The original nick was 'The people of this city really need to give up their 'chalta hai' attitude and their great spirit' and so lots of people went on and on about how I could be so silly, and how I had got it all wrong etc etc etc.
Well I didn't get it all wrong - everyone has their opinions and this is what I truly believe. I am not saying don't stand out in the middle of the night distributing water and biscuits to stranger, I am not saying don't stand on roads and help divert traffic cause there aren't enough cops, I am not saying don't rush to the disaster site and help people there. Damn I am so PROUD to be a Mumbaikar because only the people of Mumbai are like this. I was getting home that night around 11:30 in my friends car and I was so overwhelmed looking at common people out on the roads, doing things they didn't have to, just so that someone else from their city was a little more comfortable.
Nor am I saying that everyone should sit at home all day and not do things that they would have/need to. I understand that people sometimes don't have options. They have to do certain things and they have to do them a certain way.
Nor am I saying that common folk should get to the roads, start riots, exploit the situation - even if its for a good cause. No I don't want that.
What I am talking about though is that things SHOULD NOT be back to normal. Bomb blasts are not normal incidents - and therefore this city should not be back to normal. We cant just say 'oh whats happened has happened, what can you do, it was destiny, blah blah blah'. We have to stand up and say enough is enough. We have to stand up and say we want no more of this. I too agree that you cant prevent things like this from happening but there are lots of things that can be done. How about spending more resources on intelligence gathering? How about holding people responsible for shoddy crisis management? How about catching these terrorists and hanging them? How about more security measure on our railways? How about questioning our politicians who only talk big, especially about peace processes? How about putting our foot down and telling Pakistan we will make their life hell if they don't do something about the terrorist organisations? How about teaching kids more about tolerance? How about taking international help (since everyone seems to want to fight terrorism) to actually try and figure what we can do to change the situation in Kashmir? ....
What we can actually do is limitless but the tragedy is that we do nothing. We go back to our normal life. We praise ourselves for bouncing back. We pat ourselves on the back for being so great - greater than any other city would have been in this situation ...
Thats all we do...
Don't you think we should give up our 'chalta hai hota hai' attitude? Don't you think that our 'great spirit' needs to go beyond just helping out during the crisis
1 comment:
"We have to stand up and say we want no more of this." That's not possible as long as we continue voting for the existing politicians. Boycott all elections and emphasize, "we won't vote till we can take some basic stuff (life would be good example) for granted.
"How about spending more resources on intelligence gathering?" It's not about spending more, but utilizing properly what we already spend. An example: India plans to buy Nag missile heads from Israel at the cost of about 1.5 lakh per head, whereas India has the technology and can manufacture the same head by spending about Rs 15,000! (I am not going to name the source from Central Glass and Ceramics Reasearch Institute, CSIR
"How about catching these terrorists and hanging them?" Not possible without something like POTA or TADA. Hanging would be but utopia with the humanitarian Congres govt with that pasta on throne.
"How about putting our foot down and telling Pakistan we will make their life hell if they don't do something about the terrorist organisations?" We have said that time and again .... I think it's time we go ahead and make their life hell. (Look at what Israel does every time an Israeli citizen gets killed .... but for India, well ... Dawood Ibrahim can spend a cosy summer in a Karachi hotel because he isn't extradited ..... even after the '93 blasts!)
You are right: 'chalta hai' will kill us.
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