Below is the mail I received from one of my closed friend Prof. Mrs A. A. Pandit who is working as a Assistant Professor in Veermata Jeejabai Technological Institute Mumbai. I am sharing her thoughts here because I believes that these are the views of a Mumbaikar as she is born and broughtup in Mumbai and working there since so long. I also had the same feelings but had some questions whose answers I seek from the Govt and we the people of the country.
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The past 3 days have been some of the most horrible that mumbai has experienced..that humanity has experienced.The terrorist attacks that took place on Wednesday,26th nov 2008 have shown that humans can be inhuman.14 terrorists that were said to be involved held a city of millions at bay for 60 gruelling hours. Fear instilled in every person whether they were near or away from the terrorists activity site.Each household sat,praying,watching the news with bated breath in the hope that no one they knew,loved or cared about was hurt.Yet not every prayer was answered.Not everyone was saved.Some were hurt,some died,some are so traumatized that they are as good as dead. The entire city has been stunned. The atrocities of these people are unbelievable. Still today we have moved on.The trains are once again stuffed with people travelling to work. The roads are jam-packed with traffic. "there's just too much that time cannot erase"- yes these incidents ARE somthing that time cannot erase.They never will be erased but we will move on. When ,after such incidents the city comes back to normal life,people point at us and say we are indifferent to to all the terrible things that have happened.I beg to differ.I think that the city returns to normal becuse we have the courage to move on..to let go of the past without really letting go. Anyone who lost someone to these crimes will never forget them but that doesnt mean that they will only sit and mourn for their loss and ignore their lives altogether .They will rebuild their shattered lifes weaving within them the memories of those departed. I salute these people. Their courage is awe-inspiring.I was one of the fortunate ones who did not lose anybody i knew or cared about.*touchwood*. Someone asked me,"why the Taj? Its a heritage! how can people not appreciate such beauty?" To this i simply replied,:a person who cannot value human life, who can put a bullet through a 5yr old kid's head without hesitatin...what will he appreciate architectural beauty?"
Coming back to these attacks, a really close friend of mine who narrowly escaped told me that at that point he acted responsible because he thought of us and what we would have gone through if anything would have happened to him. I thanked him for doing that! If only these terrorists thought, just for a single moment, what others go through because of their acts maybe things would have turned out differently.Maybe today everyone would not be looking at everyone else with suspicion. Maybe families would have still been together. Maybe,just maybe, there would have been peace...
Eutopia is only a concept. But that doesnt mean it can never be made into a reality. It need not be a perfect world but if everyday we all thought about someone else's feelings even for half the time we spent thinking about ourselves we'de be very close to it.Very close indeed..
To quote Nickelback,
"If everyone cared and nobody cried,
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day when nobody died..."
RIP all those who lost their lives because of these acts of terror.And HAIL all the brave men who laid down their lives to ensure our safety.
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The attacked happened at 10:15 PM and our PM addresses the nation at 03:30 PM the next day. This shows that to address the nation he needed 17 hrs. You might be remebering that after Sept 11, 2001 attack on New York their president has addressed the nation immediately after 20 minutes. This comparison shows how quick is our leaders reaction to the terror attack. I would like to remind you of an incidence when during terror attacks on Delhi recently our Union home minister was busy in changing the dresses perhaps that was the most important activity he could do that time. If we are going to have such leaders to lead the country then surely we are far from being a super power. When somebody or some report claims that India is going to be a super power by 2025 i really laughs at them. As in the words of Vivekananda,
"We need, the muscles of steel and the bones of the Iron to lead the modern India".
Fortunately we have such commandows of NSG (national security guard) who without giving a second thought has put their lives in danger to save us.
Unless and untill our so called political leaders stop their vote bank politics the condition is not going to improve. We should first punish those dirty politicians who raises the question on the activities of ATS (Anti Terrorist Squads) like Butla House Encounter. That hopeless politician instead of paying tribute to Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was questioning his encounter. For the votes of the minority community he was morally supporting the terrorist families. All these dirty politicians are the culprit they would have realised the pain of terrorism if they or their loved ones would have been kept as hostages by the terrorists.
Solution ?
To deal with the terrorism we should have special forces like NSG and most importantly their apponitments, promotions and transfers should be independent of the wills of these dirty politicians. We should used our Intelligence to keep track of terrorists plans and activities and not to keep track of the activities of their political rivals. Any one who supports the terrorists by any means or gives political support to their families should be punish first and those who found to be guilty should not be allowed to stand in any election or accept any political posts.
I really wonder if this attack would have happened in some city of USA or UK how they would have reacted?
I am pretty sure they would not have just kept quiet after strongly codemning the attacks. Instead they would have given the ultimatum to the country which has supported these attacks. Although we have the proofs with our govt still our so called leaders does not has those guts to keep the record straight with the neighbouring country. If they would have those guts then perhaps they would not have just requested the help of the ISI (Inter Service Intelligence) of Pakistan but would have given them the deadline that look if you are not going to give us those terrorists and our most wanted under world don like Dawood then we are going to destroy all their terrorist training camps (our intelligence has that information with them) like what US is doing with them against the talibani and Al-qaeda terrorists. But it needs a strong political will for not to waste such a golden opportunity when International Community will also not oppose your acts because they have seen pain we the people of India are going through since last three days.
How long we would keep sacrificing the life of innocent people and our brave soldiers like Hemant Karkare, Sandeep Unnikrishnan, and Kamte and many more?. I don't find any happiness in saluting these martyrs aren't they have lost their lives beacuse of the mistake of the govt and mistake of we the common man of the society who are not giving the serious thought to these attacks and not putting the pressure on the Govt to change the policies against terrorism.
If their sacrifice serves as a wake up call for us and the govt then that will be the real tribute and salute to these great and brave martyrs.
