Try.....as home as you can make it,
It will never be the same as being in the wild.
Try...as natural as you can make it,
But it will never be the same as being free.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Through my eyes
Try.....as home as you can make it,
It will never be the same as being in the wild.
Try...as natural as you can make it,
But it will never be the same as being free.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Mumbai, tujhe salaam ya badnaam ?
7-11 happened, and it shook the trains, middle class, police, and even the Prime Minister. As an observer of this mayhem I came across 2 distinct opinions in the sentiments of the people. There was one set who saluted Mumbaikars, and indeed they should-the trains were back on track, forget that there were people in the train, in less than 24 hours! There was this other set whose shrieks voiced, ‘How can this city carry on, when so many have lost their lives, and so many more might in the coming future?’
A common acquaintance was on the ill-fated train which was bombed at Khar, she related the incident to me, she was in the ladies compartment and but 2 bogeys ahead the fatal bomb burst, for a few seconds no one could comprehend what had occurred, but when the black smoke filled their lungs and blocked their vision, instinct said ‘jump’.
As they passed the detonated bogey she said she saw no dead bodies, until she realised the butchered like pieces strewn around were parts of human beings, when she stepped back and looked towards it again she realised the whole compartment had blood spurts covering it.
Mumbai’s spirit indeed, this spirit allows them to move on with life faster than people can anticipate. The last words of my common acquaintance on the phone was ‘I hope they manage to clear out the tracks, and get the trains running again for I intend to catch the Borivili local to work tomorrow else it gets too inconvenient’. Frankly if the commuters who experienced the blast were willing to get back onto the same compartments, I don’t see how rest of Mumbai can feel scared. Next evening I watched the live telecast of the trains on the news channels-I confess they were not as crowded as they usually are, but I could also assure you that you wouldn’t get place to sit nor hang by the pole, maybe of those rare evenings where you could get off without punching someone’s face.
My friend Ani emailed me voicing his opinions on this so called ‘Spirit of Mumbai’. I tried to ration it out-why do people flock to Mumbai in the first place? Infrastructure is better in Hyderabad, Chennai is cleaner, Bangalore is less polluted-so its got to be the money. When this city shut down for 2 days due to the rains last year Mumbai lost over $2 million of business, the next day people scrambled and waded to work to make up for the losses. The one thing that drives this city to work is the money, most want to earn and all have to survive. This is what makes Mumbai commercial capital of India, this is the never say die spirit of Mumbai.
But regarding the blast I wonder it is really spirit or is it indifference in a charade?
Let me start with my own example, what did I a citizen of Mumbai living just mere 10 mins from the site of the blast do? I tried to contact everyone I knew and watched the horror on the news. There is no point in sympathy or empathy for that matter-if one cannot get out on the street and help those that needed aid. I probably should have been at the station to help the injured or do small things like gather rickshaws to take the wounded to the hospitals. But what I did was I watched it on TV, I saw most of the people that were there helping were the lower middle class--why,do the upper middle not like having their hands soaked in blood? Inspite of the fact that the first class general compartment is usually filled with the upper middle class male society.
A common acquaintance was on the ill-fated train which was bombed at Khar, she related the incident to me, she was in the ladies compartment and but 2 bogeys ahead the fatal bomb burst, for a few seconds no one could comprehend what had occurred, but when the black smoke filled their lungs and blocked their vision, instinct said ‘jump’.
As they passed the detonated bogey she said she saw no dead bodies, until she realised the butchered like pieces strewn around were parts of human beings, when she stepped back and looked towards it again she realised the whole compartment had blood spurts covering it.
Mumbai’s spirit indeed, this spirit allows them to move on with life faster than people can anticipate. The last words of my common acquaintance on the phone was ‘I hope they manage to clear out the tracks, and get the trains running again for I intend to catch the Borivili local to work tomorrow else it gets too inconvenient’. Frankly if the commuters who experienced the blast were willing to get back onto the same compartments, I don’t see how rest of Mumbai can feel scared. Next evening I watched the live telecast of the trains on the news channels-I confess they were not as crowded as they usually are, but I could also assure you that you wouldn’t get place to sit nor hang by the pole, maybe of those rare evenings where you could get off without punching someone’s face.
My friend Ani emailed me voicing his opinions on this so called ‘Spirit of Mumbai’. I tried to ration it out-why do people flock to Mumbai in the first place? Infrastructure is better in Hyderabad, Chennai is cleaner, Bangalore is less polluted-so its got to be the money. When this city shut down for 2 days due to the rains last year Mumbai lost over $2 million of business, the next day people scrambled and waded to work to make up for the losses. The one thing that drives this city to work is the money, most want to earn and all have to survive. This is what makes Mumbai commercial capital of India, this is the never say die spirit of Mumbai.
But regarding the blast I wonder it is really spirit or is it indifference in a charade?
Let me start with my own example, what did I a citizen of Mumbai living just mere 10 mins from the site of the blast do? I tried to contact everyone I knew and watched the horror on the news. There is no point in sympathy or empathy for that matter-if one cannot get out on the street and help those that needed aid. I probably should have been at the station to help the injured or do small things like gather rickshaws to take the wounded to the hospitals. But what I did was I watched it on TV, I saw most of the people that were there helping were the lower middle class--why,do the upper middle not like having their hands soaked in blood? Inspite of the fact that the first class general compartment is usually filled with the upper middle class male society.
Is it not true that our government gets away each time because the city is up and running? The credit does not go to the officials but the people of the city. Bad rains, part riots, bomb blasts- yet we travel. If the city shut down, would the officials then finally react? From sources, 42kgs of RDX has been brought into the city a mere 10 to 12 kgs would have been utilized in the 8 blasts. Are we to live everyday in fear?
Yes I agree if the city shut down then the terrorists will consider they have won-but if the city continues there will be more-is it worth lives of innocent citizens. It is very easy for the unaffected to say Mumbai won, just because your brother, father, son, relative, friends were not on those ill-fated trains.
---------------------------------
I salute to lower middle class, for helping out those in need and pain. I only know that what goes around comes around.
And Helen Keller’s words ring in my head “In three words I can sum up everything I have learnt about life, it moves on"
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