Perceptions....

The Mumbai Blasts

There is a pattern which screams Global Terrorism, from the blasts in Kashmir to these…but our country is committed to peace and hope. More people are killed in these blasts than any other blasts in the world…NY or the London Tube Blasts. But we need events which are far bigger in magnitude to raise us from the deep slumber that we are in.

Coming back to the city called Mumbai. Common people,like you and me, travel in those first class compartments which were blown into shreds yesterday.Three are immunerable stories of people that I know who missed those trains by couple of minutes..some due to delay some otherwise…yet others who were in those trains but in different compartments…and we as an organization have lost 3 people and still figuring some other!!

The images and names of places like Bandra, Matunga, Khar sent a shudder down my spine….for one the Khar blast was some metres away from my house.But by the time I reached home bodies were already cleared and the injured sent to hospitals.I have never been so close to a disaster as this one and what I saw will stay in my memory for atleast some time to come. Some thousands of people travel by those trains everyday and it strikes me what a natural, easy spot Mumbai is to throw the system in a form of disarray.

Do you feel bad for a Mumbaikar!! He is atleast 2 times more productive than a normal Indian in any other part of the country. It’s a city where an Auto guy will render you the exact change!! Where no matter how late in the night it is…you will almost never feel unsafe to go back home. Where there are immunerable stories of difficulties being turned into opportunities..from the dabbawala to the “muchhad” panwala…to the guy on the khar station who will serve egg bhujji and pav at midnight.

It’s surprising that a city like Mumbai,where distances rule your life and you are at the mercy of public transport springs back to action almost instantly. There are only two emotions for this city “Feel Good” or “Feel Numb” …Nothing deters…It seems as if “The Mumbaiker” knows that disaster is going to hit again and again and the only attitude in life is to “look forward” and “solve the problem at hand.”…which is why you will find one Mumbaiker helping the other…while the authorities will come In late and the television channels will show the most horrific pictures again and again, which spread more panic…where telephone lines will not work. People you hardly communicate with otherwise come together as family…maybe out of a necessity of being in a group and deriving help..while the blood family just watches the city’s disarray on the TV screen.Helpless.Where husbands and wives living in the same city cant help each other..just wait, watch and accept!!

Today morning albeit late, the crowd in office is turning to office…work has started as usual…people have taken the same roads, same trains to travel to work…to schools.There is music playing on the laptops and people are talking business. If a stranger were to enter office…he would not have known that 8 blasts have hit this crowd..some amongst us are either dead or injured..coz the show must go…coz the monthly targets don’t change…coz at the end of the day we need to deliver and live…coz there is still after after the disaster..!!

Here’s a salute to this city, which yet again stands up to face another disaster…a city prepared, atleast mentally coz The city which delivers 30% of the Tax to the GOI cannot afford to loose a business day..Does the government not owe it’s part to the city and step up the security???

posted by shikha @ 12:32 PM