Mumbaikar spirit, the blasts and Us!
I was in office when I got the news that there had been a blast. I got the news within 10 minutes of the first blast. It did not strike me as anything big then. But in half an hour, as I was watching the news in office, my feelings turned from just-another-blast to shock to then to anger.
As I made my way from office to home in an auto( a journey which takes 45 min , took me 4 hours), I saw almost entire Mumbai on roads walking home, or helping people get home. This was the celebrated Mumbai spirit at work. The spirit that has been repeatedly splashed across all news channels. It was an amazing sight to see people, regardless of the strata of society/caste helping each other out. I am proud that I belong to this community here.
But I am sad. Sad because I feel that somewhere over the years, we have forgotten the value of human life. 194 seems to be just a number, not 194 people. Everybody in this world knows 9/11, the day WTC came down. How many people know the 'terror dates' in India? I do not. There are far too many. Do we remember the innumerable J&K attacks? The day of Akshardham attack or the the Varanasi blast? Or do we remember the date or the PARLIAMENT ATTACK? Isn't it tragic that we now consider these things (read terrorist attacks) as something that happens all the time. The day there were blasts in Mumbai, there were blasts in Srinagar. A grenade attack where 9 people were killed. The next day again there was a grenade attack in Srinagar where a constable was killed. The story is the same day after day for years now. How much importance, as a society, do we give to any of these?
We seem to be getting used to terror attacks and that is a very dangerous sign. Continuous and regular attacks has numbed us and instead of crying out foul, we are keeping quiet. I do not mean that we need to protest( and hell, why not?), but the mentality is more that I am talking about. Almost everyone has become passive and that is not where we should be headed.
As I made my way from office to home in an auto( a journey which takes 45 min , took me 4 hours), I saw almost entire Mumbai on roads walking home, or helping people get home. This was the celebrated Mumbai spirit at work. The spirit that has been repeatedly splashed across all news channels. It was an amazing sight to see people, regardless of the strata of society/caste helping each other out. I am proud that I belong to this community here.
But I am sad. Sad because I feel that somewhere over the years, we have forgotten the value of human life. 194 seems to be just a number, not 194 people. Everybody in this world knows 9/11, the day WTC came down. How many people know the 'terror dates' in India? I do not. There are far too many. Do we remember the innumerable J&K attacks? The day of Akshardham attack or the the Varanasi blast? Or do we remember the date or the PARLIAMENT ATTACK? Isn't it tragic that we now consider these things (read terrorist attacks) as something that happens all the time. The day there were blasts in Mumbai, there were blasts in Srinagar. A grenade attack where 9 people were killed. The next day again there was a grenade attack in Srinagar where a constable was killed. The story is the same day after day for years now. How much importance, as a society, do we give to any of these?
We seem to be getting used to terror attacks and that is a very dangerous sign. Continuous and regular attacks has numbed us and instead of crying out foul, we are keeping quiet. I do not mean that we need to protest( and hell, why not?), but the mentality is more that I am talking about. Almost everyone has become passive and that is not where we should be headed.
The celebrated Mumbai spirit should not just represent helping others in times of need, or getting back to normal within couple of days. Mumbai spirit should lead the change that makes people question these dastardly acts and force our governments to work that extra bit to make our cities safe. More importantly Mumbai spirit should bring about a change in mentality. I hope Mumbai can make all of us proud!
'Be the change you want to see'.
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