The morning after the tragedy, things returned to normalcy. The kids beamed smiling faces
as they splashed on water puddles on their way to school, the postman ran his daily routes
on his bicycle, and commuters packed Churchgate station to catch the 5:54 pm Borivali Fast
local. The city known for its resilence, woke up stoically, and edged back to normalcy in
the wake of the aftermath. But things would never be the same again for the friends and
family of the 200 people who lost their lives on their routine commute back home. A
cruel blow was dealt to these fun loving hard working innocent Mumbaikars.
I have a lot of mixed emotions from my time travelling in the local trains in Mumbai. As a kid, I remember standing close to the windows and peeping out. I would read out and memorise the name of each station, and come home to enact the whole journey with friends. As I grew up, I always wanted to emulate people who hang out of the doors while the train was moving - it seemed like a cool thing to do. However, things weren't this simple when I started commuting to college. I had to get used to the crowd on a daily basis, and boarding a fast local from platform # 4 in Dadar seemed like a herculean task. Often times, while boarding with friends, we would compete to see who can enter the train first. There were times when I would get really frustrated cause the trains would run late, and then there were times when I was on a empty fast train which rushed through smaller stations without stopping, and I would smirk at bystanders on the platform. For anyone who has grown up in Mumbai, the suburban locals form an integral part of their life, and it is really hard for people to digest that someone could make such a vicious attempt to disrupt their "lifeline". But given the circumstances, people are helpless and it was no surprise that most of the trains ran to their full capacity, a day after the tragedy.
Nowadays, its very common to read about terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. Add to this, the insurgent and rebel attacks all over the world and its very easy to get desensitised to such atrocities. And desensitised we are, till something hits close to our home and heart. Its only then do we start taking notice of them, and reflect on our good fortune. I had to bear a few anxious moments in the morning as I frantically tried dialing home, to check up on family and friends. Fortunately, everyone I knew was safe, but not everyone came out of the attack unscathed and my heart pours to all those people who are having a silent dinner tonite in the absence of their loved one. Their grief is certainly beyond words and description and I only wish that they be endowed with enough courage to pull themselves through this horrific ordeal.
Sometimes I think life was more peaceful during the times of Cavemen. If I were a Caveman,
the only reason I would get attacked by another Caveman would be if I cheated with his wife,
or took away the boar he had hunted. If I didn't harm him, then harm stayed out of my way.
But in today's world, it seems like the bulk of terrorists and rebels wrath falls upon the innocent, defenseless public. People suffer brutal death for absolutely no fault of theirs.....and we call ourselves a civilised version of the Caveman ?
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5 comments:
Good to hear everyone's ok at ur place, I remember writing a post titled 'Disturbing Insouciance' to make a note to myself to never get desenstised to a death back home just coz of the sheer numbers of them or by the fact that they dnt get enough coverage in the western media
The pics on rediff where really bad. As in , they really hit you bad. And, everywhere we look there are attacks, attacks and more attacks. How come we all ask "Why?". Is there something very obvious that i am missing here? I am just thinking how would have that f*#$#er feel after doing such heinous thing? How can anyone feel or live with disrupting SO many lives? The most touching part of your post is the one with the dinner without loved ones. I am proud of mumbai, machaan. Fighters!! fcuk the terrorists!
I just heard that one of my friends father died in the Mumbai blasts. We always tend to think that these things happen to others, not realizing that they were regular people just like us and its just Gods good hand that protected us and our loved ones. This time atleast. This was a terrible terrible attack, not only on the people of Mumbai, but on India itself.
Civilized -- we are not. Not by the longest distance. However, Chaos must rule -- 2nd law of thermody.
I was mad as anybody that heard of the Mumbai train blasts.. I want to know what prompted them to target the civilians.. Spreading fear or making the gov't sit up and take notice -- too easy. Indian junta esp. mumbaikars don't get scared easy and I'm sure the gov't is paying attention at some level. so what is it?? Was it just a trial run for a future Mass transit bombing somewhere else in the world.. Intuition says, yes. (The irony is, my intuition cannot be proved wrong!!!)
@Rohan..The news I read before replying to ur comments were
385 killed in Indonesia Tsunami
175 Lebaneese civilians killed
201 Mumbaikars dead in Blast
15000 Iraqis died in 2006 alone..
....needless to say it is extremely saddening
@Totti..Pics are really depressing..however there are also great tales of human generosity and rescue opertions which bring a wry smile as u sift thru the media..
@Anarkist..I feel really sorry for ur friend...my mom informed me that a distant friend's relative also breathed his last in one of the trains..and as u say, we are indeed fortunate to possess a good life..
@Subhash..Trial run for future ? Can't be ruled out....But I also think the motive of most terrorists is just to kill people, not just to intimidate others....unfortunately they have succeeded in this particular endeavour
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