A Tribute

The year was 2006. I had been in Mumbai for just one week. College had just begun. I was still trying to absorb the niceties and the vagaries that this new city was throwing at me. The pace at which the city ran was the most striking feature as I had been used to a relatively calm and ‘at my own pace’ life, coming from cities like Jamshedpur and Bangalore.

And then came 7th July. I was out hunting for a paying guest accommodation that evening. As I was sitting in Bus No. 131, with the broker, suddenly there was a cacophony of ringtones in the bus. Anxious looks dawned on everyone’s faces as they spoke into their phones. And so rang my phone. It was mom’s call. She sounded rather tensed, not that it wasn’t her normal pitch, but there was something different in her voice this time.

“Are you in the local train?” she asked. “No”, I replied. “Get back to the hotel. There has been a serial blast on the trains”, she cried out. So that was why the phones were ringing.

Looking out of the bus window, I could see that the already fast-paced city had broken into a run.

I switched on the television when I got back to my room. It was then that the magnitude of the tragedy dawned upon me. The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured in the attacks.

I know that there is no way in which I can begin to understand the suffering of those who lost their loved one’s in this tragedy and therefore I offer my words as a sincere feeling of sharing the sorrow.

I write this, however, for another reason.

This is a tribute to the human spirit that this city is famous for. The spirit that was on show a year before during the monsoon floods on 26th July, 2005. News clipping showed people opening their doors to strangers offering them shelter, others offering biscuits and water to those stranded on the roads. That night the entire city had become one big Family.

The morning after the blast, it wasn’t like Mumbaikars sat in their homes, afraid to go out to their jobs, to their schools, afraid to resume normal life. The city put on a great show of unity and solidarity when the people of this city got out of their homes the next day to resume their daily lives with an increased show of vigour and self-belief. They travelled on the very local trains that been ripped apart in the blasts not less that twenty four hours earlier.

This was a message. A message to the world. A message that we shall not be shaken, we shall not be driven scared into our homes, we shall not cower down to such acts of intimidation and we shall not let anything affects our lives.

It’s been more than two years now that I have lived in Mumbai. Honestly, there is not much that I like with the city. Its dirty, its fast and the climate is horrible. But this city has that spirit, that charm, that attracts millions and I am one of them.

I offer this as a salute to the spirit of Mumbaikars.
As a salute to Mumbai.....aamchi Mumbai!!!!
P.S.: I apologise for posting this after July 11th.

Where is the Love???

I was thinking of penning down this thought for a very long time, but as usual, couldn’t get my lazy self to get the job done.

But something happened yesterday, something that I saw, that got me to finally write this thread.

As it was, I was coming back from the hospital, on the opposite side of a road close to my house; a car ran over a dog while it was trying to cross the road. The poor thing was writhing in pain but not a single vehicle seemed to slow down. Finally, a young girl got down from her car and had the heart of picking the dog and moving it to the side of the road.

As I sat in my car- waiting for the traffic light to turn green- watching all this unfold, I wondered. I wondered how all those motorists did not for once think about another living being when they refused to slow down their vehicles, let alone help the poor creature.

And then it occurred. Maybe we humans have just lost the “love”. When I say “love”, I do not mean the kind that we feel for our parents and near ones, nor the feeling that we profess to our boyfriends and girlfriends. By “love”, I mean a genuine feeling of doing something good and thoughtful for another person, for another living being, whether or not we hold a relation to that being.

I mean, has today’s world really become that materialistic and self-centered, that we cannot take one moment in our daily lives, to at least THINK about doing something good, to go out our way to make someone or something happy. I am a part of this world too, and as the majority, I too think in the same materialistic manner. I know there are so many things to do. The constant desire to work for the future, so as to make it more comfortable and easier takes away most of our lives. Be it a student’s desire to make a career or a working man’s to get a better job. And I totally know where that thought comes from because I am also a part of that rat race called Life. But one doesn’t need to be earning a million bucks to make a small difference.

I ask myself.....how many times have I sacrificed my happiness for someone else’s, how many times have I done something good without being duty-bound to do it, how many times have I traveled that extra mile to bring a smile on someone’s face? I would not answer these questions saying never, but I know I haven’t done enough because I have been too busy doing MY own thing.

And even so, do I really want to spend my life in such a manner, that when it all comes to an end, I am left to ask myself “What have I to show for my life?”

Answer: “Money, cars, a big house, status.”

I would rather have my conscience answer me, “You brought a smile to someone’s face”, “and you did a good deed.”

Sometimes when I introspect, I wonder how “hollow” I have become. I can be concerned enough to call a number of people and inquire about the ins and outs of what’s happening in college, and spend hours together gossiping, but seldom do I take such an initiative, out of my own volition, to call upon my grandparents with the same zeal. I know that “call” would definitely bring a smile on their faces. That’s not to say that I don’t love them. It’s just that in today’s world the priorities have become lopsided.

This post may feel very idealistic. But this same idealist thought gave this world a Mother Teresa who lives in the hearts of millions as a Saint who devoted her life to selflessly caring for others. And you know what; it wasn’t like Life wasn’t a rat race during her lifetime.

I know I wasn’t one of those who got down from the car to help that dog. But at least this thought is a start in that direction.

Please don’t get me wrong. My premise is not that I am asking others, or even myself for that matter, to abandon the pursuit for worldly pleasures. All I am saying is that in the course of that pursuit, we should also try to achieve a certain degree of moral ascendency.

Let’s not let the society reach such a stage where it gets difficult for us to associate the word “Human” with the expression “Human Nature”. Go out there and make that difference even if it is small.

P.S.: This post is a reflection of my personal thoughts. It is not indicative of the generality of this trend in the society at large.