In the midst of death ... life persists ....

I've been meaning to write something about the horrors of the mumbai massacre for days .... but find myself constantly bombarded by stories, op-eds and frankly conflicting emotions ...

Day 1 was filled with such overwhelming fury as i'd never known .... even greater oddly enough than after the London 7/7 bombings .... i'm not reading too much into that (big box cearly filled with too much for a quick post) .... Day two - insatiable need to keep up to date with whatever was happening moment by moment .... By Day three - horror and overwhelming grief .... which has slowly abated to sadness, respect, a need to mourn and remember .... an inexplicable pride in the armed services and also the hotel workers and people who sacrificed themselves or showed great courage to help others .... and huge relief that there have been few repercussions within India ..... and that anger rightly has focussed on the fatuous ineffectiveness of Indian politicians and the ticking timebomb that is Pakistan ...

i've been devouring blogs and articles trying to get more of a handle on what really went wrong .... and what ought to be done ....

Old heroes of mine such as Arundhati Roy seem shrill in their "liberalness" .... somehow i can't bring myself to agree with her polemic ... favourite novelists like Amit Choudhuri have provided nostalgia ... and Shashi Tharoor political platitudes ...

I'm going to the Frontline club tonight to hear some British journos including ones who were there ... give their insight .... so more after that ... but I'm attaching is Karsh Kale's tribute to mumbai ... which has most tapped into the emotions that i'm feeling but can't put words to ...