Florence is a wonderful human being. She takes great care of us. She knows we are vegetarian and does not serve any non-vegetarian food while we are there and stays veg with us. I am watching TV at here place and reading my novel. When I look out the window I can see more commandos coming into the compound. Two commandos take position on Colaba Court. Suddenly I feel very safe. These are not khaki policemen, but commandos. They will kick the terrorists' butts.

When evening comes we switch off all our lights. Florence lights some candles. There is total silence. And just the glow from the candles. Even the halogen lights in the compound are turned off.

But I feel really cheated when I see our first floor neighbours at Prem Bhavan suddenly running onto the street as commandos give them cover. How come no one asked us if we wanted to be evacuated? Had we known they would give us cover we could have gone too?

It is now very eerie. There is no movement. No sounds. I cannot see the commandoes either. It is too dark. The television channels keep talking about a final assault about to be launched, but nothing happens.

My mind races. I think if they blow up the petrol pump or Nariman House there could be a fire and we would need to escape. Florence says she has a ladder that could get us over the side wall. I practice carrying it and figure out how I will carry it down the stairs. I keep it near the exit.

We take out the fire extinguisher and read the instructions I have done, once, a course on civil defence -- which I think everyone should do -- where they say in the event of a fire you should always arm yourself with a damp cloth. So I prepare napkins. I start visualiSing every bl**** angle. We are all really tired and go to sleep at 12.30.

Image: A blood-stained bed seen from a destroyed window at Nariman House. Photograph: Akshay Dasani (taken from Prem Bhavan)

Also see: 'Rabbi Holtzberg has suffered a lot of hardship'

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