United and Hopeless

(This is in reference to the un-adulterated attack on the Indian Financial Capital on 26/11 by terrorists, an attack yet again on the Indian Conscious)

By Divanshu Arora 26^TH NOVEMBER ‘08 CHANDIGARH

For the Last three days Mumbai has slept under war and woke up to it as well.

We haven’t witnessed such an attack at our nation. Bombay has been a great city that can be compared to the likes of New York and has suffered a lot but never before, have we experienced a “Fidayeen” type attack.

After seventy odd hours of unprecedented gun battle, grenade attacks, precious lives being lost and indefatigable and spirited professionals at work (both forces and media), the whole nation is glued to the Television sets showing vivid images of our Counter Strike.

Just to give you an example of the kind of circumstances emerging as a result of these attacks are that never before in our lives have we thanked god after the police and the NSG commandos pulled out 24 dead bodies from the Oberoi-Trident in Mumbai. A total aftermath is still increasing as the commandos sanitize the buildings and keep finding dead bodies all around. There’s been a baby of 6 months in the want of milk at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Foreign nationals along with Indian corporate honchos who were charred in the fire that broke out as a result of the grenade attacks by the loser terrorists. A guy was celebrating his wedding reception when he was shot dead along with some others. All this and more stories will come up and will be shown over the weekend on prime time, thanks to the media out there.

But the question still haunts me.

What are we doing? Terrorists are ravaging our home and we’re behaving like jokers in a circus and blaming it on the intelligence failure. We want better laws to save our own house from hooliganism of this sort. What do we want to become? a “police state”? This is not in isolation but exactly opposite of that. The audacity with which they’ve done everything is shivering. I mean they have the guts to storm into Hotel Taj and Oberoi-Trident.

This incident is being talked of as a 9/11 of India and there’s a hope that like the US we too will come together as a nation and our political leaders will integrate against the problem. Tough ask!!

A good sign is that Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Advani have been in touch for the past few days, perhaps the frequency of calls tops in the last 4 years. But really I don’t think people care about these things. The anger is much more and concerns are far more real this time. No politician suffers as the normal Indian does but then again politicians only get top security which should be given to the people instead. If Mr. Advani goes on TV and says that today is a day to put away political differences. Well I’d say thank you very much sir, but you’re not doing us a favor. You’re only doing your bit what you ought to do. What every politician ought to do. The political bickering that goes on every day, that has gone on for ages in India has to come to a halt now and please learn to perform or perish.

Dr. Manmohan Singh’s clinical address was not apt given the situation, people look up to you with utmost hope and respect sir, I was hoping of a stronger address if not emotional. In such a crisis the father figure has a responsibility to console and reassure the kids but it was not be.

Indeed a job well done by NSG, we know for sure now that our forces are better than our politics. One good thing that the Government did during this time was that they never showed up on the site to gain any political mileage.

Although some leaders are so hell bent on earning brownie points anywhere they can.

Mr. Modi shows up and really disgusts everyone, sir we have a crisis and the last thing we want is your smart ass comments, he wants to buy popularity by announcing Rs. 1 Crore for Mr. Karkare’s family who by the way have already turned down his generous offer. Tough luck Mr. Modi, I guess you can’t buy morality with Gujarat state’s money.

The last thing our police wanted was to take extra care of our VVIP’s. Let the politicians stay at bay for once. The army personals were very brave and complimented the NSG well. It was gud on the part of the ATS to have called NSG and the Army. Unfortunately it took the lives of the three brave cops, the best in the country for the ATS and the Mumbai police to call on the NSG and the Army. It was great to see 3-4 different kinds of forces working in total sync with each other, it does bring in some hope of unity in the minds of the otherwise disintegrated population that we are.

These are the men of action and integrity. They are toiling for people who they haven’t met in their lives but still they are continuing operations for one reason, there home is under attack and they can’t stand it. The whole nation must learn the spirit and duty from these men in the uniform, especially the supporters of MNS, people open your eyes wide and see; the NSG got there and spearheaded the operations direct from New Delhi, there might have been many jawans who belong to various parts of India. The Helicopters that brought the commandos were immediately flown from Chandigarh, because that’s where the base is;

Where was your celebrated and talkative leader who asked you to tear down posters of a Mega star from the “North” and you dutifully followed. Mr. Thackeray, good job sir that you did not show up, I mean someone could have taken you as a terror threat to Mumbai.

We mustn’t forget the men, the heroes without any uniforms, but hearts of gold, the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi-Trident hotels staff who dutifully helped the guest evacuation. The anonymous helpers among the population who might have driven people away from danger, people who have fed them with food and water. I’m sure there would be people who we will never know about but have helped the victims in some way or the other.

Honestly when I hear about stoicism and the spirit of Mumbai, I just feel sad; Sad for us helpless Indians who find no solace whatsoever even in a crisis and end up in an unemotional continuation of our damned lives.

This time could be different; the anger could last much longer. This incident has no doubt broken the shackles of our indifference;

With these attacks happening so frequently these days, doesn’t it takes the gloom out of the world; I keep on thinking that this world for sure is full of love. Whenever these attacks take place, we see people in the middle of the crisis want their loved ones to know about them. There are no messages of hatred but all of them are of love.

Strange but true that world comes closer when there’s a tragedy and not otherwise.

To a person like me who’s never been to Mumbai, it is still a very precious Indian city that knows how to respect people and their dreams. My heart goes out to Mumbai but seriously I do hope that we begin to think as Indians and not as a mosaic of different races again. We begin to think as one united force of individuals who would not compromise their beliefs no matter who says what.

We are one.

We ought to be one.

But this is just a hope and we really are united and hopeless.