21k

I did it! I completed the Mumbai half marathon this Sunday. A whopping 21 kms, and I've never run before. Expected to run about 10km, but surprised myself running close to 13. The hubbysaur and his cousin did the full marathon - 42 kms!!! The Bandra-Worli sea link nearly derailed everyone though - there was no water along the 5.5km stretch and nearly half a km before and after - left a lot of runners dehydrated. In fact, most of the water and refreshments on the way were provided by well meaning Mumbaikars who thronged the street shouting out words of encouragement. Would be nice if some of them didn't stand in the middle of the route to do so, though. All in all, proud of myself, the hubbysaur and near & dear ones who ran yesterday. Cant wait to do it again!

Small change

If you were disgusted by the media as they turned the most horrific attacks on Mumbai into a nightmare and hindered rescue operations, please sign this petition!

Over?

Not quite, for Mumbai will take a really long time to recover from this one!

Unbelievable

Are these guys out of their minds? Why would the NSG want to continue conducting rescue operations in full view of a media that only wants to sensationalize the issue? Even my mum knows that TV feeds could be watched by anybody who is assisting these terrorists and help them stay one step ahead of the commandos! The mobile networks are also helping I suppose. What a disaster, we are looking at a seemingly never ending crisis!

Living in a nightmare

I was watching 'The Siege' on TV just a few days ago, and today I feel as if I'm living in it. The city is paralyzed, the armed forces have imposed a curfew in South Bombay and everybody is panicking! G was at the Taj till about 8 last evening, and fortunately, we decided to head home at 9 instead of going to Colaba for dinner. The recent events at Nariman Point are worse than anything we could have imagined. Top cops have been killed including Hemant Karkare, the head of the Anti Terrorism Squad, Vijay Salaskar and Ashok Kamte. Tourist and business locations, including the beloved Leopold cafe, the heritage Taj property and the Oberoi, where most of the financial community passes by every single day, have been targeted.

And the media is having a field day, creating as much sensation as possible. It was really heart wrenching to hear a distraught witness plead with the anchor of an English news channel, asking him to flash on screen that innocents were stuck inside the Oberoi and they needed help. And all that the anchor was bothered about was the body count!

As usual, government officials are mumbling their way through this (Milind Deora seemed coherent, I'll grant him that!), and nobody is offering any reassurances. Much has been said about the legendary resilience of Mumbai and how the city is in shock, but the fact remains that this is no ordinary terrorist attack. Mumbai is under attack and we need a better response than this!

It makes me wanna hurl...

... thats why I didn't want to blog about it till now. But its difficult to ignore something as big as women being molested right outside one of Mumbai's poshest hotels, while the police commissioner makes statements about making mountains out of molehills! Calling this an outrageous act would be an understatement. The women I know, and I, have been rendered speechless by the enormity of this event. A lot of women I know like to go out at night with family and friends. This scares the hell out of all of them.

The 2 victims weren't even 'provocatively dressed' as some would call it. But these men needed no provocation. Like Tony Curtis famously said, being a woman is like waving a red flag at a bull! The police have caught 2 of the 50 odd men at the scene (4 if some reports are to be believed). One of them has been in fact turned in by neighbours. Admirable, yes. But does nothing to cover up the fact that Mumbai is no longer safe. The solution lies not in women staying at home, but ensuring that we set an example. Hang these men I say, that ought to scare the hell out of everybody else!

No sex for a million years!

A tiny creature that has not had sex for 100 million years has overturned the theory that animals need to mate to create variety. Analysis of the jaw shapes of bdelloid rotifers, combined with genetic data, revealed that the animals have diversified under pressure of natural selection. (Read the whole article here).

Isn't it amazing how nature works? The most microscopic organism can expose staggering truths about life on earth. I wonder at the patience of the scientists who actually did research on a tiny little microbe that lives on a louse!

In other news, I recently started updating my other blog - about Mumbai life.