Mumbai Blasts - 7/11

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. On Wednesday, 11th July 2006, Mumbai witnessed 7 blasts in 11 minutes, and all on the Western Railway line. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The blast sites:



The trains that were targeted:






The victims:



So much happened, so many died, so many lived to go back to work yet another day. And all the intelligence the police was sitting on lied just there. Another few days of pretending to find culprits. And then everybody forgets. The police, the government, the media, you, me. But one group of people remember it as another building block to another attack. The terrorists are having it shamefully easy. Pakistan must do something....other than lying.

Zizou joke

I couldn't keep this one out....
One of the few Zidane head-butt jokes doing the rounds -

U knw why Zidane hit Metarazzi?????...........
Coz Metarazzi asked Zidane "Hum Chloromint kyon Khate Hai??????"
Zidane said "Dobara Mat Puchna".......
hehehe.....

Zizou...we're with u!!

I was completely rooting for France, not just becoz of my love for Zizou and the French game, but also becoz Italy should never have won that match against Australia the way they did. Its a shame Zidane had to retire this way - with people saying all sorts of derogatory things about him. But there's more to the head-butt than what met the eye on the day of the finals. Professional lip readers around the globe are trying to figure out what Matarazzi said before Zidane took the extreme step that cost him a Red Card. Matarazzi, who was the on the recieving end of the header, allegedly uttered a racial slur to Zizou, calling him an "Algerian terrorist". Another one doing the rounds is that he called Zizou's sister a "whore".

Its quite unbelievable that physical harm done to players on the field are penalised whereas verbal insults are completely accepted. In cricket, the most popular game in my country India, verbal slurs - termed as sledging - are dealt with by the umpire (an equivalent of the referee). Although the rules against sledging are relatively nascent and there is no rulebook to define what words are right or wrong, its definitely a start! If we ignore sledging for now and look at the physical aspects, what the referee in the World Cup 2006 finals did not see was Matarazzi pinching Zidane's nipples before he said the derogatory sentences. You can see this in any of the videos doing the rounds. Here's one of them from youtube.com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Z_pNWjQbE&search=zidane%20head
What would u expect the man to do? What he's done just makes him a bigger hero. A man who will stand for his rights and not take shit. Zizou, we love you!

I also wanna spare some text space for my aunt, whose first comments on the Zidane head-butt was "What do you expect? He's a Muslim after all." Now this is a woman who is an absolute nothing in the volume of the world, talking about someone who has dissovled boundaries and become a legend by sheer grit and ability. And a comment made without any knowledge of what might have forced Zizou to do such a thing in his last match before his retirement. Some people are so involved in their own reasonings and opinions that they fail to generate any logical conclusions. I don't know where her religion will take her. But i do hope other sane people learn to ignore and tune out such people from their lives.