I happened to visit the Taj, CST rail station, and Cafƒ© Leopold – three of the worst hit attack sites – on the one-month anniversary of the attacks by coincidence. The Taj, which reopened four days before Christmas with 62 percent occupancy in the tower building, was bustling as usual aside from the extra security keeping out pretty much anyone who didn’t have a good reason to be there. CST was lively with the customarily insane amounts of train travelers, heading to Goa for the New Year, or elsewhere for business and pleasure. Cafƒ© Leopold, which reopened the Sunday after the attacks, was brimming with tourists and locals alike, unphased by the bullet holes still visible in some of the walls. Business at Leopold has increased five-fold since the attacks, with patrons flooding to capitalize on the cheap beer and quality eats. The streets of Colaba are once again packed with vendors, partygoers, tourists, and “Bollywood producers” trying to convince the tourists to come be extras in their films.
On December 26 there was little reminder of the attacks at all. In parts of the city, a few organizations held memorial concerts and in front of the Gateway to India a few hundred people gathered to wave the Indian flag, and rally for a change in government, a change to prevent attacks like those in Mumbai from happening in the future. Entering the Gateway to the rally, were perhaps the most visible signs of the after affects of the attacks: a metal detector at the entrance, as has become normal at many other establishments and public places around the city. Security everywhere has increased tenfold, and walking the few hundred between the Gateway and the Taj, as you approach the wall between the sidewalk and the Arabian Sea, police officers whisk you away, and entering any hotel you’re likely to be sniffed by bomb dogs.
But on December 26, instead of kneeling around candle light vigils, and crowding the Taj and Oberoi hotels in remembrance of the dead, instead, the people of India’s largest city paid their respects in a more unconventional way: they flooded the streets, bars and cafƒ©’s of Colaba to enjoy the balmy winter night, refusing, resiliently, to let anyone’s agenda control their mode of existence.
People often condemn terrorism without knowing about the minute details of it. Of course, terror of any kind is not correct at any given time but if you are ever involved in any type of terror, then you do not have the right to speak against it. Why such things begin first in Mumbai city ? Something must have gone wrong there otherwise; the entire city would not have been put to test. If you forgotten, let me ask you, is it a ghost terror which started by Mumbai people 15 years ago on a single man ? The poor man left Mumbai but still people of Mumbai did not leave him. Is it not a terror of victimization by masses, that too by inhuman means (ghosts)??? Entire city was against him along with the ghosts, for what ? Is anybody justifiable for troubling that man who was Indian by birth, sacrificed his life for humanity. He was too brother/son/friend of somebody. How many such innocent lives you destroyed by your evil methods and ego, just because there is no law for your evil doings. There were so many suicidal proposals/techniques implemented to get rid of that man. One person’s unfairness to live can question your humanity and put you to test to restore humanity. Nobody thought about his nationality then, because that time, it was not just suitable for them. Violent mob always go scot free. The same things happen in the riots where people go out of control before realizing what humanity is. Now, if you check same people were laying on the floors to get saved from the terrorists. Guess why such things happening….
Do Mumbaikars really believe/understand what they are doing ? On one hand they do not allow people from other states to live in Mumbai and on the other hand, they want commandos from other state to protect them from terrorist (not a single Mumbai commando). Who will make them understand what is correct or wrong. Fearsome and poor people will leave the city to get rid of the violence but see what happens when terrorists attacks. VT station was like a ghost station when terrorist captured it. Do Mumbai-cars really understand the worst possibilities that could have happened? It has become very simple for politicians and their followers (citizens) to blame other countries and be safe but it is for public to understand (if they have not gone berserk) why they blame other countries and spoil the developing relations. What would be the aim of terrorists, if relations between the two countries improvise and no issue remains like kashmir.
As it is selfish Mumbaikars do not care the Indian sentiments, be it a ghost terror or any such issue related to nation but want entire nation to come to their rescue. How wrong is it to take lessons from Kasa(b)re and continue ? So many adversities only suggest that root cause is in the evil minds of the Mumbaikars who still believe in promoting the ghost terror and export it to other countries.