post-calamity effects

Not a very happy occasion to write. Yet another page of Mumbai’s history has been colored in black ink. Yet another series of blasts! The tough Mumbai spirit was again put to test. And the strong Mumbaikar once again took control over the situation. People came out on the roads and helped their brethren. The ones who survived the blasts called friends and family to check if they had survived it too. Some emotional fools, too shocked even to make those calls, sat and cried. And the not-so-emotional fools gave them a piece of their mind. Some others made their cries loud enough to be heard by the government. The government, in turn, turned a deaf ear to people’s chaotic cries and said, “Things like these happen, they can’t really be controlled.” And for Kasab, it was actually like,
फूल क्या तेरे कदमों में हम
भेंट अपने सरों की चढ़ा जायेंगे


Done with a series of actions that usually follows such an attack! Yeah! It has become such a usual thing for us! Tomorrow morning, after the high tide of rage has passed, we’ll be back to our 7.47s and 6.20s. But what else do we do? We all have our families, our ambitions, our lives! We can’t do an “A Wednesday” in real lives. But what we can, and must do, is to channelize our energy, our anger into something constructive, let’s make it a way of life! Let’s swear today to be more alert, and not to laugh when someone checks under the seat for bombs. Let’s not make a fuss when the security guy takes 10 seconds extra to check your bag. On the contrary, let’s make sure that the security guards do their job well; we have all the rights to remind them their duty. Instead of cribbing about how the government asks for heavy taxes and never does anything about it, let’s make solid and meaningful use of tools like PIL and RTI. Not voting, because of all of them are crooks, is not an option. Throw the government out of power if you are not satisfied with it. DON’T BRIBE! Even for the smallest of the things! Corruption, even at the most unimportant level, is still corruption.

Everything said and done, change takes time. What do we do in the meanwhile? Die in blasts? Let’s govern ourselves. With the course of time, we have become emotionally and physically more independent. Let’s have an internal security system, in our neighborhood, and even in buses and trains. If we can celebrate our birthdays in train, we can come together for more serious things too. Let’s have a non-corrupt anti-corruption department in our workplaces, where both employees and customers can report about the slightest of corruption in any form.


And last but not the least, let’s live and let live. Spread love! Don’t forget to make at least one person happy everyday! That’s the only way to make this world “livable”! Care! If we care for others, we’ll think 10000 times before doing something anti-social. Pray! It might sound silly and out of context but pray that we achieve our goal soon. Let’s pray for the terrorists, too. May be that’s all that they need.
कर्मणि वाधिका रस्ते
माँ फलेषु कदाचन

Many of you might just discard this as a post-calamity-frustration-piece! But if all of us really make an effort, it seriously doesn't seem impossible to my eyes. Let's make a conscious effort this time and just see if it works.