Timeless classic preserved for posterity

This is the time at which the hands of a 40- year- old quartz clock stopped on the horrifying night of 26/ 11. Stating that this timepiece is a reminder of the spine- chilling terror as well as the spirit of Mumbai, the Central Railway administration has this unclassified exhibit locked away safely in one of its characteristic- green cupboards, to be added to the museum-cum-memorial that is to come up at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST).

" Of the many bullets fired from Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail guns, one went through the window pane of the ground floor office across the taxi stand and another went through the wall of the floor above.

While in the former case, the bullet went past the clock and lodged itself into the wall crossing two wooden partitions, the one on the first floor went past three wooden wall partitions; through the deputy chief electrical engineer's ( Dy. CEE) and into a stone wall on the other end," a railway employee who works in the DRM building that house the cabins of the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr DCM) and Dy. CEE, told Neuz Daze, reliving the day when Kasab and his accomplice entered CST from the mainline side of the station.

Even as the bullets were extracted by the Ballistic Forensics experts, as evidence, the timepiece - originally on the wall of the office of the Sr. DCM - was left hanging in the same state for about a year until it was taken into the custody of the signalling and telecom (S&T) department.

A senior official from Central Railway told Neus Daze, " At first, many thought that the bullet marks on the walls and artefacts, if any, should be kept intact as a reminder to the incident. But that would have been blob as the CST building would look shabby and decrepit. So when we came to know of a bullet- ridden clock piece, we decided it was a perfect article to be preserved as a memento. In tact with the broken glass pieces, the now priceless clock with a 3-cm cavity will be put up at the 26/ 11 memorial museum when ready. Although a sad memory, we hope people reminisce it to get strength and resolve to fight terror."