Anarchy In Mumbai

November 26 2008. It was a black Wednesday in the history of India marked by blood of innocents. For people like me residing in a safe haven called United States, it was just another cold and serene day. As usual, I woke up late in the afternoon after spending the night doing nothing but the usual stuff you would expect from me. But could never imagine that the next day would be so horrific. As usual the roommates were already up and were stuck to their laptops doing something.. but the expression on their usually pale faces said something was amiss and suddenly Roshan shouted at me.. "Abe so kya raha hai uthke dekh Mumbai pe attack ho gaya".. and in a moment my drowsiness disappeared and my instant reaction was "firse?”. Oh no not again. Now when I think about that reaction that means a lot. It was a reaction of a fuckin insensitive and so called resilient Mumbaikar.

And like billions of other Indians I was stuck to the news channel. That was the most I could do at that instant. It was so unnerving to see the panic on the faces of police officials of the mighty Mumbai police department. It was something that I had never seen before. The economic capital of Mumbai was facing the most severe attack by the terrorists and the impotent state government had no clues of how to react. Some of the bravest and revered cops became martyrs and I could feel the unprecedented hysteria. Something was threatening the very existence of my city.

For the next 72 hrs we all were stuck to the Indian news channels with frequent naps in between and hoping it has ended every time we switched our computers on. And every time it was threatening to be perpetual. The time it took to kill those vultures was justified considering the hostage situation and a cautious attempt to save every life. Simultaneously I was trying to talk with every online friend in Mumbai and was furious at the cold reactions by some of them like, chalta hai, humesha ka natak hai and so on.

As the long drama ended, it gave rise to a set of new dramas to follow.. the drama of political parties, shameless blame game of the leaders and so on. It was ridiculous to see how little time the Pakistani media took to cry foul against the hindu extremists in India.. and trying to prove themselves innocent. Some conspiracy theory was explained by some unprofessional reporters and funny analysts. It seemed no better than some D grade TV show. Did they really feel the gravity of the situation? On the other hand, I was impressed by the behavior of Indian media. The otherwise juvenile, biased and ridiculous Indian media was behaving responsibly. Wow, something to take note of. And this responsible behavior was being shown despite they had a real ‘Breaking News’ and not their otherwise 24x7 comedy show.

As expected, once again the spirit of Mumbai was praised or rather bragged. Although it’s a good way to boost the morale of the citizens, I don’t believe its effective anymore and as aptly said in a recent movie ‘We are resilient by force, and not by choice.’ Can the Indian leaders take a note of it and will try to resolve the unsolved questions that this incidence raised? Will they keep the regional politics aside and unite for a common cause? Will the security of common man be taken seriously? Will the tax money paid by the citizens be spent on better infrastructure (which could have helped in this case) rather than dumping it into some Swiss banks? The list is long and has been raised by many..

I hope that this attack on humanity by the non humans doesn’t go into oblivion. We are equally responsible for this as the terrorists for our corrupt politics and apathy of us, the citizens. What truly reflects the spirit is the statement by Ratan Tata on the eve of the attacks “I will restore every bit of Taj and bring it back to glory”. I believe every one of us should look up to it as an inspiration and an make sure that the city is known for its strength and safety and not just its spirit. Jai Hind!!!