Mumbai Explodes...Once Again!!!

A lot has been written after "another" series of attacks on Mumbai and our hearts go out for all the folks who have succumed to the injuries and also to those who have gone thru the trauma of being in Mumbai during this period.

There have been various thought provoking articles and blogs by Sidin and Sourin and this has been a part of discussions with the media, CNN, NBC and so on. In the midst of this, I received one email which was forwarded to me by a friend of mine which went on like this -

"I am an Indian citizen. One among 1 billion of us. When somebody bombs us we die. Just like Americans did when the Al Qaeeda drove their planes into the WTC. Just like Londoners did when terrorists attacked the city last July. But while Americans have the right to retaliate and bomb Afghanistan off the face of the map because the terrorists HQ was based there, we Indians have to negotiate, talk, send peace buses, and "build confidence" with the government across our border - the Pakistanis who are supporting the terrorists with money and explosives.

The world applauds how resilient we are in the face of our tragedy, how quickly we go back to "normalcy". Ironically we ourselves applaud our resilience. The fact is that the world expects us to be less than human - hey you fella, so what if you lost your colleague, friend, partner, husband, wife or brother, get on with it old chap, that's it my boy! No time to mourn. No time to fume and rail at the injustice being meted out, no time to even call the terrorists the filthiest of names, no time to give incompetent politicians and policemen, intelligence agencies and the powers-be a piece of our mind. (Shivraj Patil, our honourable defence minister said something
to the the effect that we knew that an attack was planned but we didn't know
the time and place.

Really! What did he expect - a phone call from the terrorists giving him the details of the local trains, timings and compartments in which the
explosives would be kept! We also have to prove to the world that we are RESILIENT. Be happy with Musharraf's "quick condemnation" and go back to the business of dealing with old betrayers. After all we cannot "change the region's positive course", as LA Times' editorial put it. So what if a few hundred Indians die - Indians who are not into big time negotiations. Indians who just want to earn their living and return home to their families after a hard day's work. But well no, Musharraf and his terrorist friends will deny them the luxury of going back to his family because en route the train blows up! And our incompetent politicians and policemen will let
terrorists do their horrific jobs and launch a hunt post-facto...

So Bombayites died for a cause: for the peace of the region! As did Delhi-ites last year before Diwali. As did people in Bangalore when Pakistan-supported terrorists hit the city. As did Indian tourists who had gone to Srinagar for a holiday....And as many many more will die...Wow, that's some consolation! If you feel as angry about what's happening to us, please feel free to pass this on. If your reaction is: "hey nothing is going to change - this is India," feel free leave a comment"