Tourists go on terror walk

Fifteen days after the attacks, many Mumbaiites and perhaps as many visitors are making their way to the six spots – Café Leopold, Taj, Nariman House, Oberoi and Trident hotels and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) — the terrorists targeted on November 26.

Fifteen days after the attacks, many Mumbaiites and perhaps as many visitors are making their way to the six spots – Café Leopold, Taj, Nariman House, Oberoi and Trident hotels and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) — the terrorists targeted on November 26.

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It is a packed house at Café Leopold, and owner Farhang Jehani is a busy man. “They all want to see the bullets holes,” he said.

At CST, a woman rushes out of a train that has pulled in, stopped at the police assistance booth and asked Constable Mahadev Kamble to point out where the terrorists struck. As she saw the bullet marks on the wall, she covered her mouth with the corner of her sari “Anyone standing there would have got it in his head. It could have been anyone, even someone from my family,” she said, shocked.

At a glass-fronted eatery in CST, riddled with bullets from the terrorists’ assault rifles, life is returning to normal. The shattered glass has been stuck together in places with stickers.

“Initially, many people came and asked what had happened. Slowly, the curiosity is wearing off,” said Abhishek Bindal who runs the eatery called Re-fresh.

“It is like a terrorism walk,” media person Anup Kutty described the phenomena.

And there are many like Syed Yamani who have come not to gawk but to pay a quiet tribute. “People must come here, not to enjoy themselves but to understand that terrorism needs to be fought by us all.”