And the death toll is...decreasing?

Tonight, we're glued to the news.

Correction:  I'm glued to the news. Apparently my family loses interest quickly when their country is under attack. Maybe because it's always under attack.

During rush hour this evening, three separate bomb blasts went off in south Mumbai.

I was nowhere near this part of town when I was there over the weekend, and I've been back in Pune for two days already, so everybody breathe easily.

One blast was in a jewelry shop in a busy market area that has been targeted several times before. One came from a car parked in the business district. The third went off in a taxi by a bus stop in the city center.

It was rumored that today is the birthday of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, the sole surviving gunman of the 2008 attacks. But it turns out that some sicko changed his birthday on Wikipedia after the attacks. I'm not sure which I find more disturbing.

I remember being in Mumbai almost a year after the 2008 attacks and visiting the sites. We sipped our iced coffee beside a wall splattered with bullet holes. At the time, I liked the fact that the holes had not been patched as a tribute to those who died. I liked that Leopold's reopened for business a mere few days after the attacks. It was like a big "F... You!" to the terrorists. As hubby explained it to me, this is Mumbai's way. The shit keeps coming and they keep standing back up.

Tonight, that attitude is almost as unsettling as having just been in a city now under attack. When we first heard, we immediately turned on the news. Papa immediately called his childhood friend whose office is right next to one of the blasts. Once it was confirmed that everyone we know is fine, and the newscast started repeating itself because there was not yet any new information, everyone seemed to lose interest.

My husband at home in the U.S. is beside himself. I'm completely shaken. The news stations can't seem to get their shit together, reporting 10 deaths, then 8 deaths, then 2 deaths. People are coming back to life? WTF is going on!?

And my in-laws sit watching their nightly reality television competition, cool as can be.

I repeat: WTF IS GOING ON!?

I'll admit, I wasn't the most observant of the news when the 2008 attacks were happening. That same day, my father had been handed a death sentence by his doctor. I cared that people were dying and a city where I know people was under attack. But at the same time, it was on the other side of the world. My dad, however, was right here. I could catch up on the news and express my outrage later.

In any other situation, I would've been glued to the news. Just like I was on 9/11. Just like I was in early 2010 when there was a bomb blast in Pune, hubby's hometown, in a cafe we had visited just months before. Just like I am tonight. Yet the people around me, who have nothing more important going on, couldn't seem to care less.

Part of me gets it. This is a country that has constantly been attacked and invaded throughout history. This is a country where terrorist attacks have become almost commonplace. It is sad and unfortunate, but it is the truth. To get overwrought with emotion every time something happens, in a place where something is always happening, would probably only result in even more deaths due to heart attacks. After a while you become numb to it. I get that.

But at the same time...I don't get it at all.