26/11/2023
It's been 15 years since the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. For some survivors, the trauma of the memory still lingers; for others, it's an event that even shapes their goals in life; the rest are trying to keep the door shut.
For Devika Rotawan, who was nine years and 11 months old then, justice is still a quest. Shot in the right leg in the indiscriminate firing at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, she says, "Sometimes, when I run and when it's cold, it hurts. It doesn't let me forget."
Rotawan had fallen unconscious during the attack, but moments earlier she had seen "a man with a gun. He was less than 20 feet away." When she came to, she was in St George Hospital. After surgeries and a phase of rehabilitation during which she was on crutches, she regained her strength.
In June 2009, she was taken to the special court at Arthur Road Jail to identify Kasab. "I was in the witness stand and Kasab sitting close to the judge... wanted to throw a crutch at him or shoot him," she says. On November 21, 2012, Kasab was hanged but she feels full justice will be done only when the mastermind is punished. "Justice isn't done yet and so, I want to be a cop," says the 23-year-old.
For others like Rounak Kinger who had joined the Taj Mahal hotel as a trainee six months before 26/11, it was his first job. That night, he was helping with a corporate dinner at the Gateway room. When he heard gunshots, Kinger, then 21, thought it was firecrackers. Soon, he and his colleagues were told to switch off lights, close doors and crouch on the floor. Hours later, they managed to break open the windows, make a rope out of curtains and escape. When it was his turn to climb down, the curtains gave in. "I landed on the pavement with glass splinters in my knees and cracked ankles."
Kinger worked with Taj for four years before moving on.
"They say you can never forget your first job. For me, I carry that part every day," says Kinger, now an assistant vice president-culinary experience with Zomato.
#26/11
