7 Nov ‘09
Now that the
massacre/trauma/incident/fiasco in Mumbai is over, it’s time for everyone to
voice his/her opinion. Ours is a true democracy. Everyone has an opinion, and freely voices it whether or not it’s backed by
knowledge or good sense. But I for one, love that freedom.
The very next morning of the
‘attack’ on the Taj, a colleague told me the top-cops (who are now Mumbai’s
greatest heroes, eclipsing for the moment even Shivaji) who died deserved their
fate for having gone together, for underestimating the enemy, for not following
protocol for protecting themselves (ie wearing gear, taking precautionary
positions, etc). Another colleague was so worked up that she wanted to know
what exactly she could do. She wanted to start a signature campaign. I
suggested that this campaign should be targeted to prominent newspapers to put
pressure on the government to make the sixth pay commission soldier-friendly,
which at the moment it’s not. Oh no, that wasn’t what she wanted to do. She
wanted to send some money to a ‘deserving’ soldier family. Didn’t she want all
the military to benefit? Didn’t believe that there would be another time when
they’d be called? If not for a terrorist attack, for rescuing a naughty child
who’d fallen into a well? Or for helping out with floods, fires, earthquakes?
Next I got an sms to ask me to ask
Raj Thakeray where the Marathi Manoos was when all this was happening. It said
(alleged would be the politically correct word to use) that the NSGs were all
either from the North or from the South. Considering that those bravehearts
themselves don’t bother who’s an Eskimo, Japanese, Red Indian….they’re terribly
professional, I wonder whether they themselves bother about such things.
Now my emails are flooded with
opinions. One says Taj isn’t an icon of Mumbai, the CST is, because is vibrates
with the Common Man. I don’t know whether any other country uses this phrase.
Does Australia have common and uncommon people? I don’t know. Do the Swedes
have such a person? I don’t know. Do the Africans have a word for aam admi ? Maybe, maybe not. But there
was another longish blog which spoke about how unfair it was that when the Big
Wigs at the Taj were affected, everyone said Enough is Enough. No one said that
when hundreds of Common Men were dying, or were killed in the past under
similar circumstances.
This chorus of Enough is Enough
doesn’t really spell out what has to be done. Some said, let’s burn candles at
chosen sites at an appointed time. What’s that supposed to do, snuff out
terrorists? No, it’s supposed to be in the memory of the dead. How does that
convert to Enough is Enough, I wonder. No one wants to sent their children to
the military, though. That far they
aren’t willing to go. I mean, come on, these things happen right? The military
isn’t the answer, blah, blah, turncoat, and more blah.
Another lot of emails have blasted
the television medium for its irresponsible behaviour. I wholeheartedly agree
with those. How can a channel show commandos doing their jobs? For the
‘terrorists’ to see for themselves what’s happening? And who were the
terrorists? Any guesses? No homework done. I was at work when the ‘Gunfire at
CST’ headlines were splashed over the screens. Our security in charge called up
the police and confirmed that all was safe. No one believed him even when he
was telling the truth. The hyperventilating reporters were behaving like they
were at a rock show, overwhelmed that they were in the midst of it all. No
homework done, no seriousness until much later. A friend present at the site
told me a senior reporter asked her make up man to make sure she looked
appropriately depressed.
I’d seen during the Railway Blasts
incidents two years ago, how undisciplined the television crews were, wanting
to film the injured and the shocked without the least concern for their (the
patients’) safety, treatment or privacy. It was disgusting. And some of the
reporters belonged to ‘respectable’ channels.
I saw a video clipping on YouTube of
a woman interviewing two persons…they were actually saying that the Pakistanis
believed (no, this is not an official version, I don’t know who made that clipping)
the World Trade Centre and this present incident were ‘staged’ by the Americans
and the Indians respectively. For what?
To entertain the Paks? This clipping will either make your blood boil or
make you hysterical with laughter, so unbelievable is their conversation.
Just two words to sum up my
feelings: Jai Hind.
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