Editorial Viewpoint
In cold blood
How intricately the history of the Zoroastrian community is intertwined with that of Bombay became apparent when four of the six major terrorist targets this November had Parsi/Irani origins.
The brunt of the attack was borne by the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers Hotel adjacent to the Gateway of India and built at the behest of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of Indian industry.
The Cama and Albless Hospital, founded by the Medical Women for India Fund thanks to a donation of Rs 2,64,300 from Pestonjee Hormusji Cama in 1887, endured part of the assault as did Café Leopold where at least two deaths occurred and scores were injured.
One of the main targets of the terrorists was a Jewish rabbi and his family residing at Nariman House not far from Cusrow Baug. The building belongs to a Parsi family, Dadibhai Nusserwanji Khambatta and Gulshan Khambatta, according to The Times of India (December 2, 2008).
While the 42,000 or so Parsis/Iranis constitute 0.26 percent of Bombay’s population (around 16 million) the community constituted 1.60 percent of those who died in the carnage (around l88). Had there been a Zoroastrian wedding or navjote at the Taj or the Oberoi Trident at that time the number of Parsi/Irani deaths may have gone into hundreds. As it is two Parsi diners at the Oberoi Trident, Rohinton Maloo and Farokh Dinshaw Italia were shot dead
Noshir Sanjana, an off duty security guard at the Taj seeing the attack on television rushed to the Taj. He received a bullet in his leg. Chef Kaizad Kamdin also died in the line of duty, saving hotel guests. When finally he was relieved from that treacherous assignment, three bullets hit him, one in the face.
Meherzad Dehmiri of Leopold Café rubbished the reports that terrorists dined at the restaurant and then attacked. “They fired from outside,” he noted. Bullets were also sprayed at the shops across the road from Leopold. Seven people died including two waiters. Dehmiri had left Leopold around six that evening to go to Café Universal. Leopold is jointly owned by Farzad and Farhang Jehani and Rashid and Gustad Dehmiri.
Neville Bharucha a volunteer sergeant of the Parsi Ambulance Division (PAD) said he, along with divisional commander Aspi Sarkari, four other volunteers and staff were at the Taj hotel from 8.30 p.m. Thursday night. Bharucha went hom
e only at 8.30 the next night. Three ambulances of the Division’s five were pressed into service ferrying the wounded and dead to hospital.
The ambulance personnel went up to the second floor of the hotel which was covered with cartridge shells, “Pushkal hataa. Téni uppar chaltaa ta, (there were many, we had to walk over them).”
The PAD is 104 years old, the Taj 105, notes Bharucha.
Dr Ashish Contractor, a preventive cardiologist who was driving past Café Leopold after the initial firing and stopped to assist, wrote about the disaster in an article in The Times of India of December 1, 2008. Driving in an ambulance to St George Hospital with two victims Contractor recalls the scene at the government run hospital: “Around 10.15 pm, all hell broke loose as bodies started pouring in on handcarts, ambulances and other vehicles. In minutes the entire ground floor outside casualty resembled a war zone. The staff at St George’s responded valiantly to the crisis. Nursing, medical, as well as dental students all pitched in to help. The operation theater was running in quick time and four to six surgeries were simultaneously performed… Credit must be given to hospital staff who worked courageously through the night. But we need an organized disaster management plan so hospitals can cope better in future.”
Former member of the cabinet secretariat, government of India, and senior RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) official Russi Choksi believes the response to the tragedy could have been faster if a local unit of the National Security Guards had been stationed in Maharashtra close to Bombay.
They would not only have reached sooner but would also be more familiar with the terrain. The commandos who were flown in from Delhi “were not aware of the internal settings of the Taj and Oberoi,” Choksi noted. “Nariman House we can understand” would not be known.
The guardsmen were “fully aware of how to go about” tackling terrorism. But they did not know how many terrorists and how many occupants were in the various buildings.
Choksi described Anti Terrorist Squad leader Hemant Karkare as “God’s honest man.” The two had served together several years ago. Karkare had in the past escaped “from far more dangerous operations.” The upright officer believing danger not to be apparent near the Cama Hospital removed his bullet proof vest. The material of the vest “makes it very hot,” said Choksi. “The first chance you get to remove it” you do. Karkare was then shot dead.
The son of noted journalist Bachi Karkaria and consultant Jehangir was to spend his wedding night and the next at the Taj Heritage Wing, an upgrade from the new Tower. The reception at Colaba’s Jeejeebhoy Dadabhai Agiary grounds on November 26, 2008, the first night of the attack was attended by many community members.
Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Dinshaw Mehta was enroute to the wedding venue from another function via Colaba Causeway when a traffic jam before Leopold Café forced him to turn around and take another route. At Colaba he received a text message from noted lawyer Ryan Karanjawalla alerting him not to venture to the Taj at any time because of the attack. A Delhi resident, Karanjawalla who resides at the Taj when in Bombay, in turn had been alerted by the Taj staff while dining at the President Hotel. Everyone was all praise for the Hotel staff that alerted residents and guided numerous guests to safety through kitchen doors and passages.
Mehta’s son Hormuz along with seven other friends including Khojeste Mistree’s daughter Tashaan were dining at the roadside stall of the famed Badé Miya in a bylane behind the Taj when all of them were advised to spend the night in the neighborhood as all the roads in the area were blocked and the whereabouts of the terrorists was not ascertained.
Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, while noting in an interview published in the Mumbai Mirror, December 1, 2008 (that) “the infrastructure (to combat terrorism) was woefully poor” added “rather than succumb to this kind of terror, what it has done is given us a resolve that nobody can (again) do this to us… We’re indignant but we’re not scared.”
Referring to the hotel’s general manager Karambir Kang whose wife and two sons, aged 14 and five were killed in the attack, Tata recalled, “I went up to him and told him how sorry I was, and he said, ‘Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was.’”
The institutions will be rebuilt undoubtedly and Bombay will resume its desperate pace but for those families whose loved ones died in the carnage their lives are tragically maimed forever.
The brunt of the attack was borne by the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers Hotel adjacent to the Gateway of India and built at the behest of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of Indian industry.
The Cama and Albless Hospital, founded by the Medical Women for India Fund thanks to a donation of Rs 2,64,300 from Pestonjee Hormusji Cama in 1887, endured part of the assault as did Café Leopold where at least two deaths occurred and scores were injured.
One of the main targets of the terrorists was a Jewish rabbi and his family residing at Nariman House not far from Cusrow Baug. The building belongs to a Parsi family, Dadibhai Nusserwanji Khambatta and Gulshan Khambatta, according to The Times of India (December 2, 2008).
While the 42,000 or so Parsis/Iranis constitute 0.26 percent of Bombay’s population (around 16 million) the community constituted 1.60 percent of those who died in the carnage (around l88). Had there been a Zoroastrian wedding or navjote at the Taj or the Oberoi Trident at that time the number of Parsi/Irani deaths may have gone into hundreds. As it is two Parsi diners at the Oberoi Trident, Rohinton Maloo and Farokh Dinshaw Italia were shot dead
Noshir Sanjana, an off duty security guard at the Taj seeing the attack on television rushed to the Taj. He received a bullet in his leg. Chef Kaizad Kamdin also died in the line of duty, saving hotel guests. When finally he was relieved from that treacherous assignment, three bullets hit him, one in the face.
Meherzad Dehmiri of Leopold Café rubbished the reports that terrorists dined at the restaurant and then attacked. “They fired from outside,” he noted. Bullets were also sprayed at the shops across the road from Leopold. Seven people died including two waiters. Dehmiri had left Leopold around six that evening to go to Café Universal. Leopold is jointly owned by Farzad and Farhang Jehani and Rashid and Gustad Dehmiri.
Neville Bharucha a volunteer sergeant of the Parsi Ambulance Division (PAD) said he, along with divisional commander Aspi Sarkari, four other volunteers and staff were at the Taj hotel from 8.30 p.m. Thursday night. Bharucha went hom
e only at 8.30 the next night. Three ambulances of the Division’s five were pressed into service ferrying the wounded and dead to hospital.
The ambulance personnel went up to the second floor of the hotel which was covered with cartridge shells, “Pushkal hataa. Téni uppar chaltaa ta, (there were many, we had to walk over them).”
The PAD is 104 years old, the Taj 105, notes Bharucha.
Dr Ashish Contractor, a preventive cardiologist who was driving past Café Leopold after the initial firing and stopped to assist, wrote about the disaster in an article in The Times of India of December 1, 2008. Driving in an ambulance to St George Hospital with two victims Contractor recalls the scene at the government run hospital: “Around 10.15 pm, all hell broke loose as bodies started pouring in on handcarts, ambulances and other vehicles. In minutes the entire ground floor outside casualty resembled a war zone. The staff at St George’s responded valiantly to the crisis. Nursing, medical, as well as dental students all pitched in to help. The operation theater was running in quick time and four to six surgeries were simultaneously performed… Credit must be given to hospital staff who worked courageously through the night. But we need an organized disaster management plan so hospitals can cope better in future.”
Former member of the cabinet secretariat, government of India, and senior RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) official Russi Choksi believes the response to the tragedy could have been faster if a local unit of the National Security Guards had been stationed in Maharashtra close to Bombay.
They would not only have reached sooner but would also be more familiar with the terrain. The commandos who were flown in from Delhi “were not aware of the internal settings of the Taj and Oberoi,” Choksi noted. “Nariman House we can understand” would not be known.
The guardsmen were “fully aware of how to go about” tackling terrorism. But they did not know how many terrorists and how many occupants were in the various buildings.
Choksi described Anti Terrorist Squad leader Hemant Karkare as “God’s honest man.” The two had served together several years ago. Karkare had in the past escaped “from far more dangerous operations.” The upright officer believing danger not to be apparent near the Cama Hospital removed his bullet proof vest. The material of the vest “makes it very hot,” said Choksi. “The first chance you get to remove it” you do. Karkare was then shot dead.
The son of noted journalist Bachi Karkaria and consultant Jehangir was to spend his wedding night and the next at the Taj Heritage Wing, an upgrade from the new Tower. The reception at Colaba’s Jeejeebhoy Dadabhai Agiary grounds on November 26, 2008, the first night of the attack was attended by many community members.
Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Dinshaw Mehta was enroute to the wedding venue from another function via Colaba Causeway when a traffic jam before Leopold Café forced him to turn around and take another route. At Colaba he received a text message from noted lawyer Ryan Karanjawalla alerting him not to venture to the Taj at any time because of the attack. A Delhi resident, Karanjawalla who resides at the Taj when in Bombay, in turn had been alerted by the Taj staff while dining at the President Hotel. Everyone was all praise for the Hotel staff that alerted residents and guided numerous guests to safety through kitchen doors and passages.
Mehta’s son Hormuz along with seven other friends including Khojeste Mistree’s daughter Tashaan were dining at the roadside stall of the famed Badé Miya in a bylane behind the Taj when all of them were advised to spend the night in the neighborhood as all the roads in the area were blocked and the whereabouts of the terrorists was not ascertained.
Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, while noting in an interview published in the Mumbai Mirror, December 1, 2008 (that) “the infrastructure (to combat terrorism) was woefully poor” added “rather than succumb to this kind of terror, what it has done is given us a resolve that nobody can (again) do this to us… We’re indignant but we’re not scared.”
Referring to the hotel’s general manager Karambir Kang whose wife and two sons, aged 14 and five were killed in the attack, Tata recalled, “I went up to him and told him how sorry I was, and he said, ‘Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was.’”
The institutions will be rebuilt undoubtedly and Bombay will resume its desperate pace but for those families whose loved ones died in the carnage their lives are tragically maimed forever.
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