I’ve been glued to the computer and television since learning about the attacks in Mumbai around 2 PM this afternoon. It’s such a sad state of affairs. Being half-Indian, I suppose it matters more to me – even moreso since I visited last year and reconnected to that side of my heritage. But I’m still a little disappointed to see so little mention of it in certain places on the web. I know people are distracted with Thanksgiving and it doesn’t have the same personal connection for them, but it still seems a little skewed. I feel that an attack in the US or Britain or even Western Europe would have attracted far more attention. But it’s just the brown people, in a region that has seen this kind of trouble many times before. Why should that attract any special attention?

The exception to all of this has been Twitter. I’ve only recently begun experimenting with this service, moreso now that my blogging is blocked by work (and I can twitter by phone). But I soon realized that Twitter was the way to get updates about this crisis. People in the area are Twittering and passing along helpful information and even CNN said early on that Twitter was the best way to stay up to date on what was going on (#mumbai for those who are interested).

But it’s been nice to see the outpouring of support and the proliferation of information such as places to call for missing family members and support for blood drives and so on. People may bash Twitter, and the frequent examples of it that we see, but I will appreciate it for the good I’ve seen it do.

This post is likely maudlin as its been a long day of watching news reports and tracking the situation via Twitter and elsewhere on the web, but I hope that this situation is resolved soon (it still seems far off) and everyone who is still alive finds safety.

That is something I would be thankful for.