A day of Blasts and dal crisis

[Guest guest]

hello everyone

I am sorry as I was silent from the group for almost two weeks, but I

was busy due to some personal matters (which reminds me that I have to

write an E-mail as requested by Nishi madam telling everyone about

myself, etc)... but I have to write my experiences about today...

which could be a very wierd day for me.....

I was in school this morning and was talking to my parents in India...

it was about 9:30 am here and I was chatting about the usual stuff and

we were gossiping about our relatives... suddenly my brother came on

the parallel phone line and said " Ameet... check the news

immediately.. serial bomb blasts in Bombay... "

I was then checking the news periodically on the internet and to be

honest, it was very upsetting to me, I was very upset just looking at

the ever rising death toll, and that too of hard working middle class

people, who just have to make that horrible commute to and fro in the

local trains just to make their ends meet... the govt has announced a

compensation... but is it worth human lives? no.....

My brother had travelled to Churchgate today and he returned to Thane

the same afternoon, just a few hours before the blasts took place...

he had travelled by Western Railway locals till Dadar....had he

decided to go shopping or delay ... then who knows what might have

happened? At that moment, I just hoped that all my relatives and

friends are ok .. and out of concern, I shot an E-mail to my

relatives, my friends and everyone in our group....

I was calming down... but still somewhat upset.. when I got a phone

call from my frriend Sangeetha, who was all hyperexcited on the phone,

and screaming on top of her voice... I could just get two words from

what she said " Dal " and " crisis " .....I told her... " calm down, take

a deep breath and tell me " .. so she told me that there is an acute

shortage of all kinds of lentils, and especially toor dal in the U.S

and her masi who lives in Atlanta told her that there is " rationing "

of toor dal in Atlanta.. only one packet per person....

I didnt believe it... as I had purchased moong dal and chana dal just

last week... but then as a preacaution, I decided to call our local

" patel brothers " store... and true, I was told by " Ramessbhai " that

there were only two packets of toor dal in the store and they were

selling them for $7.99 for a 4 lb packet... which is a lot...!!!

thankfully he recognized my voice, and he told me that he will hold

one packet for me... and after today, dont know when we would get dal

in Dayton.. as Indian govt has some kind of ban on dal...

I drove down to the store and did get the dal.. the other lentils were

also scarse in the store and were selling for almost 3 times the usual

price.. I called my friend in Pittsburgh and indeed, there is a

similar situation in NJ too... I hope the other members of this group

in other parts of US can provide their inputs on the situation too...

especially Renuka Madam, Shweta....

I stopped at the Dayton temple on my way back from the store... and on

my way home, I realised that it was getting darker for the time of the

day, and it was windy.. we have storms all the time, and I drove home

thinking " its going to storm and I need to close the windows " and I

came home and switched the TV and I got the news that there was a

tormado touchdown just one mile away from the Indian store where I was

just 15-20 minutes ago....

I think this was a wierd day for me... and I am going to bed now.. but

I would like to hear from everyone in Mumbai as to how life is going

on there and also from all the NRI's whether they have to face a " dal "

crisis.....

whatever the crisis be.. we have to be strong and prevail....

have a good night everybody...

cheers

Ameet

--

Ameet Chimote

BMS PhD program, Year 3

Cell Biophysics Group

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048 Biological Sciences

State University

3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy.

Dayton, OH 45435-0001

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