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Posts and words
Loading ...Thanks for the ref, Will… I agree with you re the writing. Good to see cricinfo publishing it, as well… the broader perspective.
*sigh*
An overpowering bleakness
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November Add your comment below
Tragedies like the strikes on Mumbai often produce extraordinary writing. Compelled by grief or shock, outrage or justice, there have been a number of great pieces but none better than this by Sambit Bal, my editor at Cricinfo.
I should perhaps be writing a piece assessing the impact of the terrorist attack on Indian cricket, and consequently on the global cricket ecosystem. But I can’t bring myself to. I feel compelled, instead, to write this. I am not sure if Cricinfo has any use for this. I will let my colleagues make the call. It’s been that kind of day.
I was on the streets of Bombay covering the communal riots in 1992, and the serial bomb blasts in 1993. I have seen a mob with swords chase a man and sever his arm from his body; I have seen rioters set an old man alight after garlanding him with car tyres; and I have faced the prospect of being burnt alive myself. For days I left home kissing my small child goodbye with thoughts of the worst. Those days return to haunt me sometimes even today.
But somehow I felt I understood what was happening then. I couldn’t relate to it, but I understood the thirst for retaliation and revenge, the hatred and the frenzy that temporarily consumed ordinary people. I even wondered about a foreseeable future when I could sit down with some of the rioters and talk about what drove them to such madness.
It’s worth five minutes of your time.
Tags: cricinfo, mumbai, sambit-bal, terrorism, writing |
One Response to “An overpowering bleakness”
December 1st, 2008 at 9.24 am
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