Heroes: Mumbai Attack

Out of the 24x7 coverage of the 59 hour ordeal of the Mumbai War, what has been the most captivating image in print media/television?

The News channels and the print media were consistently covering the horror show from each possible angle. As the war comes to an end, I was scouting through some of the pages in the Net to look for some of the photographs which could capture the intensity, horror, courage and shock of the whole incident. I intended to keep those in my personal collection - to keep reminding me of the state we live in. Each picture was telling a story or the other - hats off to the journos who could put their life at risk juggling 3-4 cameras, often on their knees crawling around. There were shots of the NSGs, ATS, Army, Air force. The commandos being air dropped in Mumbai War Zone. The common man's tribute to the war heroes. The gun salute to the hapless cops. The tear in the eyes of common (wo)man mourning the death of Karkares/Kamtes/Unnikrishnans. The Akash Karkares doing the rituals. And the faces of terror.

But I could not find one shot in the net which was beamed in one of the news channels. It was like this: At the end of war, an unnammed soldier is engaged in a conversation over his cellphone standing opposite to Taj, leaning over a barricade. The smile in his face told the 59 hour long story - the relief, the pain, the anxiety of his near and dear ones and the recklessness with which the soldiers are put into the war zones.

There will be Investigations. There will be Hard Clues. There will be Pakistans. And there will be Afzal Gurus. But the life of the soldiers will remain as reckless as ever. As someone put it in one of the talk shows - thats their duty (let me help him complete - to save the country from any of the mishaps that happen due to callousness of somebody out there). Can somebody please remind these fellows about their duty as well?

Individual Pics are taken from http://www.ibnlive.com/, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ and http://www.rediff.com/.