Rumour mills go into overdrive, but Mumbaiites remain calm

MUMBAI, February 27: Mumbai, or rather Mumbaiites, have learnt to deal with crises. As the news of the triple blasts spread this afternoon, ...

MUMBAI, February 27: Mumbai, or rather Mumbaiites, have learnt to deal with crises. As the news of the triple blasts spread this afternoon, there was no panic. People did leave their offices early and newspaper offices were flooded with calls, but on the roads and at the railway stations there was no rush. Western Railway, which bore the brunt of one of the explosions, was running only 15 minutes late following a brief suspension in the afternoon, when the reports last came in.

Though people were worried, the fear was underplayed. “People are telling me that bomb blasts have occurred on the railway platform at Kandivli. But as the trains are operating on the Western Railway, I am sure that the blast must not have been so intense. As far as we are concerned, we can only help the police by not panicking and most importantly, by not indulging in rumour mongering,” said Lancy Noronha, a resident of Lower Parel.

But everybody wanted to get home…sooner the better. “One of the blasts has occurred on therailway platform at Kandivli. It can happen anywhere…nobody is safe,” said Mahesh Shetty, a resident of Santacruz as he headed home. Shetty, an executive of a business firm near CST, preferred to be home with his family, and cancelled all his business appointments later in the evening.

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When Nirmala Joshi, employed with the State Bank of India at Sion, first heard of blasts she though of leaving for home early. But, when the office peon told her that the trains were running normally, she and her colleagues decided to stay back. “I heard about the blasts and immediately called home to tell my children to stay indoors. I stay at Santacruz and was really worried,” she said. Chandreshbhai Mehta, who had come from Khar with his family to watch Chachi 420 at Eros, decided to play it safe. “It would be stupid not to take such things seriously.” The Mehtas had booked five tickets a week in advance, but decided against seeing the movie after they read about blasts in a late afternoon edition of a city tabloid.“It will be almost 10 pm when the show ends, and I am not taking any risk. We’d rather reach home safely,” Mehta said raising his voice over the announcements being made at the Churchgate station warning people against abandoned articles.

People had difficulty in contacting their residences as the telephone lines to Kalyan, Thane and Virar were jammed. Newspaper offices were flooded with anxious callers.

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