In a city that was hooked to the 24/7 news coverage of the violence and tragedy that it was subject to last week, television was undoubtedly the most popular medium among Mumbai’s citizens, guaranteeing a constant flow of live events as the ten terrorists brought the city to its knees. But for those households where television was never considered a necessity, the internet emerged as the next best medium, followed by the newspapers.

A case in point is 24- year- old interior designer, Rebecca Jacobs, who first heard of the firing when her friends called to check on her. “After the initial calls, I went to my computer and was online continuously for the next three days, checking all the live updates,” says Jacob. “I used the internet and phone. My client from South Africa called to find out about the incident and whether I was safe. I immediately went online to find out,” adds Ram Chandran Nathan, a business executive and a resident of Vidyavihar.

Jacobs and Nathan both agree that to some extent they missed out on the live action that television offers, but eventually both went to their neighbor’s homes to satisfy their craving for the graphic medium. For Jacobs, whose sister studies in the seventh grade, the absence of a television was a double-edged sword. “While she did not know much about the events and the gravity of the situation, she wasn’t impacted negatively by it either,” she says.

“I missed most of the TV coverage, catching glimpses only when I was office. The day the attacks broke out, my friends called me and updated me on every single development. You can say then that phone was my main medium of news,” says travel writer Alisha Rodrigues. Contrary to popular belief that newspapers are a dying medium, most people reinforced the power and the need for the print media.

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