BOMBay BLASTS

After the serial blasts which shook Mumbai a few days back, a lot of talk has been going around in the media, print as well as electronic, and even the common Mumbaikars about the so called "Spirit of Mumbai". I simply fail to understand what exactly does this mean. I appreciate the fact that in spite of the blasts and amidst the general fear which grips a city after such an incident, lots of people came out to help the needy, take the injured to the hospitals, queued outside blood banks till there was surplus blood, arranged for food packets and safe drinking water for those traveling back home and so on and so forth. But then wouldn’t any other city have done the same. Be it, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai or even New York, London or Madrid, all would have reacted similarly. It has nothing to do with spirit of the city, after all we are all humans and it’s our duty to help those who need it, especially in such circumstances. Had I been in Mumbai, I too would have done the same, irrespective of a person's caste, creed, religion and maybe even nationality. Try telling the families devastated by these blasts, those who have lost their breadwinners, those who have lost their parents, those mothers who have lost their children about this spirit. Why should have their near and dear ones died, why should there have been a need to donate blood, why should have there been blasts in the first place??? I know we all end up blaming the police, the IB for intelligence failure, the government for not keeping things under check, and even Pakistan who must be responsible for all this. But then aren’t we Mumbaikars also equally guilty?It’s been 13-14 years now, since the 93 serial blasts. Even 5 year old kids would tell you who did it, and who supported them with logistics and finances to execute that brutal act. We have seen the bomb blast case go on endlessly, people being acquitted for lack of evidence, and the most chilling fact of them all, the mastermind of these blasts, Dawood, sitting merrily in Pakistan. Don’t we all know that Pakistan is the root cause of all problems that India has faced? Do we actually need investigations to bring to light the fact that Pakistan was behind these blasts as well. Every single person would know this. But what have we done about this. People can come out in the streets and in huge numbers, to fight problems as trivial as water shortage, power shortage, etc. But has anyone of us come out in the open to question the government about what has it done to get Dawood back. Can’t we pressurize our local MPs that every time there is a Parliament session; this point has to be brought forth. Cant we question our government as to why do we require friendship with Pakistan when it endorses terrorist activities in our country. Shouldn’t they be questioned about why we are required to pamper Pakistan when the person who was responsible for the death of 250 odd people in 93 is sitting merrily in that country? Don’t we feel anything for those who have lost their lives, their families, wont we react until there is a personal loss??? How selfish have we become? Will we just not react? Just start a new day, hoping that it is not our last day? Lot has been made of the fact that Mumbai returns to normalcy within few hours. Well, in 93 I thought this was our grit, our resilience, our way of answering the terrorists, that we will not fall, however hard they may try, whatever they may do, we will take them head on and foil all their plans. But not anymore. Probably what I had mistaken for resilience, grit, spirit of Mumbai then was just plain simple indifference, apathy, numbness, spiritlessness. Cant the Mumbai which contributes to 60-70% of the country's taxes, hold the government to ransom and tell them that nothing will be normal, till the culprits are brought to justice, that the city will be dysfunctional as long as we pursue this imaginary friendship with Pakistan. I know there will be huge economic losses but then that is what will wake up our government. If we can break ties with Pak after the Parliament attack, then why can’t we do the same now? Are the lives of the politicians more valued than those of ordinary citizens, should we wait for those sitting in tight security zones in Delhi to react. We have to ask ourselves these qts, and then our elected reps. Are we going to sit in those same blood stained train compartments where many of our fellow citizens lost their lives, and go to work as usual, as if nothing happened. Won’t those gory images of what happened a few days back ask us any questions? Are we driven so much by money, that we'll swallow this incident like a bitter pill and forget it. Look what the President of Kotak AMC has to say...'Infys quarterly results and the blasts would negate each others effect'. This is the pure materialistic attitude of us Mumbaikars. Shame on us. We are such hypocrites that to hide our indifference to what has happened we call it the “Spirit of the city”. We have become so accustomed to this, that it’s almost become a routine, something that should have sent a shiver down our spines, doesn’t even get our attention. Wake up Mumbai and Mumbaikars, before it’s too late.Now some peace of mind for those intellectuals, who still think that we can have lasting peace and friendship with Pakistan. How can we trust a country like it (for any other country the pronoun would have been her)? They don’t even deserve our attention, forget our friendship. Just to please a few of the minority community who have their relatives and families over there, should we put the lives of thousands other in danger. A lot is said about the fact that terrorists do not have any nationality, religion, that most of them are misguided youth, suffering due to lack of education and poverty. Utter rubbish. The people responsible for these blasts were well educated computer literate youth. Fanatics will display a spontaneous reaction to situations; these were pre-planned, well planned attacks. Cold blooded murders, one may say. These are exceptional circumstances and we need to take exceptional measures to counter them, we cannot be soft as our puppet PM (sorry to use that word, because I still have utmost respect for him) who is a very anti thesis of a warrior and proud Sikhs we have grown up or heard about. I am sorry to say that these inactions will lead to weakening of India and will make us more divisive instead of uniting us. Let’s realize a simple fact that Pakistan is a friend in need and an enemy in deed. How long will we tolerate its nuisance? Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t advocate an out and out war with Pakistan, that time has passed by. They are now a nuclear power and a very foolish one too, can use those weapons without even thinking about their repercussions even once. But we can at least seal our borders; stop the flow on man and material across the border, instead of starting buses and trains. As it is, our borders are porous; we can do without official vehicles for transporting these terrorists. The sooner we realize this, the better for us. I personally have a lot of hatred towards that country but will restrain myself from discussing the same over here.Let’s hope that now we see some actions and not reactions, no more cowardice sugarcoated in the name of spirit. Let’s unite and fight terrorism not turn our backs to it. And finally let’s all pray that one day there would be no Pakistan on the world map and that day comes sooner rather than later. If 1 billion people pray, then God won’t disappoint us. Hope to see that day in my lifetime.Long live Mumbai, Long live India. Pakistan … (did not feel like using bad words, why unnecessarily insult them (the bad words), obviously).