Date:30/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/30/stories/2008113059260900.htm

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Numbness to confidence — a forty-hour ordeal

V.S. Palaniappan

Coimbatore: His first feeling was a certain numbness. But as the days passed his confidence grew. Vikram Ramakrishnan of Erode had locked himself in his room on the 21st floor of the Trident Hotel in Mumbai when the terrorist attack began. After that it was an agonising wait that lasted nearly 40 hours — from 10 on Wednesday night to Friday noon.

Mr. Ramakrishnan, working for a U.S.-based management consultant firm, is the son of L.M. Ramakrishnan and Aruna Ramakrishnan and grandson of the former Maharastra Governor, C. Subramaniam. Vikram’s parents are in charge of the Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan School in Erode.

Vikram Ramakrishnan along with a friend checked into the Trident Hotel on Wednesday night around 8.

He finished dinner unusually early around 9.45 p.m. and went back to his room. Hand grenade explosions and gunshots started at 9.57 p.m. But it was only when he switched on the TV did he come to know that terrorists had entered the hotel. He called his friends in Mumbai who confirmed what he already knew.

“My attempts to get in touch with the next-door guests were in vain. I made up my mind to stay indoors,” he said.

“I locked the door and placed some furniture against it. I then switched off the lights and put my phone on silent mode. I did not want to scare my family and so did not call them. But my sister Gayathri, who lives in Chennai, called me around 4.30 a.m. on Thursday. I told her the truth. Yes. I am in Trident, but I am safe.”

Despite the sound of gunshots and grenade blasts throughout Thursday, he kept telling himself that he would be rescued alive. “However, I sent a mail to my wife giving details of my bank account.”

He survived the nearly 40-hour ordeal on water and liquid food available in the room.

“On Friday, the NSG commandos called me on the intercom. ‘Keep your identity card and baggage ready. We will be shortly entering your floor and when we knock on the door we will identify ourselves as house keeping staff. You must open the door and cooperate with us’.”

The happenings of the past days were terrifying for him. But he could well imagine how traumatic it must have been for his family. “I could sense that, when my parents, wife and daughters received me at the Coimbatore airport late on Friday night.”