March 08, 2006
 

Caught in the cross-fire

The blasts yesterday in Varanasi nearly had personal ramifications for me.

My parents, two sets of uncles & aunts and my grand uncle had gone on a pilgrimage tour of North India as part of ceremonies conducted for my chitti paati (grand aunt) who passed away suddenly last February.

Ironically enough, my parents and an uncle-aunt family had no plan of going to Gaya. Their plan was to move ahead to Calcutta and take a flight tomorrow evening back to Madras. My grand uncle and another uncle-aunt family were to go to Gaya, return to Varanasi to complete the ceremonies and then get to Madras. But, after discussions over the last two days, they all decided to go to Gaya. My father in fact informed me by email yesterday morning that they were leaving for Gaya.

I was blissfully unaware of the blasts. In the evening, I received a call from my aunt who asked me where the families were given that there were blasts in Varanasi. I told her not to worry since they'd proceeded to Gaya. Shortly after that, my brother called me up from Madras informing me that our family was in fact at Varanasi station, platform number six. The blast took place in platform number one.

Subsequently, the Varanasi railway station was sealed off. Trains began to move and my family & relatives left for Gaya around 9 pm yesterday. They are in Gaya right now.

The greater irony is that amma called up this morning to inform us that they were safe in Gaya, Bihar. If Bihar is "safe", we can well imagine how Varanasi was from 6 pm yesterday evening.

Praveen Swami, as usual, has the intelligence angle worked out. Is it the Lashkar? Is it the Jaish? Is it the Harkat?

Rambled @ 11:48 AM

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4 comment(s)

nitin: It was definitely tense until around 9 pm when they confirmed that they were on the train to Gaya.

suraj: Umm, the Sensex _and_ the Nifty dropped by 2% today. Coincidence?

By  Jagadish (Mar 8, 2006, 10:09:00 PM)  

hi jagadish!
good to know ur parents r fine..
btw I have linked to ur blog from mine (fyki)

By  Ananthoo (Mar 8, 2006, 11:17:00 PM)  

Thanks ananthoo. I went through some of the posts. Interesting. Do you live in Mylapore?

By  Jagadish (Mar 9, 2006, 10:39:00 AM)  

After 13 years, 8 of us are now in a flight to Banaras. Hope to have peaceful time there this time

By  santhanam (Oct 19, 2019, 3:42:00 PM)  

I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.