Close to 46 hours and still counting. Its unbelievable how the situation is still not under control yet. Its unbelievable how there are swarms of people so close to Nariman Building where the operation was still underway until a short while ago. Why don't people have the sense to stay away and keep their distance so as not to make things harder for the police and the army?

One of the places where the shootouts had occurred-Cafe Leopold, is an institution in itself for any Non-Mumbaikar, much like the Taj Palace Hotel. People living in Mumbai may know about it, but may never really take the time to step inside. Over the years my friends and I have passed by it many times while shopping in Colaba Causeway, but we never went in.

I happened to go there just a few short weeks ago...with a friend who is interning in Mumbai at the moment. I loved the place, the ambience, the crowd, the posters and photographs on the walls. This was when a few days had passed post Diwali. At one point some idiot outside who must've still been in holiday mode decided to burst some really loud crackers. EVERYONE in my line of vision literally jumped of their seats for a second, with panic on their faces before they realised where the sound was coming from. Then when they realised what the sounds of explosion really were everyone became instantly relaxed and some of us even started laughing.

I cant imagine the scene a few weeks later, at resturants and cafes, people relaxing over their meals, unaware of what lay in store for them, daily commuters making their way back home, patients and families at the hospital. Innocent people just going about their lives... No one deserves to die this way. I hope it will all end soon. Too many lives have been lost already.

i finally reached here yesterday. i had so many things i wanted to write about in detail.like the fact that the flight took a different route this time so i saw the Palm Jumeirah from the air at night. or the fact that after 22 years of flying Air India they did not give the bread roll and butter packet with the meal, something that's never happened before, something that i always looked forward to, my one indulgence of eating the whole packet of butter with the bread, even if i left the rest of the food.

When we were flying over Mumbai and i said goodbye to the twinkly city lights i could not even imagine the horrors that were occurring at that very moment down below. there was an unusually high level of checking going on at the airport yesterday. they were checking our passports and boarding passes at multiple points. they even re-introduced the plastic ziplock bag to keep all our liquids like perfume and lip gloss in. usually when I'm traveling with mum i carry the hand bag and she handles the travel documents. Usually when we show them to a guard for those periodic checks in between i tend to walk ahead a couple of steps. this time all of them stopped me right there and insisted i stay put till they finish their check. This when i look exactly like my mum. Another first. They've even re-introduced metal cutlery in the flight after so many years of plastic.

In hindsight all the sudden checking and the airport swarming with officials and all the brand new protocol was strange considering the fact that the terrorist attacks across Mumbai started later on. Our flight was delayed by half an hour but that was nothing new, and nothing was said about what was going on outside. its only when we landed a couple of hours later and spoke to Dad that we got the news.

These sort of attacks in Mumbai are unprecedented and frightening. We've been constantly following the news since last night. There are curfews in certain areas and the whole thing is still not over, even after over 19 hours.

I pray for the safety of the people still trapped inside the hotels, and also of the police who've lost a lot of their men, and i hope everyone i know back home is safe. i cant even imagine the state of all those people who've lost family or friends in this.