Tragedy of my city.
July 19, 2006. Yes that was the date when I wrote a blog about Mumbai Train Blasts that rocked the city eight days before.
5 years and a major terror attack in between, here I am, back to square one. Today, July 13, 2011 was yet another date with terror for Mumbai. And as I revisited my blog from five years ago, I was amazed to note that not much has changed since then.
We are still angry, irritated and maybe a little helpless too. Same old Mumbai Spirit, same old "The city will bounce back" on the news. What is new is locations where things have come to a grinding halt. Oh wait! Even that has a strange commonality for all these years gone by.
Some may say 5 years, or 9 years for that matter, is not a long time to change the system. I might disagree on that. We have changed our system in last 5 years. We have moved from being bad to becoming worse. It only remains to be seen, where we end up. How many more such incidents will it take for our thick skinned scumbags otherwise known as politicians to realize, there have a responsibility towards protecting us and not to protect their bank accounts alone.
What skills these men show in discussing one corruption case after the other, if only those skills could be used in solving the basics that are constantly questioned in our country. Or have they completely forgotten that while they take for granted the process of making money in office, they have to work for it as well?
What is more stunning is that we take this all with a sense of loss. Condolences are passed around, world leaders would condemn the incident and a relief fund will be allocated to the families affected. But what a lot many people fail to see is the lampoon the country faces from these very people. "Not smart enough to protect its own territory!" "No intelligence!" "Soft Target!" is what we are called.
For a minute we can understand these statements coming from foreign personnel, what is jaw dropping is the fact that our own members of parliament making remarks like, "first attack in 31 months, we have improved!" "Can't make a call on who has done it because we have no initial report!" and worse still top police officials making remarks such as "Don’t go out at 2 am in the night and then say Delhi is not safe!"
Of course, if our jails are brimming to capacity with politicians who have stolen public money thinking that it’s their right to do so, then all the goons are going to walk on the streets of our cities. Not much is going to change. We have a spirit to live up to. Wake up after one tragedy only to sleep in fear till next one knocks down our door.
Like I said, 5 years back also we were angry and irritated, today also, we are angry and irritated. Tragedy of my city is not that we are soft target for act of violence. The tragedy of my city is no one is there to listen to us.
