Mumbai--meri jaan!!!!

Of all the metros in India, the place where I feel most at home is in Mumbai. Being a diehard Kolkattan, I find remarkable similarities between the two cities. Of course, Kolkata does not have the financial clout or a comparable film industry. Neither does it have a seacoast Marine Drive or the multiple flyovers and skyscrapers. But below nestling beneath these imposing structures, there is a life and a spirit which is so similar.People live in abject poverty, but still make their living. They occupy every inch of space and start a shop--very much like here. India has the highest number of shops in the world!!! Cricket is a pastime like nowhere else, as it is here. And some of the hospitals are so similar, that it is difficult to find out where one is. Mumbai is a place where  theatre survives--as it does in Kolkata. And many a time people just get together to chat or browse a bookstore. One can get the right product that you want from dingy stores as you can here--and in spite of Raj Thackeray, it is a place where anybody can come and make a living, if you have the talent and determination--as you can do here in Kolkata. Almost every locality has a bakery outlet where you can have the most delicious pastries, and the roadside foodstalls sell the golgappas(called phuchka here), best devoured one after the other with a bent head, with a breath allowed after every ten pieces!!!!!

Mumbai has taught commercialism is possible without crudity. Kolkata portrays a unique perspective of the world via art and music. Both portray that life is hard but enjoyable, a struggle with definite rewards by the wayside, and that strangers could be friends and helped.

So when the terrorists attacked with their grenades, I felt the splinters in my heart. For something has changed irrevocably--the stranger now is not to be trusted , nor is to be helped. They knocked at the door of a shanty of a poor hospital worker (Thakur Budhabhai Waghela, 33, a sweeper employed at GT Hospital) and asked for a glass of water. After drinking it, they shot him. They swaggered into the VT station and shot at people who regarded them curiously. Old, young, men and women fell to their murderous bullets without knowing why. They ran into restaurants and fired indiscriminately at diners enjoying their day out. They fired into roadside crowds and passer byes and shop owners. The dead and injured were of all religions and nationalities--Hindus , Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsees, Marathis and non Marathis. What type of religion, what type of mentality teach these people to be so cowardly? The answer is --none. Religion is used as a cover for obtaining power. Horror and outrage is used for destabilisation and creating a society bereft of trust---the vital step for destroying it.

While the knee jerk reaction is to blame Muslims for all this --(all the terrorists were of that religion), one has to remember that blaming all for the faults of a few is the easy and dangerous road. I have many Muslim friends, enlightened and good human beings who shrink a little bit at these outrages. Blaming a religion or punishing all of them blindly will only add to the increase of fundamentalism, and the downgrading of these voices of reason. The time has come for these voices to be heard more loudly and frequently and unequivocally. The flag bearers for peace and reason HAS to outshout the divisive forces and overwhelm them by their numbers. That is my plea to those Muslim friends. Now is the time to be strident and be heard. Your silence will destroy mankind and all the things that you and I have been taught to believe in. You will face the wrath of these cowards and may become their victims, but if you do not, you will be victims like Aziz, Haji, Amina and Sohail  lying dead in  St.George's Hospital anyway. The most important battle for justice has to be fought by you.

Tomorrow I will write about the terrorist methodology. Luckily teardrops do not smudge an electronic page for today, I will write no more--only  cry for Mumbai--meri jaan.