What next?
Something that started in 1992, continues. There have incidents in 2002, 2003, 2004. What started with (in)famous pictures of Bombay Stock Exchange and Air India building, continued with shots of the Gateway, demolished buses and bloodied people. Now, today, Mumbai has a new icon… lifeline of the city… trains – in a mangled heap of steel... blood-spattered, dark, gloomy, ominous; and crying against a weeping sky.
It’s been a tough week. First the high-water, and now the hell. And yet, in a day or two, people try and start behaving as if everything is alright. Well, not as if they have a choice!... what does one do? Not take the locals? Not go to office? What is the alternative? People are scared...but you have to go out to earn money, right? There is the spirit, alright, but tell me, is there any option?
I remember leaving home last week when it rained... it was nowhere close to the deluge we saw last year, but yet, streets were deserted, trains were empty. Of course one is scared. You mind?
Give Mumbaikars a break, they deserve it. They cannot be forever scared of everything. They cannot forever leave home, not knowing if they are coming back home at night. You cannot take them for granted like this. As the city yet again trudges to work, all you do is say... HOW SPIRITED! And you wait for the next thing to happen?
It’s been a tough week. First the high-water, and now the hell. And yet, in a day or two, people try and start behaving as if everything is alright. Well, not as if they have a choice!... what does one do? Not take the locals? Not go to office? What is the alternative? People are scared...but you have to go out to earn money, right? There is the spirit, alright, but tell me, is there any option?
I remember leaving home last week when it rained... it was nowhere close to the deluge we saw last year, but yet, streets were deserted, trains were empty. Of course one is scared. You mind?
Give Mumbaikars a break, they deserve it. They cannot be forever scared of everything. They cannot forever leave home, not knowing if they are coming back home at night. You cannot take them for granted like this. As the city yet again trudges to work, all you do is say... HOW SPIRITED! And you wait for the next thing to happen?
I know...all this talk of resilience and spiritedness is so inane...what else can people do really? Funny, that we as media people choose to term it as such...P
Posted by
Anonymous |
July 12, 2006 2:52 PM
Nothing stops that city. Its very exhausting to even hear of their spiritedness and their resilience...leave alone living it. I understand the need to earn money, and I understand that life HAS to go back to normal, but to go back to normal the very next day is a bit much. I do not call it resilience or spirit..I call it slightly mad.
Posted by
Ron |
July 12, 2006 4:08 PM
u voiced my sentiments exactly...think mumbaikers deserve a break now!
Too many things have happened too soon!
Posted by
Ekta |
July 14, 2006 1:51 PM
Mumbai is bursting at its very seams. Ironically, it festers the very ones who bring it down.
Phrases like resilience & spiritedness sound poetical yet laughable in context to the millions of urban-poor who have no choice but to continue to live their lives unabated in Mumbai's dingy corridors. The daily fight for survival leaves them no room to await the drama/suspense of "the next one to happen".
I have lived in J&K too and I feel people living under constant mortar shelling in Punch & Rajouri sectors deserve epitaphs like 'spirited' and 'resilient'. They know exactly what it means to go out one day knowing full well that they may never return. It was saddening to see human spirit break under the strain. It always is.
Posted by
Manasi |
July 25, 2006 2:17 AM
i agree wid u..not a mumbaikar.. but i think its enough wid "lets salute the mumbai spirit".. its utter crap.. enough of the non-sense... think of them as ppl.. ppl with feeling... give them a berak.. kiss good bye to takin advantage of their resilience.. stop acting like its ok.. cuz ITS NOT OK... get out there n do something...
Posted by
BORED IN LIFE... |
July 31, 2006 1:07 PM
All the talk of how spirited the city is makes me wonder if it's just a way of diverting one's attention away from the underlying problem. Now, even the talk has died down, a state of normalcy presumed; is it because the ones who are in a position to do something about it are hoping that if you don't talk about it, the problem will go away??
Posted by
Kavitha |
September 05, 2006 9:35 AM