Home they brought her warrior dead-Major Sandeep

At school there was this extremely sad and touching poem about a woman whose husband's dead body is brought home after he dies fighting as a soldier for his country. The woman is so bereft with grief that she has absolutely no tears to cry. She simply becomes a lump of stone and refuses to cry no matter how much the neighbors plead with her. At last someone brings her child and places it on her lap and seeing the innocent who will never know his father anymore, she breaks down and cries.

I was reminded of this poem seeing Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's mom cry next to his dead body. He was killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. His father could barely control his emotions when speaking to the reporters about his son. After 2 days the Kerala CM went to visit the family and he was sent away from the house (quite rightly so) by the major's father who is grieved that nobody from the Kerala gov showed up till now.

I read at http://bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com/ that Sandeep had married his childhood friend and classmate Neha, but their relationship was strained. So he leaves behind his widowed wife too.


The picture shows the major's father as he stoically holds back his tears and helps his wife reach out to touch her only son for the last time. It's a picture that breaks your heart.

It is indeed a very sad day.

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Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead
- Alfred Lord Tennyson

Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swooned, nor uttered cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
'She must weep or she will die.'
Then they praised him, soft and low,
Called him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee--
Like summer tempest came her tears--
'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

Face of terror-Mumbai under siege

21 year old Azam Amir Kasav walking around with a gun at CST station was one of the earliest images of the Mumbai terror attack. The picture was clicked by Sebastian D’souza, one of the Mumbai mirror reporters who had rushed to CST to get the details when he saw one of the two terrorists walking around at CST, spraying bullets at the people.

Ironically Azam Amir Kasav is also the most infamous with his pictures plastered across the web and the newspapers in relation with the Mumbai attacks as the face of terror. He holds the dubious distinction of being the only terrorist captured alive after the stand off. He has reportedly spilled the beans on the details and planning of the attack but more information is awaited. What’s interesting and unbelievable is that he now wants to be alive as reported in the Mumbai Mirror.

There are some images that are burnt into your consciousness long after the related events. This is definitely one of them.

Let’s hope we get all the evidence this time to build the most effective case against terrorism. Enough is enough.

Mumbai in mourning-Still reeling after the attacks

It has been the 3 most sad days for Mumbai. Terrorists attacked my beloved city and killed people indiscriminately. The first attacks started on Wednesday night and since then the body count has just been on the rise. All of us here at Mumbai are shocked, dazed, sad and very angry. This kind of terrorism has been happening to our Mumbai city over and over again. And still in spite of so many attacks we have never taken any harsh action against terrorism.

The news channels are reporting that the intelligence agencies were aware from many days now of suspicious activity. It is very sad that in spite of having prior information nothing was done to prevent this tragedy. Politicians do a lot of talking, there is a bit of discussions, huge reports are written and then all is forgotten.

I agree with what the panelists said that we need terror specialists in every city and a very effective crisis management in place. Also we need to have a separate court for dispensing justice in terrorist activities. The need of the hour is to make sure that we give the harshest punishment to terrorists. No one should ever terrorize us again.

Thankfully this time nobody praised the spirit and resilience of Mumbai city. And this is fittingly so because there is no so called spirit of Mumbai. The only spirit we were showing was because there was work to be done and so we always went back. But now we are tired of being abused and laid low in the manner by the cowards who attack us.

No one can understand the pain of a young child who lost both his parents or the pain of scores of people who have to now bury their dead after facing such an enormous tragedy themselves. We have lost the bravest officers and many people from all walks of life-rich and poor. The image of the Taj hotel burning is extremely traumatizing. These past nights have been the most harrowing time of our lives.

Please give the highest punishment to the people who have killed my Mumbai city. The common man is completely heart broken and cannot bear any more pain. May God give all of us here in Mumbai the courage to face this tragedy.