

But these stones did not do major damage. The bus then, instead of going onto Mahim causeway, was directed into the Mahim bus depot located at the turning into the causeway, by the transport company (BEST) staff (and perhaps police too, but I don't recall that). In the bus depot, we were asked to get off the bus. I saw a lot of people gathered there. There was also one injured person with fair bit of blood on him, who was being tended to. Outside the bus depot there were a lot of police. People spoke about some gun fire earlier in the nearby fishermen's colony (on one side of the causeway road you have the Arabian Sea backwaters and on the other, the fishermen's colony). If I am not mistaken the fishermen's colony was dominated by members of one religious community whereas the area near the Mahim bus depot (where the bus I was in was pelted with a few stones) was dominated by members of another religious community. The impression was that there was a lot of tension between these two areas with the Mahim bus depot located in the middle of the two areas. If I recall correctly, traffic was either completely stopped on the causeway or very limited traffic was being allowed to pass.

I decided to find some space in one of the buildings in the bus depot and lie down. I found a room with some double decker type of benches to lie down in, and thought I should just lie down for some time for things to cool down. After some time I was questioned by a transport company staff whether I was staff and when I replied that I wasn't, I was asked not impolitely to leave. So I had to go back to where most of the non-staff (bus passengers) had gathered.

Later, I decided to go out of the bus depot. Perhaps others too had done so and I simply followed them - I do not recall clearly. Outside I saw traffic being halted at the causeway junction by the police. But they were allowing some traffic to pass. I clearly recall, even today, standing there and looking at a foreigner (white guy) in a car stopped at the junction (who either had stepped outside the car, or had stuck his head outside the window), who was looking back at me. The foreigner looked scared and seemed desperate to somehow get out of this situation. In all probability, he was headed to the airport which was further North, and connected by this vital causeway link, which would allow him to fly out of Mumbai and perhaps out of India. I don't know what the foreigner thought when he was looking at me then standing on the road and looking at him. Maybe he also saw that I was scared. I surely was confused and did not know what to do. And I wouldn't be surprised if some fear was etched on my face then.

Later they allowed more traffic to go onto the causeway and also allowed people to walk through it. I walked along the causeway and was also asking for a lift from passing cars. One car with a couple in it, stopped and picked me up. The person driving the car asked me how come I was there, walking on the causeway (I guess I would have looked like the typical office going white collar guy, which he clearly was). We had some animated discussions of the places where the bombs had supposedly gone off, and the panic in the city. They dropped me near Andheri railway station, if I recall correctly. I profusely thanked them for their help.

Andheri was quite calm. I was able to get transport (don't recall whether it was bus or auto) and reach home in Andheri (East). Mother knew very few people in the society (Takshila) we were living in and I don't recall whether we had a TV in our somewhat newly rented flat then. So, if I recall correctly, she was blissfully unaware of all that had happened in the city! As mother had become somewhat elderly and did have some health issues, perhaps the few neighbours she knew did not want to scare her by informing her of what was happening in the city.

The serial bomb blasts targeting landmarks in the city really shook up and stunned the people of the city who were somehow coming to terms with the prolonged rioting in the city just two to three months earlier, in December 1992 and January 1993. Mumbai had got its first taste of large scale terrorist attacks. However, as in later such terrorist attacks, the people of Mumbai came raring back to keep the city as vibrant as earlier, thereby defeating the terrorists.