Three Days of Terror: Mumbai Spirit

Whenever any unfortunate tragedy strikes Mumbai, be it a natural disaster like flood few years back, bomb blasts or riots, we instead of reforming and rediscovering ourselves we start talking about Mumbai spirit and how every time it bounces back in no time. First of all Mumbaikars don't have a choice than to bounce back and go back to their daily lives no matter what has happened yesterday and this not having a choice has given a wrong impression to our politicians sitting in Parliament and Vidhan Bhawan. Our friends in Parliament and Assembly think that now the tragedy is over and everyone seems to have forgotten about it, let us forget it as well. Digging too deep into it might cut some of our votes in next election as some people might rightfully take this as the failure of the government and vote against the ruling party on next election. So sooner we forget about it the better for our politician who seems to be suffering from short term memory loss and it always takes some big tragedy to awaken them from their sleep and refresh their memory. A job which these terrorists have been doing so efficiently.

These terrorists seem to have taken a pledge that till government does something concrete to equip Mumbai to help itself in time of crisis they will keep on doing this and nature seems to be on terrorists side by killing a number of people in form of rain every year. I have been taught as a kid that God help those who help themselves and in this case God seems to be helping terrorists because they are putting a lot more effort in destruction than we are in construction. Help yourself and hope that God will also help you.

I am a great admirer of Ratan Tata and when I see him so sad after witnessing the damage of Taj, I highlighted that to one of my friends. I said, "I have never seen him so sad". My friend promptly replied, "he is paying the price of being an Indian". I think we all are, by being subjected to such situations. We are all responsible for this in some ways because we allow all this to happen. We Indians have a very short memory and we forget everything so soon that by the time we decide to take some corrective action, we have already forgotten what needs to be corrected. No wonder a certain Raj Thakarey would rise again tomorrow and again try to divide us in the name of region and language. Or a certain Sonia/Rahul Gandhi asking for votes just because they belong to a particular family. Or a certain Advani trying to teach us about Hindutva, without even understanding what Hindutva means. I wish for once we Indians start using our brains instead of doing what someone else wants us to do.

One dialogue from Krantiveer comes to my mind at this point, "uparwale ne bahut kamal ki cheese banayi, insaan. Neeche jhank ke dekha to sab sale keede makode ban gaye the." I wonder for how long we can keep on living like keede makode. I hope this time Mumbai does not bounce back as it does after every disaster, and reforms itself instead.