The Mumbai Terror Attacks & a Middle Class Indian

I belong to a country where people who rule keep bragging about the country’s economy doing remarkably well and the Economists talking about some report which says that this country would be the biggest economic power or whatever that is by the year 2042. Not just talking, but we would organize mega conferences and then spend money to attend those conferences and then talk…talk and talk. . It is a really big thing. This report was out, say 1 or 2 years back but we still enjoy talking about it. Our memory power is really good, you see… That is one of the reasons we have been able to get many jobs from the First World nations and we brag about that too. Well… I belong to India.

One or two months back, there were serial bomb blasts in all of the prime cities and every day the number of people dead reported in the news would be anywhere between 20-200… or even more according to the mood of the terrorists. What would we do? I’ll tell you. Well… we always have dinner watching TV. So when we are having dinner, this news would be on the television… and as the headlines. So, we would see the news, the reporters talking about the incident, the near and dear ones of the victims crying their heart out, the ruling party sending out condolence messages and the opposition party blaming the ruling party. Hey… I almost forgot, there is one more aspect… finally all the political parties would blame the Islamic terrorist groups and they would be held responsible. Well… dinner is over. Now, its time to switch off the television. So, that is what we do. We just for a minute, think about the state of the country, heave a sigh and go to sleep. Anyways, there is nothing you can do.. right??? Yeah, right. So we do nothing. Next day, you have to get back to work. Your high paying job of working for your master across the sea is waiting. So go… no time for anything else. And you know?? Our memory really sucks.

Today, there has been an open firing in a railway station in Mumbai (the country’s economic capital and one of the largest and most lively cities)by a terrorist group.. and in that gun fire,… well… hmm…around 80 people or so they say, were killed. Its all over the news… not only because of this, but hundreds of people have been injured and held as hostages in the top most hotels in the city. So, it is pretty big news. Dinner time today was little long as this was little different from the bomb blasts. We haven’t yet got used to this type of attack. Maybe the terrorists got bored of the bomb attacks as that didn’t attract our attention anymore. But anyways, we also had a few bomb blasts in the city as a bonus. We were munching the food a little slowly and looking at the news. People were in agony, people were in anger and people were… well.. had every negative emotion you can think of. I am sitting in my room typing this out as my friends in the drawing room are watching the news. But I really don’t want to see it. Does it make you feel good to realize that you are in a country where you see a valiant protector in uniform giving his life while trying to save his country men from the open fire at the railway station and the corrupt politicians talk for hours and hours to decide if they could raise the salary of the cops and the army men by 0.000000005% …? Every one of us is proud of him and we are grateful to that man. But none of us even know his name. That is ok. But at least for a minute do we think what we as a nation are going to do to make his soul rest in peace?? Well… if we think of that, then obviously we will have to do something for the country and that would be really difficult… coz’ I have my job tomorrow. There is no time to think about the horrible security people have in this country, the corrupt people who rule us, the plight of the victims… We don’t even have time to think what will happen to any person in the country at any point of time.

I am unhappy with myself. We Indians lack solidarity. We lack commitment. We lack humanness. We do not have respect for life. We are a horrible lot. A voice in me says that I am talking crap, because I can do nothing. But I want to do SOMETHING.

Can I?

P.S : Just as I finish writing this, I can hear the channel in the drawing room being changed. Some rocking song is being played and all of them are engrossed in watching the talent show. Maybe it was their favourite star on television. So that’s ok… right???