I woke up at 8 this morning with the sunlight creeping in through drawn curtains to wake me up. The TV in my room was still on … sound turned off. The Taj Mahal Palace in full view; smoke, shards, bullets and blood. It’s a miserable way to wake up, I hadn’t slept well for the past 3 days. Sleeping at 4 am and heading to work at 9.
I’ve never been one to feel much loss or fear. I’ve dealt with deaths in the family before … expected and unexpected. This was different. I did not feel fear … or loss. I felt depressed, angry, frustrated and helpless. I had lost nothing … I live in Thane … no one bombed my house, no one shot my family and yet … something inside hurt as I watched Mumbai turn into a war zone.
Cities are great things. They go through a lot … bombings, terrorism, civil war, riots, strikes … and yet they rise every day … a little more tired and little more beaten up, but just as strong, just as alive and you know whatever great calamity has befallen the city. It is just another scar … which will eventually disappear with time. How is it so that a city’s lifetime far exceeds that of its citizens and Yet each citizen defines the city through his life, actions, attitude and thoughts.
I am a Mumbaiite … not because I live in Mumbai or I was born there or I have friends there. I am a Mumbaiite … because my actions, thoughts, ideas and life are, in many important ways defined by the city and in some small insignificant way, I affect the city too. This is the spirit of a city.
In attacking the Taj, the Oberoi, CST … In killing the people they killed and in the way the terrorists killed them. Their attack was on the spirit of this City. With each bullet they chipped away at every person who identified himself with Mumbai … and with each person they killed they chipped away at the spirit of the city as a whole.
The human spirit is a wonderful thing … there can be no greater example of “ what does not kill you makes you stronger “. This attack makes Mumbai stronger … I wager we will not see Raj Thackrey’s goons beating up North Indians any time soon. I wager we will not see Bandhs and strikes enforced by a lawless political cadre any time soon. They would face a public ire so different if they tried … It would be different because … the common man, who finds himself distanced more from the Nations matters every day … was dragged out of bed and pulled into the bloody mess that was Mumbai on 26th November. An experience like that is not easily forgotten.
It was common men who stayed put at the Taj to ensure the safety of their guests and they didn’t do it to gain political mileage.
It was common men who shielded hostages as they escaped the Trident building.
It was a common woman who saved the life of an infant even as his parents were shot dead.
It was common men doing their jobs as guardians of our freedom who lost their lives. They did not do it to save Maharashtrians, or Mumbaikars, or Hindus or Muslims, they didn’t even do it to save Indians. If you for a moment considered qualifying their sacrifice with such connotations … you’d be doing a disservice to their sacrifice. They laid their lives on the line … purely because it was their duty. There can be no greater example of human courage and strength. These people needed no more motivation than the simple yet powerful sense of honor and duty that binds them. Can there be a greater example of what Mumbai means ?
Tomorrow Mumbai will wake up and walk on as it has before … not because of anything that the politicians will try to tell you. Not because of the glorious Indian tenacity, not because of the Nationalist pride, not because it recognizes sacrifices of its sons etc etc. All that sounds great on a dias. Tomorrow Mumbai will get up and walk as it has before
… because that is what Mumbai does.
My love for this city and my love and respect for people who lost their lives in this incident. Thank you.
Hemant Karkare
Vijay Salaskar
Ashok Kamte
Sandeep Unnikrishnan
and many more ...rest in peace.
