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Piercing the Heart: Unheard Voices of 26/11
And the ‘only ifs’ do not just add up to armchair examinations. They convince. This is because the articles are by experts and journalists, eyewitnesses to the terror attacks on Mumbai on November 11. The book is not given to mawkish ramblings. But despite its factual and no-nonsense approach, it touches a deep chord and is a chilling reminder that cataclysmic events such as these, if they are to be prevented, must be dealt with pure reason and foresight, certainly not emotion and hindsight.
Certainly, both books are earnest attempts at careful and responsible writing and much is expected from them. Sodhi is the foreign affairs editor at The Statesman and Mumbai Attacked brings together names like Ashish Khetan (Tehelka), George Koshy (CNN-IBN), Rahul Shivshankar (Times Now), Harsh Joshi and Chris Khetan along with Bachi Karkaria and interestingly, Julio Riberio, former police commissioner of Mumbai and DGP, Punjab. Mumbai Attacked by Roli Books was first-off-the-block, published on the heels of the terror strike, while Sodhi’s Piercing the Heart by Rupa & Co is the third book out on the subject. (Penguin in collaboration with the Hindustan Times also released a book on the attacks). So while Sodhi believes it was important to "record these sentiments `85 because it is an indication of where this country is headed", Baweja offers "`85 a full 360-degree look at 26/11". And while some may question the rush to publish, it does not take away from the fact that Mumbai Attacked is well-researched and presented. While it is true that most of the material is already known to those who followed the events unfolding over the 60 hours, but to have it all put together cohesively makes sense. What differentiates Piercing the Heart though is an endeavour to touch beneath the surface at the beating heart. But before plunging into the real "heart" of the book, Sodhi offers a series of differently titled prologues, including an interview by her with then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee which had appeared in The Statesman earlier. However, it is when Sodhi begins with the experiences of the survivors that the book starts to come into its own. Her approach is empathetic and unbiased and there are glittering moments of a deeper, sensitive understanding. She writes, "No one who has lived in this city has failed to love it. And you don’t abandon your loves. If they break, you patiently rebuild them. And love them even more, because for those brief moments you had seen the broken images and sensed that deep loss." Her description of survivor Bhisham Mansukhani’s impression as he walked out of the Taj Hotel where "dense smoke" stood in the corridors "like a physical entity" literally take the reader right into the corridor at the Taj. But alas, it ends there. In her attempt to keep it simple, Sodhi has perhaps over-simplified her account. The approach is repetitive and although she has attempted to explain this right in the beginning, the shoddy editing does not help. Furthermore, the selection of people interviewed seems skewed. Most seem to belong to a certain class and from a single location. The exceptions are railway announcer Vishnu Dattaram Zende whose incredible bravery has been well documented earlier with his astute account and observation of Mumbai’s indefatigable spirit being more a case of "rozi-roti" than planned bravery and the Leopold Caf`E9’s waiter Chand Pasha’s deeply poignant remembrance of what happened on 26/11 at the Caf`E9. Pasha lost his brother during the attack but he was back at work soon after. There was no choice, he states simply. Mumbai Attacked also too could have done with some more value-addition since it was the first book out on the subject. More detailed maps, if not of the sites of the terror attacks, but the areas around would have helped to visualise the accounts better. Also Karkariapiece, while emotionally written, does seem out-of-place in this volume replete with comprehensive facts. But read they must be. If I am asked why, here is my reason: lest we forget.
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THE
phrase "on hindsight" is used repeatedly by Harinder Baweja
(investigative journalist, editor, Tehelka, and editor of this
book) in the last chapter of 26/11 Mumbai Attacked titled Why
India Will Be Hit Again. This expression is perhaps what defines
26/11 so acutely. In hindsight, the carnage could have been prevented
only if ... .
Alternatively,
Simran Sodhi’s Piercing the Heart: Unheard Voices of 26/11, a
slim volume with its desolate cover harkening to the tragedy, urges
the reader to pick it up for precisely the opposite reason. Here is a
chance to empathise and honour "unheard" survivors, ordinary
people like you and me, whose lives changed in one chilling moment.