Shaili Chopra (Left) reporting live from Gateway of India. Photo Credit: Sawf NewsNovember 30, 2008, (Sawf News) - NDTV's Shaili Chopra was the first TV journalist to report live from the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai opposite the iconic Gateway of India on November 26. This is her first hand account of the tragedy that unfolded over 60 hours.
I came here at 11 pm on Wednesday night, November 26 with a colleague. We were the first journalists to report live on television from the Taj Mahal hotel at the Gateway of India in Mumbai, the site of the siege.
When we first reached here none of us imagined that this would go on for four long days.
As we faced the cameras to report with the hotel as the back drop, the first big blast went off behind us in the dome of the hotel's heritage wing. Eighty such blasts were to follow!
A view of Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel's dome that was blasted by the terror attacks. Photo Credit: Sawf NewsThe dome was immediately engulfed in smoke and flames and more bombs exploded right behind us, and the world watched it all live.
The terrorists moved from room to room inside the Taj with hostages and each blast that followed signaled their position. Grenade attacks, people screaming, bodies on stretchers…the images repeated with heart wrenching regularity.
We rushed to meet people climbing down from windows using fire brigade ladders and gondolas.
A frontal view of Mumbai's Taj Mahal hotel before the terror attacks. Photo Credit: Sawf NewsThen there were those still trapped; black shadows of guests against the lit up windows of the magnificent Taj. I saw people on the phone, people shouting for help, people contemplating jumping out, people hiding behind curtains.
On our first night we were told there are a couple of terrorists and lots of people.
Then came the hope, after many blasts in the heritage wings, that sunrise would end the terror.
But morning brought mourning as some people were evacuated but many were still trapped, some even held hostage. The numbers continue to add up everyday. New mornings, more mourning. 4 terrorists had a force of 300 policemen and combat fighters turning days into nights. Just 4 terrorists!
All the rescue came to a standstill in the last 15 hours of this 60 hour encounter. Now it was an all out war between the holed up terrorists and National Security Guard (NSG) commandos. An eerie silence engulfed the stricken Taj shattered sporadically by gunfire and grenade blasts.
Our zoomed in cameras shook as the blasts occurred. I remember one live shot as I stared into the screen of the camera to get a closer look at the live image; a blast went off just then in an orange glow, windows burst and white curtains flew out for all to see. We just didn't think the image would repeat itself, many times over.
How unfortunate, but after a point, every one of the 200 reporters- foreign and Indian press- had their moment of truth- clips of reporting in the line of fire, pictures of them of all reporting against some gun fire or grenade attacks. This was warzone Mumbai.
Taj Mahal hotel on fire. Photo Credit: Sawf News/Video GrabFour nights and four days later, the Taj burned down. All that remains is an outside structure. The siege finished after an encounter, that's now being called India's 9/11. Mumbai is shaken up and India is ashamed.
As you enter the corridors of the hotel and see the burnt curtains, broken glass, ripped-apart furniture the terror vividly returns and seizes you. The Harbour Bar, Mumbai's first licensed bar at the Taj is singed and all you see are charred remains; remains of chairs, a twisted fork, leftovers of people, leftovers of conversations. It all leaves you cold.
By the pool side- right inside the Taj's centre- a flower sags blown by explosives, hung on a vase, a golden bag lies strewn partially clung to a chair and there are bread crumbs near a broken pair of heels. These are the real pictures that hang before your eyes, for these are still partially alive, telling you a gory story.
For many of us, this is what we thought journalists do in Iraq, in Beirut, in Sri Lanka; no one imagined Mumbai could be similar victim.
We secured our stock exchanges, we have kept close vigil at India Gate in Delhi, our temples as well, but this attack was not on our monuments. It wasn't symbolic, it was straight in your face. This was an attack on the people. This was an attack on the spirit. This was an attack on our patience.
SHAILI@ndtv.com
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