nusense

This a an old article I wrote while in 2nd year degree. This was a write up for the 26/11 aftermath. Mumbai… the city where my heart is and always will be.

“Death – the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.”

Walter Scott’s quote resounds with a surge of sentiments evoked by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on the fateful day of 26/11. The 60 hour siege needs no retelling and will forever be recalled by generations to come as one of the most shameful events to have occurred on the Indian soil. The entire world watched stunned, armed militants holding the lively South Mumbai hostage for almost three days. Recalling the world’s biggest terror attack yet, the American media was quick to call it ‘India’s 9/11.’ Precious lives were lost, peace marches held, candles were burnt, politicians sacked and one terrorist put to trial. But a wave of ‘final awakening’ is yet to sweep Mumbai of its feet.

Post 26/11, we heavily criticized the electronic media for broadcasting heart-wrenching images with the news events that broke out. So much so, that the IB ministry had to issue an advisory to news channels asking them to refrain from repeated telecasts of the Mumbai attacks. Do they consider the public’s memory to be short-sighted? Nevertheless, this incident will bring rage in a Mumbaikar’s mind for as long as he lives. Not only because the TV reporters like Arnab Goswami almost forgot to breathe while reporting incessantly but also due to the gruesome images that shook the world, exposing visibly shameful loopholes in the security vigilance of the country. Naturally, an ordinary Mumbaikar is gnashing his teeth and seething with anger, aghast with the happenings.

No one can call this anguish a just a bout of rage. After all, the public is capable of doing much more than just putting a hero on a pedestal and striping a villain of his dignity. In a democracy where the government is accountable to the people who elect them, we made the otherwise insouciant politicians resign. Albeit en retard, similar fate should have been belted out for politicians in power at the time of the Babri Masjid demolition, the train-bombings of 7/11 and the twin blasts of 2003 in the city. In recent developments, the Supreme Court has provided the people seeking justice for the cold-blooded killings of 52 innocents in the twin blasts of 2003. It is about time that the three accused have been awarded capital punishment for their horrifying deeds. But is this enough to sooth the frayed nerves of an angry Indian?

Indeed, post-26/11, ordinary Indians are enraged. They don’t want condescending back-patting for their famed resilience in the face of terror. In the list of ordinary Indians we also take note of certain celebrities and VIPs like Alyque Padamsee, Suhel Seth, Ram Gopal Verma who took a guided tour of the ruined Taj along with the then CM. They desired to see the sacking of ministers who could not deliver. Is it because the targets of terrorism per se had shifted classes? Unlike all the previous attacks, which happened in the cabs, trains, buses, or on the roads, 26/11 saw the otherwise safe and reclusive elites, who thought they were beyond being subject to such heinous acts of terror, had being targeted.

To watch these socialites babble about their suffering was something unheard of, considering the many attacks the city has seen. Why do we care what Alyque Padamsee or Suhel Seth had to say? Did they voice their anguish only because The Taj and the Trident are considered ‘elite hang-out spots?’ Where were these voices when people were being bombed in local trains or in busy markets? The Times of India had profiled an article with class preference when bodies from the Taj, the Trident and those from the Cama Hospital were sent to the morgue. Special care and attention was showered on the people who came to claim the dead from Taj and Trident. While a woman complained of a deceased lying on the floor uncovered; a man shot dead at the CST station while fulfilling his duty.

For the time in years, people made high decibel demands for ruling out the establishment scalps. If Indians are today demonstrating, waving “ugly politician” placards or calling for resignations, it’s because public servants have forgotten their calling. But now the hue and cry over the attacks seems to have died down with time. The media came full circle and did what it does best, salute the spirit of Mumbai. On one hand, Kasab confesses his horrific acts claiming Pak has accepted his existence on their land. Whereas the Pakistani media calls the attack on Mumbai a well thought out plan by the Hindu extremists to defame them in order to acquire Kashmir. Well if Pak can stick to its guns, so can we. Why is Mumbai being called resilient? Is it because the city has, on numerous such accounts, bounced back to life? Has the city lost its will to fight and emerge stronger, satiating itself by lighting candles for those who lost their lives on its soil and hoping safety for others who live in fear? Or is Mumbai today just as calm as the sea is before a storm?

The people must not forget these gun-wheeling men, who shot dead the Jewish Rabbi’s six month pregnant wife at Nariman House with no guilt whatsoever. Religion and castes notwithstanding, we the people need to become a force stronger than the Opposition in order to check the government at its every step. We need to inform and be informed to question, keeping the government on its toes and making it accountable. Instead of railing against politicians, it’s time for us to engage more actively in the democratic process which is more than just casting our vote during elections.

Mumbai must fight back and to do so, we must come together not only as a city but also as individuals. Our voices filled with anguish and the distress caused by the 60 hour ordeal cannot erase the trauma of the ones who had gone through living hell and come back, some who did not even survive to narrate their tribulation. But they can bring about a change in the bases of democratic power, the key to the ‘final awakening.’ Not resilience but ‘RETRIBUTION’ is how Mumbai should be spelled in future.