For once, I found myself at a complete loss of words to describe my anguish at the loss of innocent lives in Wednesday's cowardly attacks in Mumbai. Wish the terror-mongers could atleast gather the guts to send fidayeens and shoot at us one-on-one like they did on 26/11. Atleast then we had the satisfaction of seeing nine dismembered terrorist bodies and the hollowness of their evil pursuit. Their mere brand of terror is not shameful, the terror directed at unaware and unarmed civilians is.
No amount of reassurances, loaded speeches or monetary compensation can ever bring back the dead. Its not just 21 people who have died but 21 families that have been emotionally and financially devastated forever. The injured may still live to tell their tales. Lets not even consider bringing the topics of Kasab's birthday, the corrupt Congress government or the failure of the Mumbai police and Intelligence departments into the picture. There are certains domains in public life that are beyond the understanding of laymen like us. And to become moral adjudicators or pure gossip-mongers - read Kasab's birthday - is sheer waste of time.
Well then who do we blame ? Whom do we criticize ? What do we say or write when we wish to make a serious statement ? Let's catch RR Patil. Or should we catch Prithviraj Chavan this time ? No, this guy seems smart. Just lets do what has become a national pastime - either fast-unto-death or breath down Manmohan's neck calling him a lameduck , weak-kneed, powerless Prime Minister India ever had. There starts, as well as ends, our vast understanding of the complex country we live in.
To call paapi-pet-ki-majboori as Mumbai's spirit is a topic I have discussed with my Mumbai friends endlessly. No one really agrees that there is anything praiseworthy when a Mumbaikar goes back to work as usual the very next day after the blasts. What is a mason, who lives on daily wages, expected to do? What is a govt. school teacher, who has to take a pay-cut, expected to do? What is a Software Engineer, who wags his tail as per the wishes of his firang client, expected to do? These basic economic realities, my friends, have got nothing to do with the spirit of any individual person, forget Mumbai as a whole.
Let us not ever forget that our enemy is not a person called Kasab, or a country called Pakistan. The real enemy is the school of thought that has turned hundreds of poor, innocent and unemployed youths like Kasab himself into live human bombs. The real enemies are the promoters of such thoughts who have single-handedly managed to turn a fine, peace-loving religion into a hotbed of fanaticism and intolerance. Give these vocal fundamentalists a real Kalashnikov and tell them to face our country's security forces with the same rage in their eyes and the desire to attain jannat that they inspire in their hapless cadres, and I bet they would have already died many times before their actual death.
Jannat-e-jaaneman mujhe bhi tere paas aane ka dil karta
Jannat-e-jaaneman mujhe bhi tere paas aane ka dil karta
Lekin agar mein jaan de nahi sakta, toh mein jaan le bhi nahi sakta...!!
I pray for the families of the victims and hope they gather the strength to deal with their immeasurable loss.
I also pray for the families of the terrorists who will soon need the same strength to see the rotting, dismembered dead bodies of their terrorist- sons gone astray.
Hope there is light at the end of this darkest tunnel.
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