By: Quaid Najmi
The Gen Z -- those born from 1997 onwards -- who 'witnessed' the terrifying Mumbai terror strikes (November 26, 2008) at a very innocent age, carries blurry memories of those 60 blood-stained hours.
After 14 years that shook India and dazed the world, the Gen Z -- accounting for over 45-crore ambitious youth, largely first-time voters -- feels 'safer and secure' and looks back with pride at how the country has managed to overcome and move on from that scary experience besides averting similar tragedies since then.
"I was just eight years old then, studying at the St Louis Convent School in Andheri, and watched the television fleetingly. Much didn't register properly, but a couple of years later, I realized the real implications of that terror assault," reminisces Siane D'Cruz, who works for a tourism group.
On the other hand, an Edutech consultant Pruthvi Parikh, then studying at Cambridge School, Kandivali remembers some of the details and later updated his hazy knowledge via social media.
"That night, soon after the terror strike began, I went to sleep as I had to attend school the next morning. Around midnight my uncle called up and explained the gravity of the situation to the family particularly since many of my relatives lived in the close vicinity of the terror strikes in south Mumbai," Parikh said.
Dr. Shreyash Parab, 23, goes back to how the kids in the neighborhood were amused seeing their worried parents or grandparents glued to the television sets, devouring the newspapers and discussing the 26/11 in hushed tones.
"The next morning, the government declared school holidays for the next couple of days. We were looking forward to playing outdoors, but our parents stopped us and we were kept largely indoors. Seeing them, we kids could understand that something critical was going on," said Dr. Parab.
Amina Ansari (name changed to protect her identity), a preschool instructor in south Mumbai, still has clear memories of those dark days as it all happened very close to her residence in Byculla.
"There was almost a curfew-like atmosphere. Police vehicles, ambulances, and VVIP cars zoom around with their flashing beacons or blaring sirens. We kids watched the attacks on television but could not understand the implications till much later," said Shaikh, who was 10 years old then.
Today, 14 years later, D'Cruz, Parikh, Dr. Parab, and Shaikh are as grateful as the rest of the country, to the "brave security forces" who fought those 10 terrorists and caught one (Ajmal Amir Kasab) alive.
