But on Wednesday, I was with Raghu Mohan (a scribe with Business World). And he has this unusual habit of leaving at exactly 10 often, even if the drink is half-finished.

As our regular cab driver sped towards Borivali, I received a message from a friend that brought the initial awareness. The message read…” Firing at 4 places in Mumbai. Pl don’t go out. Watch tv”. I was about to respond to him with a “safe and sound at SantaCruz” when there was a loud dull thud.

We could see was a lot of smoke in front of us, a burning tyre was rolling across the street and the fire was spreading with it. But there was no cab in front of us – it had just disappeared – maybe, into pieces. Phones had already started ringing. In-between taking calls, we made a few to friends and offices.

What has stayed etched in my mind is this incident: There was a Toyota Innova besides us and for reasons unknown to me, I told the driver (rather stupidly, perhaps) to put off the engine – some weird thought about electromagnetic waves. The driver just looked at me and rolled up the window.

Meanwhile, a large number of people had started running towards the taxi or whatever was left of it. We decided to walk to catch a train or auto or whatever. On our way, we saw a crumpled piece of metal on the roadside – it resembled a mudguard. Crowds had gathered in other places where either parts of the cab or its passengers had fallen.

We got an auto soon. When informed about the blast, the driver drove like a maniac – we almost had a few accidents and landed up a couple of kilometres away from our homes.

Finally, when I reached home, there were more calls and animated conversations about what happened or could have.

I went to town today (as Bombayites or Mumbaikars tend to call places beyond Dadar). I saw the dark patches and broken windows at the Taj and Oberoi. A few months back, I was at the Taj for the Business Standard Awards. Today, the building stood pleading helplessness.

I remembered Raghu’s call the morning after to inform that he is writing an article about our experience. He just happened to mention, “You know, that cabbie broke the signal while we stopped,”…

Joydeep