Mumbai Mayhem

And so…yet another week ends…Its Thanksgiving in the US and all about just praying here in India. Praying that the macabre drama in the fashion and cine capital ends! Mumbai…the city of dreams, the city of drama, films and life waits in an unending agony for the terror drama to finally see the last curtain falling! Today, sitting in the comforts of my office in Kolkata, all that affects me are the long queues that have suddenly grown – thanks to the extensive checking and the unending strings of discussions and speculations about how it started and how is it going! It isn’t affecting us directly as we confidently and comfortably rest in the “It cannot happen to me” mode…but is it really not?

I have lived in Mumbai for a couple of years and love the city to the core! The streets, the cafes, the walkways, the seaside….everything about the city…has a character of its own! A life of its own! The stately Taj Palace right across the Majestic Gateway with hundreds of small pleasure rafts and steamers floating in the water right in front of the eyes…the beauty of the glittering “Queen’s Necklace” From the top of the Trident…the warm and cozy ambience of the Leopold or the Mondegar…the ever busy CST, buzzing with hyper active people! It all gives me a pleasant sense of warmth and humaneness….Well lets not continue to live in the world of dreams, for many of the Mumbaiites will perhaps not even be able to have a peaceful sleep for the next few months!

It was just by accident that I suddenly stuck upon the news channel which showed – “BREAKING NEWS – Terror Attack in Mumbai”…what unraveled was a gruesome reality that could best be described as a NIGHTMARE! Calling up friends and loved ones in Mumbai to ensure that they are safe was the first thing on the cards…but they assured me that it was just a “Gang War”! I wish it was! For till now as I write this….I know not who the corresponding “Gangs” are but it is a WAR for sure! I feel like I live in a country with an ongoing civil war! The Police, The National Security Guards, The Indian Army, The Indian Navy, and finally the Indian Air Force….and yet we have the mysterious miscreants hanging on to the poor people they continue to hold as hostages! Where from they entered, where from they ended up with the amount and quality of arms that they seem to possess and where from did it all start are questions that remain unanswered and, I am sure, will remain so till we have the next blow to shake us up from our slumber. But they remain there…firing indiscriminately at civilians and forces alike and killing them like ants…hurling grenades endlessly and holding on to their positions – all but a handful of young boys!