India unites, anti-terror marches across country LEFT HOOK: A protester at a rally at the Gateway of India on Wednesday Mumbai. In a mass outpouring of grief and anger, one that this city has never seen, over 20,000 people thronged the Gateway of India and areas around Colaba in south Mumbai to protest against the brutal terrorist attack that claimed 171 lives and injured hundreds last week.

In this impromptu civil protest, everyone from lawyers to advertising professionals, students, housewives, businesspersons, senior citizens and residents from as far away as Ghatkopar and Andheri, huddled together in solidarity.

The crowd started gathering at 6pm and the protest went way beyond 9 pm. There were no leaders, no organizers, no political leader, no NGOs, which led the demonstrators. It was a spontaneous reaction to a flurry of SMSes, email, blog posts and exchanges on social networking websites like Facebook and Orkut that brought out thousands of citizens on the road from the landmark Regal cinema to the Gateway. Several hundreds crowded outside the Leopold Cafe, where the terrorists had gunned down patrons in cold blood last Wednesday.

Exactly a week later on Wednesday night, the popular eating house was packed with people eating inside and having chilled beer even as the crowd outside clicked pictures. ‘Vande Mataram, Neta Besharam’ and ‘gali gali mein shor hain, Pakistan Chor hai’ rent the air. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and filmmaker Ram Gopal Verma were at the receiving end. One poster had Deshmukh’s picture with a large cross on it. Another took potshots at Verma (who went on a terror tour with Deshmukh inside the Taj): ‘’Chief minister, you should have shown the terrorists ‘Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag’. They would have died automatically.

‘A youth held a banner,’There are some more terrorists in India. They’re called politicians.’ Another group suddenly started singing the national anthem. Three housewives from Nepean Sea Road stood by the divider hurling the choicest of abuses.

“They’ve raped our motherland. We want war,” said one of them, Reema Shah. Andheri resident Dhara Desai had climbed a traffic podium and used her vantage position to demand “Accountability and Answers”. GenNext was out in full force. A group of St Xaviers college students moved around with T-shirts which screamed: “No Vote, No taxes!”. “we’ve come here to mark our protest. It’s time for action,” said SYJC student Natasha Mistry.

Some like P A Badge had come with a charter of demands. “No security for politicians. Every martyred policeman should get Rs 5 crore,” said a banner he carried. Students from Anjuman-e-Islam college carried a pro-active message urging Mumbaikars to ‘’be alert'’ and ‘’learn crises management.’

A family belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community, dressed in their traditional attire, stood silently with lit candles.MUMBAI UNITES IN ANGER AND GRIEF SHOW OF ARMS: The mood at what must have been the largest citizens’ rally in recent times was more combative than peaceful. Thousands, many of them from GenNext, and including victims’ relatives, gathered at the Gateway on Wednesday as much to protest the terrorist violence as the government’s inability to protect them from 10 armed men.