Simple chance kept mechanical engineering graduate student Vivek Patel’s family out of harm’s way during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last week.

His brother had taken off a week of work because of a fractured arm, and Patel’s parents had left the day before the violence began to visit him ahead of his December graduation.

“It was kind of [a] coincidence,” Patel said.

ASU students expressed shock and disgust at the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed at least 188 people last week, lasting from Wednesday to Saturday.

“It’s like 9/11 for India,” said industrial engineering senior Abhinav Verma, vice president of the Indian Students Association at ASU. “There is a feeling of sadness among everyone right now.”

ASU’s Indian community — approximately 600 students — were directly affected by the attack, especially since many have family and friends in the region, Verma said.

The student association will host a ceremony of prayer and remembrance Friday at 4 p.m. on Hayden Lawn at the Tempe campus in response to the terrorist attacks.

When computer information systems junior Sameer Raut first heard about the attacks in Mumbai, his first thought automatically went to his family.

“I started panicking because my entire family is located in Mumbai,” he said. “The first thing I told my mom was, ‘Please don’t go out to work.’”

Raut, who came to ASU in 2006 after being born and raised in Mumbai, said he was pleased by the international support for India in the wake of the attacks.

“Right now, India is being supported by all the countries in the world,” he said. “The entire world is going to come together and fight terrorism.”

Religious studies sophomore Dimple Dhanani said she was saddened by the attacks on India’s financial capital.

“They’re obviously trying to crumble India’s economy,” she said. “Obviously, everybody knows the terrorists aren’t helping their cause; it’s not helping anyone’s cause.”

Dhanani said the terrorist attacks are why she wants to study terrorism and research ways to prevent further incidents.

“I want to understand it and pose possible solutions for it,” she said.

Electrical engineering graduate student Balaji Seshadri said he was glued to the television during the attacks.

Seshadri said he had to comfort a friend whose parents were held hostages in a hotel.

“This is just a wake-up call for India and for the rest of the countries which are being targeted by these terrorists,” Seshadri said.

Global studies freshman Nisha Patel said she felt helpless when she heard the news of the attacks on Mumbai — a city where much of her mother’s side of the family lives.

“I dropped everything,” she said. “I sat in my dorm for three hours watching CNN.“

But she said was impressed with the reaction of Indian youth to the terrorist attacks.

While evidence points to the terrorists being of Pakistani origin, Patel said she is optimistic that many Indian youth want to promote peace between the two countries.

“That’s their reaction: nonviolence. It isn’t revenge,” she said. “Our generation understands.”

Patel, who studied in India during her freshman year of high school, said she will likely visit Mumbai over the summer and work for an organization that promotes unity between Pakistani and Indian youth.

“We’re going to be the ones who decide the fate of what happens between India and Pakistan,” she said. “You need to learn who your enemy is … and then break that relationship of hatred.”

Reach the reporter at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.