I was stuck in Chennai in the floods and was without electricity for four days and all I did was sit and read every inch of the paper to try and find out what is going on in Mumbai. The wait was frustrating; I found out that some great men had died in this battle.
This is bullshit, South Mumbai, The TAJ, Nariman Point, all these symbols for the millions in Mumbai and symbols for the billions who check out Mumbai on the internet, on fire. What the hell is going on? Why isn’t anybody doing anything? Why is it taking so much time? All these questions just made my mind feel very uneasy. And then you turn to the sports page where you try to get your mind away from everything but it just makes you even angrier.
Cowards that’s all I say they are, especially the ones who lost. I do not blame the English team for returning home, I blame the others who suck money from Indian cricket like mosquitoes and have the nerve to call it unsafe. It makes you angrier because they are just sore losers waiting for an opportunity to start making dumb accusations. They are “mourning” the loss of millions of dollars, when there are people dying left, right and centre. I really feel “blessed and pissed” for being born in a country which is too tolerant for its own good.
When I came to know that I would be leaving for Mumbai the next day I did not sleep that night. I was excited, sad, hopeful, and angry. My flight was scheduled to departure at two in the afternoon but I left my relatives home at nine in the morning. As I entered the airport and after checking in I saw a bunch of people staring at the television. As this very habit has been implanted in us, I had to see what was happening and this is when this bunch of people opened my eyes
In this group of people were two soldiers, two airport staff, an Italian Gentleman, an elderly couple.
The look on the soldiers’ eyes showed me anger and pain and frustration. They felt pathetic as the TV showed the great heroes being laid to rest. The tears of the son looking down at his fathers body made them feel like killing themselves.
Ignorance, Stupidity, Selfishness. This is what I felt about the two members of the airport staff. Why? Because I felt that these were the only two people present in the whole airport who ask each other,” What is ATS? Who is this guy they are cremating? What has happened?” It was at this moment I felt like grabbing the gun from the soldiers’ hand and emptying a round of bullets into both their heads. But then again” TOLERANCE” crept in and I moved away without saying a word.
The elderly couple’s whispers were eye-opening. Here lies a great hero of the country and the ones who garland this hero should actually be the ones being “garland-ed”. Enough said.
The Italian wore a fierce look. He was shocked at the loss of his friend but said he would return every year at this date to India and he was not afraid and had no doubts in telling me which hotel he was going to stay in. All I could tell him was that if there were more people like him abroad the way the world sees India will be remarkably different.
But then again, when has the truth ever helped when it matters the most? “Truth always conquers”, this is what we have been teaching but then why is it that the liars always win? When will truth conquer?
As I landed in Mumbai and the flight doors opened, I got up and started to make my way through the length of the plane. Upon seeing the air hostess and giving the all important fake “Thank you” and “Yes, very nice flight”, I got to see Mumbai for the first time after what seemed like a decade. I felt that I had entered a graveyard not because there were dead bodies lying everywhere but because of the cold silence. There was a cloud of sorrow enveloping the whole city. I thought that there had been a nuclear explosion. I have reached Mumbai from my hostel several times before and every time the doors of the plane opened I felt the energy the, I felt the city talk to me, welcome me. But today when the doors of the plane opened I felt like I needed to shut them immediately
All the pictures in the news, the papers, and the internet were just making me feel even more depressed. It was at this moment I looked out of the window and saw the beautiful city that amazes me everyday. It speaks everyday and even today it spoke. It told me that even on a day like this it still lives because of the all important fuel it runs on and that is UNITY. When these heroes were cremated one doesn’t need messages, comments, TVs to know or more importantly FEEL the people of MUMBAI mourn. It is this unity that is going to carry the people of Mumbai through these testing times. Yes, there are stronger laws that will be needed, stricter rules to be followed, but, one thing you know even if you have been in Mumbai for a day or a lifetime, everything old will never be forgotten and everything new will just have to change to suit the city’s way of life.
Fighting evil by showing its resilience is one thing Mumbai has taught from time to time. Well all I can say is that I’m dying to learn what Mumbai is going to teach me next.
