A Sammamish couple touring India found themselves caught in the terror attacks in Mumbai. Carol Ross and her husband, Michael Rainwater, were part of a group of Eastside artists studying and exploring in North and West India. Their trip began Nov. 3.
“We were in no real danger,” said Carol, “except in our own minds. It was pretty scary.”
The husband and wife traveled through Mumbai the morning after the attack. The morning of the attack, they were in Arungabad about an hour from Mumbai.
“We found ourselves looking differently at situations and people,” she said. “We were happy to have five different security checks at the Mumbai airport.”
This trip marked the couple’s second visit to India. “It is a very special country. It’s probably our favorite country,” said the world travelers.
It saddens Carol and Michael to see how the siege has and will continue to affect India. “India is full of wonderful, beautiful people. They are truly kind and caring.”
Carol and Michael and the rest of the art tour group awoke the morning of the attack to shocking news.
“We received a text message from our daughter stateside, so we immediately turned on the television in our hotel room,” Carol said. What they saw was alarming. “In India, there is no censoring of coverage. We saw the entire violent episode blow by bloody blow. The TV news in India showed everything, including dead bodies and pools of blood. They don’t shelter you there.”
The tour guide quickly changed the group’s itinerary to a safer destination, but a friend was joining the group a day late and was staying at the Taj President Hotel (a sister hotel to the one with the carnage). She came downstairs that morning to all the lobby furniture stacked up against the doors and a line of employees acting as sentries. Carol and Mike checked into a hotel near Mumbai two days later, the situation was still unresolved and on high alert.
“There were barricades and security details everywhere,” says Carol. “The police couldn’t really be counted on, so the hotels took their own precautions internally.” In India, most police carry sticks but not guns, so everyone was doing what they could for their own protection.
“We are relieved and thankful to be safe,” Carol says, but the relief is tempered by the tragedy inflicted and what they witnessed and heard. “Our waiter told us that two of his friends were killed, and we were quickly reminded of reality.”
“Everyone wants to know why this happened,” said Carol. She begins to explain the history of the region: “The Northern part of India has a long history of conquerors with one group or another taking over the land. The Hindu/Muslim conflict has gone on for centuries and into current history as recent as a few years back. Throw in the element of terrorism and the politics of Pakistan and India, and it is a critical situation.”
The tour group spent time in Rajasthan and Gujarat, two Indian states. “There is a large Muslim community and for the most part Christians, Muslims and Hindus coexist peacefully but underlying is a tension,” says Carol. The group saw many historical sites, but their focus was art in India.
“We observed so much beauty,” Carol said. “We saw the most beautiful hand-embroidered work, weaving, bell-making and pottery. These are old art guilds. … dying arts held together by tourism. In the small villages, artists keep their crafts and skills alive thanks to tourist money. They work to provide income for their families.”
The biggest sadness for Carol and Michael and the country they love to visit is that it is a poor nation, and these attacks will most assuredly hurt the many artists who earn a meager living off the sale of their handiwork.
“Their livelihoods are in danger,” said Carol, “and, in the bigger picture, the arts themselves are in danger as no tourists means no money.” Carol and Michael met a man whose family is the last surviving group to do “Rogan painting,” a labor-intensive and time-consuming art of painting on fabric. He, his brothers and sons are the last remaining Rogan painters.
“It is so sad that an incident in the political world now affects these people we met. Even the guidebook sellers outside of tourist attractions will find it hard to earn a living now,” said Carol, sadly.
“It’ll get worse before it gets better,” she adds. “We visited Ellora caves, where a Buddhist temple was carved out of a single massive block of granite. Our tour group was the only one that day. Nine others had been cancelled.”
“The peddlers and vendors are desperate,” said Carol. “People will write India off as unsafe and where will these people be?” she wonders. Returning home Dec. 1, their visit to India is now punctuated with the grim reality of the terror attacks and a fear for the future of India, its people and its art.
The terror rampage in Mumbai was India’s worst ever, with nearly 200 dead. Mumbai is the world’s fifth-largest city. Estimates point at up to 50 terrorists leaving 171 dead, including six Americans. Many of the terrorists remain at large leaving nothing but questions, death, destruction and fear.
U.S. and British citizens were the apparent targets of the violent siege, although most killed were Indian. The State Department issued several terror related warnings to India in October after receiving intelligence information. Now the Indian government is facing accusations of security and intelligence failures regarding the assault.
A train station in Mumbai was the first location targeted, followed by the Leopold Café, a trendy restaurant popular with Westerners and wealthy Indians. The terrorists rained bullets at these and other locations including the opulent Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels where the gunmen left a litter of bodies and blood on the ground floors before moving upstairs for more killing and hostage taking. Other places hit were a hospital, movie theater and police station as the assailants remorselessly opened fire at everyone in their path. The timing was during the holiday season with the potential for crowded shopping areas, hotels, train stations and restaurants.
