City blights

Instead of marvelling how Mumbai is back on its feet, we should marvel at how much Mumbaikars have been taken for granted by those who have failed to protect so many of them.

Well, of course Mumbai has ‘bounced back’. What did one expect? That a shipload of crazed terrorists would grind the city to a halt? But let’s please not use ‘the spirit of Mumbai’ as a skirt behind which Mumbaikars in particular and Indians in general can hide and channel their usual chalta hai mentality to a more gloomy fatalistic one. The fact that trains started running at the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus station the very day after bodies were splattered with bullets on its platform isn’t something to cheer about. Ruminate the surrealness of it, yes. But to signal the return of ‘normalcy’ so soon after mayhem as a heroic quality, no.

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Like any other great city, Mumbai doesn’t deserve having to prove its ‘spirit’ through such violent, bloody rituals. So instead of marvelling how Mumbai is back on its feet, we should marvel at how much Mumbaikars have been taken for granted by those who have failed to protect so many of them. The ‘spirit of Mumbai’ doesn’t need a regular check from terrorists. This joy of life should force death to be stopped at the gates, not for Mumbaikars to keep crossing its path as part of their lives.