Month: November 2025

In The News, My Take

In Homage: ASI Shri Tukaram Omble, Ashok Chakra (Posthumous).

A few days ago, on November 26, my mind compulsively went back to the dreadful events that engulfed Mumbai – India’s commercial capital- on that day 17 years ago! As you would know, starting November 26, 2008 the city was in the grip of panic amidst concerted planned attacks by a group of Lashkar -e- Taiba terrorists from Pakistan.

In my blog post of November 27, 2020, I had recalled the tragic chain of events that took place after the terrorists landed in Mumbai in the evening of November 26, 2008.

Another 5 years have gone by since then. We remember with sorrow 166 innocents of different nationalities, mostly Indian who were killed and more than 500 who were severely injured. These didn’t take place in one place. The battle with the terrorists went on till November 29. It was centred in different locations like the Taj Palace, The Oberoi, Chabad House, Cama and Albless Hospital, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus of the Indian railways, the road leading to Girgaum Chowpatty etc.

There were many heroes in those chilling days. Many were nameless: taxi drivers who rushed injured to hospitals; Mumbaikars who sheltered passers by during the shootings on the roads; the constabulary of the Mumbai Police who were facing an enemy the likes of which they had never face before- in terms of quality of equipment or the indoctrinated ferocity of their attacks; the staff of the Taj and Oberoi Hotels who put this lives at risk to save their guests; and of course, the Naval commandos (the MARCOS) and the National Security Guard NSG who were better equipped to fight the terrorists.

Some were named too: like Vishnu Zende , the train announcer at CST whose timely announcements led thousands of people in the vast station to safety;

In my opinion, by far the bravest deed came from 54 year old Asst Sub Inspector Tukaram Omble of the Mumbai Police. He had joined the Mumbai Police in 1991 after serving in the Signals Regiment of the Indian Army. It was Omble’s sheer bravery that enabled Ajmal Kasab – one of the terrorists- to be captured alive. Kasab was armed with the dreaded AK 47. Despite this, Omble physically hung on to Kasab though he took many bullets in his chest He clung on till his colleagues overpowered Kasab. Omble was awarded a richly deserved Ashok Chakra posthumously.

We came to know later that the terrorists ( all from Pakistan) came wearing “kalavas” traditionally worn by Hindus and had IDs with Hindu names to confuse the police. There was also a bizarre claim by a few that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was behind the terror attack. The book ” 26/11: RSS Ki Sazish” was launched by veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh.

Thanks to Omble’s bravery Kasab was captured alive. This ultimately led us to the truth behind the dastardly attacks.

Years have flown past, but we remember Omble with awe and respect. We can never forget what he singe-handedly did in the early hours of November 27, 2008.

TV Serials

“Aarya”

At this stage on my life, I have the luxury of having time on my hands. This led me to seeing a lot of television serials. It was from a show Sunday Brunch with Sushmita Sen by Kamiya Jani of Curly Tales fame that I first got to know of Sushmita Sen’s venturing into her digital debut. Naturally, we knew of her as Miss Universe 1994 and a Bollywood actress after that.

“Aarya” the serial she starred in as the female lead got her the award for Best Actress Female at the Filmfare OTT Awards. The serial got much acclaim running for 3 whole seasons. These had 25 episodes fwhich aired from 2020 to 2024. A nomination for the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama series followed.

I was prompted to watch Aarya on JioHotstar. Watching this in 2025, I certainly had a lot of catching up to do! I soon got pretty interested in the show and saw all 3 seasons over several months. Sometimes I saw many episodes together, at other times there was along gap and I had to figure out where I had left off in the rather complex story. The story was interesting. I heard it was adapted from a Dutch drama series.

In my view, Sushmita acted well overall in a role which suited her- suave and sophisticated . Yet the story line seemed uncharacteristic of her – transitioning from being a home maker and mother of three kids to being a drug smuggling don. After an excellent start in Season 1, I saw a sameness in her acting. I wish she had been shown to be more vulnerable- and therefore more human! Her pet theme that mothers would go to any extent to protect their children rang hollow after some time. Yes, they would by and large! However, how many mothers would they take up drug smuggling in a big way in association with international gangs? How many mothers would kill or get people killed left and right?

It is true that in life some people do get good breaks from time to time. In this series all the chips were in Aarya Sareen’s favour . Episode after episode saw her win against the hapless ACP Khan. One felt almost sorry for the bumbling Khan – the last straw being that even Aarya’s kids called him by name as if he was some domestic servant of theirs and not a senior officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau. To add insult to injury, the director dwelt at length about Khan’s personal life which ultimately didn’t add any value to the story one way or the other. In another surprise, I thought the director was silent on the real story between the ever faithful Daulat and Aarya.

The violence and gore quotient was quite high all through the series but that was only to be expected. The story was gripping in many parts and the photography and screen play was of a consistent high standard.

If you like action packed thrillers, you will enjoy watching Aarya. Naturally, I have not spoken much about the story. Be prepared for some amount of complexity with many characters in the fray.