11 July

My friend from college used to see that Tuesdays of July are ominous. There was a reason for it. 26th July was a Tuesday when entire Mumbai saw horrible rainfall and floods. Another such horrible Tuesday of July was 11 July 2006.

I remember that the very clearly. I was in college. I was studying in the third year of my degree college. Generally on Tuesdays are used to have practicals. Those days I would return home very late. I used to board the train between 6:15 to 6:45 in the evening and good return home around 7:30. Fortunately that day the practicals got cancelled because our professor was unwell. As the practicals work cancelled I came home early. I was home by 4:00 p.m.

I was studying when the phone rang. It was my sister. She was in the office and she sounded worried. She asked me that when did you get back home. I told her that I came early. She then sounded little relaxed and said switch on the TV. I did switch on the TV and went directly to the news channels. What I saw on the new channels shows me to my place.

The new channel we showing that there had been serial bomb blasts in the local trains of Mumbai. 7 blast have occurred in span of 11 minutes. The blast took place in the local trains itself. They occurred at various Stephens so the casualty was spread across various parts of the city. The new channels were showing the train timings for the trains which were affected because of the blast. I saw the train timings and realised that these were between 6:15 to 6:45. The same trains that I often take.

The virtuals were scary. The blast had destroyed the compartments of the local train. The blast had killed over 200 commuters and injured over 700 people. The explosions had been target 8 in the coaches which are generally carrying the most crowd. One explosion had also taken place in the ladies compartment. As I was continuing to listen to the news channel, the brutality of the blasts was getting uncovered.

For a moment I felt dizzy. I could not believe my fate that day. I was just thinking about the possibilities. If the practicals would have happened I would have booded one of those trains. Then I would have been a victim of those serial blasts.

But that day I was lucky. Maybe all the religious activities that I did came to fruition. That day God decided that I should be spared. Rather God decided that my family should be spared from the misery of the aftermarth. That is why everything happened that day. That is why the practical got cancelled and I got back home early.

It was unbelievable how close I was to the disaster. That day my faith in God deepened. I knew that it was only God who saved me and my family from that disaster.

A lot of disasters and calamities have happened in my college life. A lot of them had happened in the month of July. Every year in July I remember all those events. These memories make the college life painful with every passing minute.