On a muggy August afternoon in Mumbai in 2003, after clocking in an eight-hour reporting shift, I was about to head home from the television newsroom where I worked. As I picked up my bag to leave, the phone rang. A panicked caller said a blast had been heard in a crowded market called Zaveri Bazaar. Before we could grab the camera to head to spot, word came of another explosion – this time, near the Gateway of India. Minutes later, I was on air and the anchor was asking me questions, one of which left me paralysed: “Does the police believe this is a terror attack and has any organisation taken responsibility for it?”

On Monday evening, when news broke of a car explosion near Red Fort in Delhi, memories of the 2003 twin blasts – which killed 54 people – came flooding in. No point jumping

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