Have we REALLY moved on?

“Such small things happen in big towns”!!! This reckless statement from a highly ‘ir’responsible state functionary, seems to be the underlying mantra, which keeps the city alive. Maybe deep within, this is what the Peoples’ sentiments are, sentiments which bestow surreal powers enabling us to get up and attend office the very next day even as half the world remains frozen, having witnessed such sanguine terror strikes.

Instead of extra security and better infrastructure as ex-gratia, the Government lauds us for taking things in our stride and for moving on so soon, helping the entire voter community forget the grave lapses committed… But, whom to blame for making Ravi an orphan? Or Katherine a widow? Or simply destroying the elderly Khan couple’s support? Isn’t it ‘I’ who should be chastised for letting ‘Us’ down? Did ‘I’ do anything other than laying bouquets and lighting candles – a symbol of pathos-ridden yet modern hypocrisy? The entire city depends on ‘I’. The government runs on ‘I’. The terrorists are also ‘I’s although from the other side of the fence. But where is this godforsaken ‘I’? Running behind ever-rushing buses, avoiding falling from overcrowded trains, climbing office stairs to avoid waiting for the elevator, reaching home on time to be with family… ‘I’ is surely moved on and so is the city. For what is the city made of, but for the incessantly increasing ‘I’s? It now seems ‘I’ cannot spare time to even think about his security. And if that is the case, then who will worry for the City?

Time is the most crucial element in Mumbai as the age-old adage, ‘time is money’ is vociferously on display. So much that even the city has taken lessons therefrom. And if the city does not care, why should ‘I’? Apparently, Security comes after Money, Food, Property, Shares, Gold, Bollywood and so on! But ‘I’ never felt safe here ab initio. Making the place safe was a function of physical measures and healing psychologically. What needs to be appreciated (or cursed) is that once the mind is blanked by a soothing curtain, the physical aspects don’t matter much. So year after year (and not just one year) the story continues, much like the never-ending tele-sagas! But do we have a choice? Well, certainly yes if ‘I’, instead of lighting candles, chooses to spread the light of awareness, which only will awaken a Nation!