A Grief Observed

Grief seems to be pervasive in this season of my life. I don't mean to sound depressing; in fact I think grief, especially when you are simply sharing in others' grief, can lead to thanksgiving. The harder lesson is obviously being thankful when the grief is your own.

There are three incidents specifically which have spurred me to think more about grief. (and start reading C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed.) You've probably seen the news of the terror strikes in Mumbai, India around Thanksgiving. For most, this is a little removed as it is half-way across the world. But for me, it is very close to home. This is the hometown of much of my Indian family and the hotels attacked were common stomping ground for both tourists and locals alike. In fact my dad normally spends Thanksgiving there. I feel sick just thinking that he could have been there!

It's unbelievable to think that last New Year's, my husband and I were in that exact hotel taking pictures of the city and enjoying India's culture.

The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, India


Here is the lobby in which the terrorists entered and started shooting. The front desk made phonecalls instructing people to stay in their room but this wasn't until the terror has already begun.


Here is the pool.


You may recognize this shot from the news. We took this photo to record how beautiful the architecture of this hotel really is.


Here is "Old Taj". This part of the hotel was originally here; notice the winding staircase and the oculus that opens up to a blue sky. When some of the survivors on the new reported climbing down 18 flights of stairs, we aren't talking short stairs!

Survivor, Jonathan Erhlich reports his escape.


Here is an interesting shot of this beautiful hotel side by side with India's vast poverty.


Here we are inside the beautiful 5 star room (myself 6 months pregnant). This is where people literally hid for 48+ hours while some were taken hostage. (You'll see some trying to escape the flames and gunfire here.



Here is the gateway of India which is backed up the the Indian ocean. In fact our hotel room looked out towards this historic monument. It is postulated that the terrorists came by boat and arrived at the gateway of India to start their attack.

"According to details available with Indian intelligence and the information given by the terrorist who was picked up by the Mumbai police in an encounter near Chowpatty, the terrorists hijacked an Indian fishing boat, the Kuber, somewhere near Pakistani waters. They beheaded the majority of the boat's crew of six and only allowed one crew-member, Amarsinh Solanki, to live so that he could help them with navigating the boat to Mumbai. The coast guard found a Global Positioning System abandoned on the fishing trawler that was drifting nearly four nautical miles off the coast of Mumbai early on Thursday, November 27 morning, several hours after the terrorist attack began... Arms, ammunition and plastic explosives were quickly transferred to the waiting boats that took the terrorists to the Gateway of India which was the pre-arranged launching pad for the terrorist attack."

(cited from Saikat Datta, "The Gateway of India", OutlookIndia.com,)

I grieve for those who lost loved ones, who must now pick up the pieces of the rubble; those who are orphaned or without shelter, jobs, or support. My heart hurts for the hospital patients who were seeking healing only to be ruthlessly targeted. I grieve for the tourists who came to broaden their world perspective only to be buried there; but even worse the locals who are haunted by their memories and cannot escape the ruins of the attack.

Now that 200 are dead and hundreds wounded, what will India do to cope with such a loss?

I am thankful indeed that God protected my relatives who live there and also my father from the brutality that occured.