18 and outraged, I am definitely not one of the more credible voices in India's public policy discourse.
That does not make me blind to all the filth and competitive incompetence I see around me.
This is in light of the three coordinated bomb blasts in Mumbai on 13th July. At the time of writing this, no one has claimed responsibility for the same.
It's ironic how Mumbai is such a soft target, yet its residents are depicted as having hearts of bulletproof armor, resilient and stoic through crisis after crisis. The school kids who put on their rain-coats and write their exam the day after serial blasts? The father who takes the bustling local train to work? The fact that Dadar station is crowded the morning after an act of terrorism?
That's not strength. It's sheer cowardice brought on by lack of an alternative.
Mumbai is a tough city to live in. Time is money, money is power in this city of skyscrapers and slums. You have to show up to work every single day on time to ensure receipt of your cherubic pay cheque, without which you don't have money for rent or veggies. Exactly the background against which corruption becomes an unfortunate fact of life, even for the law-abiding.
We have a porous system of governance, an inefficient infrastructure to tackle terror, a blanket of omniscient bureaucracy to shut the people up.... and not one single television channel to deliver objective informative news without resorting to sensational TRP-raising tactics.
My heart just goes out to the families that have lost someone, or even spent a moment in fear.
My heart just goes out to the families that have lost someone, or even spent a moment in fear.
Most people are going about their lives today like nothing happened. They check the newspapers in the morning and news at 9 to keep abreast of the case.
Waterlogging, potholes, beggary and bomb blasts...All in a Mumbai minute.
13 comments:
its not strength...but i would not say cowardice either...most of these people are so poor that they do not have the luxury to grief...they are struggling to survive each and every day...
very well written....
Cheers!
SUB
So true...a very well written post i must say. but yes i agree with what Sub has said above...its just that ppl dont have a choice.
It's amazing how well you write. :)
keeping Mumbai in my thoughts and prayers.
Hello Nitisha,
I'd just love to thankyou for following my blog, and for your comment. I hope that since you are a book-lover, too, you'll enjoy listening to my ramblings and that you'll have the time to share some of your opinions and favourite things as we go.
In response to your question, I have four great George Orwell quotes on my wall. They are (in descending order):
"Every geneation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wise than the one that comes after it."
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himelf at least four questions, thus 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?"
"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking meaning."
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink."
They're very true, aren't they, and quite funny. But the second one, about coming up with an image fresh enough to be effective is such a good point! This is something both George Orwell and Virginia Woolf do all the time, and it makes their writing so beautiful and refreshing.
Anyway, I would like to finish up my super-long comment by saying thankyou, and that you seem to be a very poignant point-making writer, yourself! Take care.
everything was right..except the word .. cowardice...
its wrong...
if we are cowards we won't go to work and sit scared in our homes..
root of the problem..
is that we are not alert...or should I say careless..
we don't monitor our own vicinity for suspicious activity..thinking its somebody else's job..
if we need change. we shouldn't blame govt. their behavior reflects the nation's behavior..
its we who need to change..
and only way to do is to begin from schools..
you cant change adults..
adults will watch movies like 'a wednesday' .. agree with it..
and go home and get on as it is...
Thanks for your comments, SUB, Felicity, Ria, Grace and The Book Florist. :)
Sanket, I have to disagree.
You take the word cowardice out of context, and of course, it's wrong and insensitive. Cowardice brought on by lack of an alternative is exactly what you say, there's no other choice available to ordinary citizens.
And having lived in Bombay for six years, travelled in autos, taxis and local trains alike, I can safely say that we are aware of suspicious items we see on all forms of transportation and other areas. But that is not the point. Citizens can only be aware IN ADDITION TO the safety provided by the police force and the government. Such safety is a fundamental right of every citizen living in a peaceful democracy.
Innocent civilians can never, and must never, be held responsible for vicious terrorist attacks. The fact remains that the blasts took place not because a person wasn't paying attention to a stray car, but due to a deficiency in the security infrastructure of the country. A layman is not a member of the bomb-squad, so while his vigilance may have alerted someone to the attack, it could not have prevented it in any way possible.
People the problem is the next tyme the nation of the people go to vote they don't stand up and say we can't take this shitt!!!
Kehta iss MUMBAI mein zindagi se zyada maut sasti hain...dukh iss batt hain ke iski kimat humne hi kum kar di....
MUMBAIKAR MAR is the anthem
nt the SPIRIT OF MUMBAIKAR!!
I hope i haven't hurt ne one's sentiments...
*people of the nation was wht i meant
Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru will outlive us probably. Nor will we ever get to know the true details about perpetrators of the Gujrat riots or the political lobby that shielded them, all the while as our media picks up TRPs by dedicating airtime to netas quarreling over these very issues.
Bombs or not, destruction will continue and people will die. Men used to kill men in Stone Age; they do it now; and they will continue doing so. The trick is to cherish what we still have. I'm not defending terrorisms. I'm not praising the government. I just wish people spent more time loving each other. The solution to a suicide bomber is not a bullet in his head...
I feel the same about Mumbai... I like the spirit but when its targeted, I feel the blues.. We should fight it out.. Nice post : ): )
And great blog!
Cheers,
my point is we easily blame the government..when the root cause is not really them..
think about it...
it was corruption that got RDX into mumbai..similarly to get ammonium nitrate they must have greased palms..
so is corruption the root cause of terror attacks..NO
is citizen apathy the cause.. NO
is our careless attitude towards malfunctioning security setup the cause...NO...
its combination of these and more..
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