A Dark Night
My Fellow Rotarians,
In the year 2008, I was the President and on Wednesday, 26 November, we had our last regular meeting at the Taj Gateway Room. I remember that day clearly because we finished our meeting and left the venue at around 3 pm. The same evening I was near the Taj at the Wodehouse Gymkhana. We suddenly started getting calls and TV images which initially looked like a gang war. Eventually, it turned out to be a terrorist attack. Some of our Rotarians, to name a few—Naren Mohatta, Gaurav Kapadia, Arvind Kasbekar, Bipin Jain, Atul Premnarayen and a few others—also recall this day very vividly. We had to shift our regular meetings to the Wodehouse Gymkhana which came to our rescue in this time of need. Hence, we made it our permanent place till we could go back to the Taj.
With the efforts of a few of our members, especially Atul Premnarayen, we returned to the Taj within six months. What an eerie coincidence! Once again, I’m the President in 2014. On the same day, 26 November, 2014, I was presiding over a meeting at the Taj and it brought back the memory of our meeting six years ago. A lot of time has gone by but the wounds have not healed as yet. Many families are still suffering from the loss of their loved ones and others are still in shock. Some of the survivors are undergoing treatment for depression, nervousness, etc.
It was a sad thing for Mumbai which will never be forgotten. Our Rotarians observed a minute of silence at our meeting on Wednesday, 26 November, 2014, in memory of the brave men who sacrificed their lives and, most of all, for the innocent people who were killed for no reason except fanatic terrorism.
GOD BLESS THEM AND MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN PEACE!
Sincerely, in Rotary,
President Mohan Lalvani
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