South Bombay has the best of Bombay’s architecture, mostly due to the British time architecture, with stone buildings, just like the Gateway of India and the Taj. It also has the best sea faces at Colaba and Marine Drive. I doubt that anyone who has ever visited Bombay has never been to any of these locations. To think that places at these locations have been the target of hatred so great, it makes some people think what they are doing is right and meant to be, is downright scary.
The Terrorists:When reports first came in of the incidents there, I was staring shell shocked at the television. This was not something that could happen. So much of it seems unreal. From witness accounts and photographs, the terrorists looked like regular kids. The way they are shown in the photographs and videos, one would be mistaken into considering them as college kids or youngsters walking casually down any road if it weren’t for the guns in their hands or the bags filled with explosives that they carried. According to witness accounts, they also spoke fluent English and from their attire look as perfectly civilized, educated young men. What does it take to infuse such hatred into young minds as these? What level of training is provided to them to not feel the slightest remorse or have the smallest bit of fear in giving up their lives? To think of me or any other person my age being convinced into doing something as ghastly as killing others with no rhyme or reason, is a very scary thought.
The Bombay spirit:Damn it all to hell! Bombayites know what Bombay spirit is. People don’t go back to work and try and get back into their normal routine in a show of resilience. They do it because it’s the only thing they know to do. That does not mean anyone has the right to use it as an excuse. BOMBAY IS NOT A BOP BAG!!! Just because we bounce back every time does not mean we deserve to be pushed down ever so often. We keep bouncing back in the eternal hope that things will not repeat but I guess we now have enough evidence that we cannot expect it to be so. Understand that for some Bombayites, going a day with loss of pay is worse than dying. As a city that is the highest tax payer, we deserve at least the right to live freely in our own country. We deserve to know that our money is being put to good use. We are not asking you to pay us for our jobs we are not doing, we are asking for being given an environment where we can go to work and know that at the end of the day we shall return home alive. Is that too much to ask?
The Politicians:I think at this moment the politicians are hated even more than the terrorists and rightly so. Who could be more foolish than the politicians who visited the city in such an hour of crisis? Didn’t the cops have enough to deal with without also having to worry about the politicians’ security? The things they did on landing were probably worse. Barely had they landed and gotten out of the airport than they start the mud slinging and blaming everyone from rival parties (and Pakistan, every Indian’s favorite punch bag) for the attacks. Modi went as far as to offer monetary compensation to the deceased personnel. None of the cops of the army are beggars, Mr. Modi. They do not fight for the country just so that when they die, people like you can ease up on your guilty conscience by throwing money at them. Much like we do to the irritating beggar-children at signals, not so much to actually give them money but to get them out of sight. There were messages doing the rounds asking for Raj Thackeray and what he was doing to save the ‘marathi manoos’ who were victims, letting him know the army weren’t saving people based on their community/caste/creed. Quite frankly, I’d be happy if he stayed stuck in his rat-hole (tiger- Ha! I don’t think so!) for the rest of his life. I think it’s high time everyone realized that we all need better people leading the country. When we look at our leaders, do we really need to look at people almost on their death beds with a tremble in the step and their speech? Name one top politician who does not radiate that image? There are better people out there. We know it. A lot of the young politicians seem promising; however, we are our country that lets age matter a lot over perhaps other more important stuff. Let’s change that. Exercise your right. Vote! Not for someone just because they are older than you or because they are from your caste/community/creed. But because they can help this country progress.
Stop blaming Pakistan and Muslims:Every one’s played this blame game for so long, I doubt if they themselves truly believe it as the truth or just because that’s what every one says. The hypocrisy needs to stop. We can’t keep calling ourselves a secular country if we keep looking at every Muslim with suspecting eyes. We can’t keep saying we want to be friends with our neighbors if we are going to turn around and accuse them, suspect them and blame them for every thing. That is not friendship if you ask me. If we have the evidence, let’s follow up on it and let’s eliminate the sources. No one can believe all of Pakistan is guilty. We need to eliminate the guilty not the innocent. Most importantly, if we are wlling to say that our own Muslims can be terrorists then why not accept the same for our people from other religions? STOP the hypocrisy.
The cops and they army who fought:There isn’t an Indian who couldn’t have been proud of them! We can find great reassurance in the belief that at least our army knows what its doing. And their best is really good. Let’s support them, show them our faith in them. Let’s ensure that their best gets better. We need to invest in our forces to ensure they have better training, better weaponry, better protective gear, and better of everything they need. What could be more heartening than the fact that with over 60 hours of going without food, water and sleep, they can emerge victorious with smiles, and none of them the gloating kind. Perhaps embarrassed with the all the attention focused on them by the media. Not one saying the job was too much for them, not one demanding anything in return for what they did. Just accepting it was ‘just their job’ and that they ‘would not let the terrorists or for that matter any enemy escape’. We definitely need more of these.
The incident has seen several heroes. All of them need to be applauded. Perhaps the only person unaffected (gratefully) by this incident will be the 6 month baby who was rescued from the Oberoi. I don’t know if her parents will ever return to Bombay, but I hope that at some point in her life, they tell her of the incident and even while she respects her father for being the hero that he was, she also remembers to thank our army for being able to bring her out safe and secure in her father’s arms. Ironically, the look in her big eyes seemed to be asking what Calvin once asked his imaginary friend Hobbes, ‘Do u think the grown ups will have the world fixed up by the time they hand it over to us?’ Do we have an answer? I hope it can be a positive one by the time she does grow up. There’s a lot to do and little time. Let’s not waste any more time.
Let’s bring in better leaders. Let’s have even better security forces that are trained to deal with such situations even as we do our best to ensure a repetition does not take place. Let’s invest in better intelligence forces. Let’s ensure our better leaders follow up on leads by the intelligence forces. Let’s invest in an independent investigation agency that can investigate and follow up on such incidents to bring the guilty to book. Lets be a country that we can be proud of for every thing. Most importantly let’s remember we are Indians before belonging to any caste/creed/region.
And whether it takes weeks, or months or even a year for the targeted locations to re-open as new, it will happen and they’ll once again be flocked with people there to celebrate something in their lives.
What assures me this is possible and Bombay will once again be back as new maybe better? An article in a paper that said, that when at 3 a.m. with gun fires and explosion going on in the Taj, someone called up the hotel landline to enquire about their relative/friend, the receptionist answered the phone by saying, 'Good Morning . This is the Taj.'
Need anyone say more?
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