if this picture wasn’t so beautifully shot, it would’ve told a different story.
the parallels are eerie. a friend/family calls to wake us from early morning slumber only to let alert us on the unfolding of a national tragedy on live television. iconic indian landmarks (taj mahal hotel, nariman point) being attacked while the sorry-looking-out-of-shape cops carry out the crowd control tasks.
this is similar to the attacks on 9/11 and the islamabad marriott in september. purely designed to stunt the financial machine. the england cricket tour is already called off.
it’s a shame we let it come to this. amid all this one brave son of he soil laid down his life in the name of doing what’s right. officer hemant karkare was leading the fight back on the front lines, and fell to bullet wounds. as they say in ‘legends of the fall’, it was a good death. here in india, our warriors are our gentlemen.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Anonymous // Dec 4, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Here the common perception in Bangalore on Mumbai blast-
1. Common Man - “Oh, I have heard something like that”. “Is it bad?”. “How many people died”?
2. Software guys - “Not your fight, do not worry.” “It happened there, south india is safe”.
3. Top honchos - I do not see anyone condemning so far. Not a single post or comment. Only from Mumbai it came from and of course the people who have shifted to the US (they anyway shout a lot as there is nothing to loose!).
But I do remember the bangalore blasts and for next 2 days (after that as usual division based on many things) the traffic was totally empty and ev erybody was behaving very well, irrespe ctive of what you look or what you speak!! May be more blasts, more attacks from Pakistan, more live loss in front of their own eyes will change people a bit.
2 spandana // Dec 5, 2008 at 8:00 am
i think the apathy is is a bit less this time. i’ve seen moderate people turn radical for the first time. friends from the US that were so opposed to stuff like guantanamo are now speaking the language of george w. bush when it comes to mumbai.
but the anger shouldn’t be turned towards each other. neither toward common man, nor the software engineer, not the top honchos. doing so only gives you a lame excuse for your own inaction. shame!!
i do believe individuals can make a difference. we have our lives, but if each of us has a gesture to make, it adds up to a tsunami. this blog is my gesture.
3 Anonymous // Dec 5, 2008 at 4:26 pm
..this blog is my gesture.
Interesting perspective! Do you I sound politically (or “blogitically” - if that is a word) correct
4 spandana // Dec 5, 2008 at 5:01 pm
blogitically correct!
for what it’s worth, i do notice that what i write in the blog is slightly different from what i say in conversations. the difference basically is this - blogs are a thoughtful conversations, hence tend to be a bit more rational.
conversations tend to be off-the-cuff, and tend to be a bit more irrational (or in the newest terminology, a bit less blogitically incorrect)
5 oruvan // Dec 6, 2008 at 3:57 am
Well, I predict the following things to happen:
1. a bit of sound and fury for a few days. then life goes slowly back to normal in Mumbai. It will be hailed as the ‘indomitable mumbaikar spirit’.
2. The call for retaliation against pak/terrorists goes down in those days. Our PM knows this. That’s why he is delaying and waiting. Everyone knows that our PM is too much a softie to take any strong action etc, despite being a sardar, and in a way everyone is resigned to this.
3. After a while people will find ways to justify the inaction and softness.like ‘it’s only the terrorists in pak, not all pakis are terrorists, deep down the people there like India, look how pretty paki women are and we don’t want the war to kill them’ etc etc. leave it to Indian intelligentsia to come up with some excuse.
4. in a million chance a court might sentence that terrorist’ to death after several years. Immediately expect the activists to jump in to save him. Arundhati Roy, Azmi, Medha patkar types will have a field day. The ‘young, misguided boy’’s mamma will cry on TV, and MM Singh will lose his sleep. A presidential pardon will be granted, and he will go back to Pakiland to meet his momma.
A bit sarcastic, but is this too far-fetched? Not, if you look at India’s past.
6 spandana // Dec 6, 2008 at 4:05 pm
not far-fetched. life is a tad bit cheaper in this country.
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