Mumbai 7/11: Second Thought...

The last 6-7 hrs since I posted the last article (below)...I can't help but notice and then compare the before - after scenarios. There is not one thing I can think of that people did out of the usual today other than enquire if the other one reached home on time or collectively express disgust and anger over the incident (me included) etc. etc. Everything was just the same. The dosa guy infront of TCS still served his customers with the same speed, my colleagues still took their regular smoking breaks, I chatted up on Yahoo! with a few close friends..and so on. Everything was just the same. The only so-called difference was the change in topic. Instead of the FIFA World Cup...its now the 7/11 blasts. 7/11...almost as if its in - vogue to name terror attacks by sexing up the dates a bit!

Rajdeep Sardesai, however, took the cake when it came to being out of line with the nature and gravity of the tragedy. The chap actually had the nerve to sit and smile one of his impish ones and pass comments about irrelevant and funny-to-only-him kind of jokes. Quite a shame considering the seniority of the media man if nothing else. The field reporters were not far behind. Often being requested...ordered and eventually pushed aside because their cameras were hindering relief work. But how can we complain? We only have made "Breaking News" our favorite show...no matter what the news channel. Mr. Rajdeep kept following his "team" all over Mumbai...covering the story. And that's what he made yesterday evening's events...just another STORY! Great job sir!

When I hit Google News a few mts back...there were two news items side by side, one was how Mumbai was showing its classic fight-back spirit and getting back in the groove and the article right next to it said about how Israel was contemplating a massive operation to rescue two of its soldiers. I repeat... to rescue TWO of its soldiers. We call meetings, talk about human rights, talk about negotiations, we exchange hostages for terrorists, let murderers go free because we mess up the investigations. Above all we take pride in calling ourselves TOLERANT. A great way to curtain the fact that a country that is home to one sixth of the humanity has no balls! How in the heaven's name can someone even dare to execute to perfection such an act and then we go on to claim that Mumbai has "limped back to normalcy"? Is it because as Shobha De once said that we forget too easily? Or is it because any pain isn't really ours till there isn't any blood on us? Or without playing with words anymore…we simply don’t care till its our leg that got blown away...

I called it resilience a few hours back. Now I can't think of any other word but...

...Indifference !!!