New Haven Independent

Over 100 Connecticut Indian-Americans came together Sunday at the Belvedere In Westville to offer prayers in remembrance of the victims of the brutal Nov. 26-9 attacks, when armed men went on a rampage of terror in the Indian city of Mumbai. The midday gathering featured remarks from NHPD Chief James Lewis and Mayor John DeStefano, as well as Major General Padha, a Woodbridge resident and former general in the Indian army.

The “condolence meeting” was organized by the Gujarati Association of Connecticut, a 16-year-old statewide organization of Indian immigrants from the state of Gujarat, near Mumbai in western India. The meeting was intended to show solidarity against terror and to convey condolences, in remembrance of victims’ families.

A slideshow of news photos were projected onto a screen at the front of the function room. As images of burning hotels and grief-stricken Mumbaikars flickered by, Sandhya Desai (at right in top picture) led the room in prayers of peace in Sanskrit and Hindi. Desai later explained that the songs were requests to god to bring peace and to “give us the strength to help people as much as possible.”

At the end of the ceremony, everyone rose to their feet to observe two minutes of silence. Gujarati food — including idli, sambar, papadi, and jalabi — was served.

Desai was one of many at the ceremony who said that they had been glued to their television sets as the terror attacks unfolded.

“It’s very sad,” Desai said. “I was watching CNN all day long and I was praying, ‘God, please.’”

“I was stuck to the TV for five days,” said Shaku Patel, president of the Gujarati Association. “It touched my heart.” Patel’s family owns the Zaroka restaurant in New Haven.

“I watched the news non-stop for 70 hours,” said Prakash Shah, the organization’s vice president. Shah runs the Three Judges motel, in Westville.

Survivor

For Navin Trivedi, a New Haven hindu priest, the news that Mumbai was under attack was personal.

“I’m from Mumbai. My wife is from Mumbai,” Trivedi said.

When he heard the news, “I almost had a heart attack,” he said. “I was in total disbelief.”

His job as a microbiologist at Yale/New Haven Medical Center didn’t allow him to spend hours watching the news coverage, but Trivedi (pictured) immediately called Mumbai and assured that all his relatives were okay.

None of his family members was hurt, but he heard a harrowing tale of survival involving the colleague of a relative.

His nephew’s co-worker was renting a room for a conference at one of the hotels that were attacked. The man was rounded up with 15 others and the terrorists mowed them down with a machine gun. The co-worker was shot, but survived by pretending to be dead while “laying under the rubble of dead bodies for hours.” Later he got up and hid in a boiler room for a further 15 hours, before being rescued.

The Gujarati Association will convene next for a more joyful occasion, its annual Valentine’s party in February.