Bombings in Jaipur

Uncle_Martin

Thanks sssall and PeakXV, you put it neatly.

dhans

The bombings are indeed terrible and my sympathy goes to the victims and the loved ones.

What always amazes me is that because something bad happens "somewhere in India" people feel they cannot go "anywhere in India" anymore. On an European scale this is like saying you cannot visit Finland because there were bombings in Madrid.

Strange.

Hans

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larsomat

Haven't heard anybody saying so, so far. Only people proactively reassuring that it's safe, just in case somebody would say so...
Although I share that point of view, I find this behaviour even more strange.

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dhans

Sorry if I was to swift, I will elaborate on that. The subject came up at my workplace today as people know I'm an Indiaafficianado. A couple of guys told me that they would never go to India because of this reason and they threw in the rest of Asia for good measure. When I told them they would happily go to London, even after the bombings there, they told me that that was "different", without a good reason though.

I've observed these reactions often, if not connected to India, then to another "exotic" place (Egypt, Turkey, you name it). My analysis is that this goed back to the fear of the unknown and therefor any reason to stay within the boundaries of the known world is a good one.

Hans

machadinha

Oh, I quite agree, Hans.

I must say I've refrained from visiting Egypt proper in the past because of this. One weighs the odds, then decides, doesn't one. Had I gone, the odds of returning home safely and happy would have still very much been on my side of course. Very different situation too, and tourists were specifically targeted there.

But with India specifically, people seem to easily forget it's about the size of Europe indeed, even when just drawing up an itinerary. And I guess any specific destination where a bomb has just gone off can indeed generally be considered safe for some time to come. I mean what are the chances of it happening again any time soon. (Save for situations of outright civil war or other protracted local tensions going on or so. That's not what these attacks are about though. It's their randomness and seeming lack of any goal or program whatsoever other than to cause terror to all and sundry indeed that's so frightening, and the apparent impossibility of getting any grip on what lies behind it, other than the usual fingers pointing here or there.)

I think there's also an issue with us over the past years being so indoctrinated with thinking of "terrorism" as being the same wherever it occurs, or following the same agendas, losing all sight on the backgrounds behind all those separate struggles. It's not all Al-Qaeda we're looking at, simply put. That won't help you if you happen to be the victim of course, but nor does it help to sit in fear of some monolithic monster called (in capitals) "International Terrorism!" I think there's just a weird perception of the whole phenomenon ever since that unmentionable date, I mean even much of Europe itself has plenty of experience with terrorism (and how to deal with it) dating from way before that, but most of that seems to be somehow forgotten now.

That's not to say I wouldn't feel a little funny to say the least about visiting Jaipur right now, and I'd probably be looking for some re-assurance too if I were.

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dhans

A story we did not tell our parents in 1997:

Our honeymoon had a good start on the first day: the government fell and we narrowly escaped a terrorist bombattack. Two bombs exploded in Phahar Ganj less than an hour after we visited the market. We were lucky as more than 60 people were killed and 200 were injured. So we found another reason to donate to temples on a regular base. full story.

When we spoke Mirjams parents on the phone a couple of days later they asked us about the demonstrations in Chennai that were shown on TV in Holland. We reassured them that we were save in Jaipur 2000 km from Chennai.

It helps to be a bit fatalistic....

Hans

York_Katni

"Anyroad, my youngest daughter should have arrived in Jaipur this morning. Her mother said don't arrive, get off the train or get the hell out as quickly as possible, whereas I suggested stay put but don't gawp, adding that Jaipur would be safe as its already happened.

Anyone have any ideas/advice to pass on to her when I contact her this evening ... whether it will be relevant or she will take any notice is another matter.[/quote]

The only way to defeat the global terror apparatus is to stubbornly refuse their designs. The place will be swarming with cops. And your daughter can play a small but valiant role by paying respects to the dead by going to Jaipur as if nothing ever happend.

machadinha

I hope if as a tourist we take a train we'd already planned, we don't confuse ourselves to be defiant soldiers in the name of common decency & liberty & morality. Seems to me we're mostly being a tourist (or "traveler," as legend would have it) taking a holiday trip that we'd already planned, and counting the odds regarding our own skin's safety, and always with the possibility to move away. (I understand Martin's concern though, would seem very natural. I'm sure she'll be alright yes, but then who knows. As ShiverMe indicated earlier regarding another attack, she may not even notice very much on the ground.)

Imagine what the feeling of being a resident and daily commuter there now must be like.

And I'll ask once again, what "global terror apparatus"? Keep it in perspective folks.

edwardseco

Interesting report..

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/...DIA-BLASTS.php

bijapuri

(05-15) 07:56 PDT JAIPUR, India (AP) --

A previously unknown Islamic militant group claimed Thursday to have used explosive-laden bicycles to plant bombs that tore through this historic Indian city, warning in an e-mail of more attacks on popular tourists sites.(AP) _

Full Story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...tsp=1#sections

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kristinm

Not making light of it by any means - but it appears http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...013406,00.html
that the bombings were in fact all about Shane Warne and the 20 20 cricket... !!!! The man has the most enormous ego!!! Obviously if they wanted to get him and the other cricketers they might have waited and detonated the bombs while they were actually IN Jaipur - but that doesn't seem to enter our Shaney's blonde little head.

killerwhale

What evil low lives are responsible for the Jaipur bommings?Guess what I will be in Jaipur and the rest of India despite your evil deeds.I will keep comming to India as I love it.You who kill do not love your people ,your heritage ,your buildings and your market places.Is nothing sacred to you?
discusted!!!!

Booradley

Jaiselmer is several hundred miles from Jaipur

Boo

reneeautumn

Hi, all. I also still plan to go to Jaipur. However, I noticed in the paper today that nine trains from Delhi to parts of Rajastan were cancelled due to riots or something else. I initially figured like most of you, that if the incident happened, Jaipur was probably safe from attacks for a while. And, my knowledge of India being not much, those riots from the people wanting more representation in government might be completely unrelated to the bombings in Jaipur. That said, is anyone else rethinking traveling to Rajastan just because of inconvenience/uncertainty of trains being cancelled? I wouldn't be going for another 3 or 4 weeks, so maybe everything will have died down by then? Thanks.

machadinha

Hi Renee,

Sorry for late response; you may have seen these threads by now: Gujjar agitation in North India and Riots in Rajasthan .

I guess it's just as hard to say and/but the advice to give if any isn't really all that different (and no, I don't think this bears any relation to the earlier bombings):

Rioting in India like in many countries isn't all that uncommon. So reading about it in the papers it may seem like it's all over the place, whereas in fact even within one affected city it may be really localized. Even Rajasthan itself is a large state (slightly smaller than Montana).

So you may as well never notice anything on the ground, other than perhaps some temporary transport problems indeed or at least in this case, or other relatively minor inconveniences. Other than that, I guess the usual advice applies traveling to any country: Steer clear from agitated masses, certainly in India, crowds out of control are unpredictable (and you'd likewise probably don't want to end up in a police charge).

In cases of full-scale rioting it may be necessary to stay in your hotel until it blows over. Friends have had this once in India, but this was in one of the metros during some of the worst communal rioting (different ethnic/cultural groups pitted against each other, even more dangerous than say social agitation) the country has seen for over a decade. I think it'd be normally highly uncommon to run into a situation like that, and you'd likewise be unlikely to be unaware that it's going on & take the appropriate precautions.

In any case, I don't have the impression these current actions should interfere with your travel plans. But -- it is always hard to say, of course and indeed. Just keep your ear to the ground when you're there indeed, and like you say chances are this will all be over by the time you arrive.