On the morning of Nov. 26, armed gunmen shattered the usual routine of the commercial district of Mumbai, India, when they attacked unsuspecting bystanders with grenades and automatic weapons. The gunmen attacked multiple locations within the district including the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Cama Hospital, a cinema and multiple Orthodox Jewish-owned businesses.
The attacks lasted until Indian security forces regained control over all of the attack sites.
For a university that boasts upward of 2,000 international students, a vast majority of whom are Indian, these recent terror attacks that resulted in over 85 deaths and more than 290 injuries have hit closer to home for some Tech students than most would realize.
To both the large number of Indian students and faculty members, Tech President Charles Steger expressed his condolences in a letter released Dec. 2. He expressed "our deepest sympathies to the people of India," while calling the events "cowardly and senseless violence."
Rohit Rangnekar, a second-year grad student in electrical engineering who hails from Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, explained his take on the events.
"Bombay (Mumbai) has been a target for many of these terrorist incidents for many, many years, since '93," Rangnekar said. "And I know that most people were personally affected by these incidents, although not for this particular one, it has been a soft target quite often, so it has affected all of us quite deeply."
The recent events in Mumbai have begun to shake people up even more, perhaps because of the sheer audacity of attackers. Multiple tourist sites were targeted, hundreds of people were injured, and one of the capital city's most flourishing districts was thrown into chaos. And this new wave of attacks differs very much from anything that India has seen in the past.
"This incident has really shocked everyone and the reason why it shocked everyone is because of the way that these terrorists carried out this attack," Rangnekar said. "Until now they had all been individual attacks; they would attack a tourist location and then just disappear. But this time they came out and just started firing at people, and I think that's why this attack has caused so much attention."
The sheer shock of the events in November were enough to send an entire country reeling, including all of the students that India has sent all over the world. It was these students who were left to wonder about the safety of friends and family back in Mumbai.
"Absolutely people are shaken up," Rangnekar said. "I mean people are now just questioning the reasons why this happened. This was on a different level completely."
It was a first-year grad student in science and tech studies, Sumitra Nair, with close ties with the district itself, who felt the weight of what was happening as she watched the images of her old haunts flash across CNN.
"I was working in that place," Nair said. "It represents home. All of the places that they attacked were so familiar. It's where we used to go out on weekends. It just became so visually close to home."
The district held many tourist locations, but was also a major commercial district.
"I know that they were attacking tourist locations, but I don't think that they were only attacking tourists. Every Indian, every tourist goes there. They were looking at attacking the city as a whole ... The fact that they ended up killing tourists just made it a worldwide issue, and that's what they wanted to do," said Jatin Thakkar, another first-year grad student in electrical engineering who hails from Mumbai.
A major attack on a huge part of any major city is enough to send people into panic, remembering the foment that ensued after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The sentiment left after the attacks on the heart of one of the largest cities in the US is somewhat parallel to the reaction now felt in India.
"It is where all of the offices are, it's where everyone goes to work. So it's become a huge district, you know? It's the Commercial Business District, the CBD," Nair said.
As the shock of the event has begun to sink in, these Tech students find themselves with a feeling of being even farther from their loved ones than before.
"Even though we are so far away from our homes, we still remember all of those people who are affected by it, especially our families and all of our friends who are still living around that area," Rangekar said.
But with this feeling of how significant these attacks were, the focus is now turned to future safety.
"You keep thinking about the people back home," Nair said. "And you have to think about how you have to be careful. It's almost like they can attack anytime. How can you prepare for that? How do you make yourself feel safe? You just have to look at it like there will be challenges and, OK, this is one more challenge."
Rangnekar expressed his pesonal hope for security to become a main priority, not only on a central level, but in separate states and cities as well.
"The tactics of terrorists have changed over time and I think that the security definitely needs to be stepped up to counter these attacks. Security should be given a priority," Rangnekar said.
But even with the sense of fear for what the future may hold along with the worry for friends and family, these students cling to a sense of timid optimism for their country.
"There was an instant swell of support for the nation, and I think that says a lot about the country," Nair said. "This is what it is like in Bombay all of the time. We just pick up the pieces and land back on our feet."