spirit / ashamed ?

11 July, 2006 it was just another day in our life (till evening) . arnd 6:00 - 6:30 pm we were having penalty shootout (organised by JOSH group) contest in our office premises. we were practising (playing) football having gala time. we had no clue what had happened few miles away. few mins later we went up and came across the shocking news ... 2 blasts happened in mumbai .... 5 died. i did not take it much seriously as i didn't know if it was just a rumour coz every1 seemed to be normal few mins back. then we started browsing news sites n the number of blasts, victims went on rising from 2 to 7 ..... 8 blasts in a span of 11 mins time. yet another event shocked mumbai and the spot chosen was the lifeline of mumbai ... the railways. luckily every1 in my family was home n i had spoke 2 my dad just few mins ago so i was quite ok but was worried @ one of my college friend who stays @ meera-bhayander rd. area n also few of office pals whom i met @ 5:30 when they were swiping out. the blasts took place exactly an hour later which means they wud be in the nearby area. i tried calling them but all the lines were jammed.

finally i left for home @ 7:40 pm and reached home arnd 8:45 pm so luckily no hassles for me at all. kudos to the office bus :D its a royal luxury in such times ;) just kidding. after i reached home, i went online ... just like i do every other day :) lotsa msgs started popping up. few of my friends who wanted to reach their family back here in india but they cudn get thru so i was tryin for a while. but no luck till past 9 pm. being online is a good way to communicate especially when al the phone lines r enggaged / jammed. my sis had also called but i wasnt home then. one of my friend told me that all the friends who were expected to be nearby jogeshwari were safe at their relative's place. so a sigh of relief. next day i came to know that they were just a train behind the 1 that was blast. who can even think that a missed train can really make a difference of life n death but ask those who missed that train.

i was checking the news on TV .. lot of stills, videos, interviews .... ppl were blaming the police, RPF , govt ..... yes i agree that its but natural to react in this way but somehow i feel even they cudn't have done much of a difference. it was the local public who came to the rescue of these victims.

today i got loadssssssssssss of mails ... came across newspaper's headlines ..... mumbai back on track ... mumbaikar's spirit ...... ppl r resuming for work .. this n that ... lotsa celebrities gave their opinions about the SPIRIT ....... but if u think carefully its only people like you and me who didn't really suffer the tragedy went back on work just like any other day ... but will things be the same for those who actually suffered the tragedy... those who lost their loved ones those who suffered serious (permanent) injuries. will life ever be back to normal for them ? will compensation really help ?
yes of course i agree that they will come over it someday but its gonna take some time.
but when everyone else is talking about the spirit, i feel "we really dont have any other choice" we are just trying to hide the facts but hiding facts wont change the situation. its a real shame that such incidents are happening quite often. i seriously dont know why we treat failure of the system as spirit of mumbai ? its high time we should realize its the helplessness of the city rather than the spirit. i think we are getting used to such incidences ... we are ignoring severe incidents (like yday) under the tag of SPIRIT. "ab to aadat si hai mujhko .. aise jeene mein ....."

but during the news i also saw many volunteers forming a longggggggggg queue to donate blood to help the victims in every possible way .. many local students also gave shelter to needy ones in their hostels ... lots of food, water n basic necessities being distributed ... even the media (news channels, radio stations) acted as a messenger for needy ppl, they also gave out the good amount of info as to which victims have been admitted to which hospitals, their contact numbers etc ..... only these small fraction of people DESERVE the SPIRIT tag others were just being a part of the crowd. my hats off to that fraction of mumbaikars.

but despite all the trauma, the mess was cleared overnight and things were back on track (for u n me)

i hope someday the situation will improve and we can really show the true spirit of mumbaikars and stop being a part of crowd.


- ameyas7