Mumbai: The Tragedy and Lessons Learnt

By John S. Shilshi *

Even as the people of North east and elsewhere in India were still in the process of recovering from the shock following the serial bomb blasts that ripped different parts of Assam, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai came as a bigger shocker to the entire country and the world.

Most people who lost their lives or suffered injuries in that dastardly attacks were people who have nothing to do with politics or the policies of the government or governments with which, these terrorists are opposed to. Many of them were from middle and lower middle class families, performing their duties as Hotel employees, policemen, common commuters, and innocent tourists.

Therefore, the act can at best be described as unpardonable wrong against humanity, committed by soulless coverts of the highest order. Though it never is humane to wish for someone's demise, every human being who followed the incident were pleased to note that they were shown the appropriate doors by the brave men in uniform who placed their own lives in the line of fire in order to save others.

Mumbai is a city which is always willing to embrace people from any corner of the world with grace. Its being nicknamed as "maximum city" therefore is not without reason. It is a city always willing to accept and tolerate any culture, life-style, opinion and belief.

It is this character of the city that actually out-maneuvered the sinister design of people like Raj Thackaray who tried to gain popularity by using a divisive slogan known as "Mumbai for Mumbaikars". Except for a handful of rogue followers, most mumbaikars rejected the "Marathi Manoos" brand of politics, and sent Thackeray and his followers into oblivion.

It is a city which most Indians loved to be in loved with even without actually being there (should we call it the Bollywood effect?). The people of Mumbai (not necessarily Maharasthrians) showed remarkable and extraordinary spirit of resilience in 1993 and 2007 when men from uncivilized and barbaric tribe known as "terrorists" ripped the city apart. There is no reason why these Mumbaikars will not do it again.

Among the landmarks targeted the terrorists, the Nariman House perhaps is the only one which might sound like a strange name to many. The Taj, and Oberoi Hotels, so also the CST railway terminal, are names which average Indians are familiar with. While the Oberoi has a reputation of being one of the top five star hotels in Mumbai, the Taj in fact is the most seen and known iconic structure to one an sundry who makes it to this 'maximum city'.

To the rich, the Taj is synonymous to Mumbai, and hence they consider visit to the city incomplete if they don't step in to this landmark to stretch their legs out over a cup of coffee, a drink or a meal. To most poor people, the Taj simple is an object of attraction, a structure which they stare at endlessly either from the Gateway of India, or while atop the streamers that take them to the Elephanta cave.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST), once known as the Victoria Terminal stands as an architectural masterpiece, and serves as the nerve centre of this throbbing city, with trains ejecting out and sucking in close to 2.5 million commuters' everyday.

Albeit the recent rechristening as CST by the seemingly patriotic Shiv Sena, most mumbaikars and visitors still prefer to call it as VT, a name it was known with since 1887. Therefore, it was hardly surprising that the cowards targeted these landmarks. They calculated it correctly – that by doing so, they could inflict maximum physical damage, and also hurt the sentiment of the city and India to the core.

Today, as Mumbai and the rest of India go into a state of mourning and share the grief with the families of those men and women who lost their lives, there are lessons learnt from this horrible incident.

That the incident was allowed to happen was a national shame irrespective of which agency or agencies failed to do their duties. It woke up India to a cruel realization that being a nuclear power by itself does not reduce the vulnerability from real time terror attacks.

Secondly, the incident had given birth to a new found resolve among Indians. A collective determination has dawned upon the people as never before, and this has already taught a lesson or two to politicians trying to play competitive politics at the door step of national disaster.

Some have even been made to bite the dusts for placing self and party before country. Most importantly, the much talked about terror deterrent mechanism which has been in a limbo thus far, now has the brightest prospect of moving forward.

As persons from the north east region, who for years have been helplessly watching violence take its toll, we cannot but help following the incident from a multi-dimensional perspective. Primarily, our hearts fly out to those who lost their dear and near ones, for we knew how painful it is when violence abruptly separate families on either sides of the line dividing life and death.

We knew more than any one else how difficult it is to recover from shocks of these nature. We knew how frustrating it is when we find our politicians building selfish platforms over such human tragedies.

We consider public response of this nature as a welcomed development, with the wishful thinking that they would become infectious on the people of our region, our states. We also hope that henceforth, such would be the kind of public response when lives are lost in all parts of India, including our region.

May the souls of all those who died, rest in peace.