It was 8:40 PM when I received a message from my brother yesterday. 'Siren baj gaya', and I knew that something was off. I immediately called him and got to know that Shelling has started and there seem to be drone attacks from Pakistan.
After my discussion with my parents, I got to know that there seem to be drone attacks at several places across the LOC and International Borders.
The borders seemed alive, and amid the darkness of night, they could see some red spots.
After around 30 minutes, when I reached home, I again called my brother, and the audio seemed scary as the drones were taken down by the Indian Army.
The audio of the shelling was loud, and everyone started to gather at a place that was the safest. Although everyone knew something like this might happen but no one had experienced this for several years now.
Mobile phones were ringing, and at that time, they were not even able to pick up the phone because of the panic all around. Everyone was just sitting and praying to be safe.
I even tried calling some of my friends, and they were out of station, but their families were in Jammu and had similar stories to tell.
Amid the shelling, everyone was scared and closed all windows and lights to avoid detection.
My friend even told jokingly, "It seems no one is going to attend my marriage", as he tried to lift the moment of chaos. Although small but this put a smile on his family's face as they again gathered courage to spend the night.
The nighttime is one of the toughest moments because there is no place where we can go at night, and we cannot even see anything. We have to be cautious and still act fast, and this is the time when real panic starts.
But this is the time when we should not lose hope and shouldn't start panicking. We should take a deep breath and decide what to do with a clear mind.
As there are not many houses with bunkers or basements in Jammu, most of the people would have only the option to be inside their homes, especially at those places which have a second storey. For example, if you have two rooms on your terrace, then the rooms below are the safest, especially the pillars and corners.
Here is a small video of the shelling in the morning at 4 AM at Jammu;
https://youtube.com/shorts/ov8oRrbxprQ?si=UXeIzw91_v8I7syP