A day in the life of LIFE

Even as the NSG black cat commandos smoke the rats out of the heart of India's financial capital, I pen this post with immeasurable anguish, grief and pain.

For anyone who has been following my blog for over the past 2+ years, the posts here have always been of humor and pun, trying to capture the lighter side of life. But today, at this moment, things are drastically different. This is something that is unprecedented - a situation where Life itself does not foresee its future, let alone the lighter side of it.

Today, a nation and its conscience has been attacked. It's a direct war on its sovereignty. May seem big words - more the ones politicians use - Pray, what else can they do?

Glued to the television in the hostel premises, I but ponder on the audacity of the attackers looking at the magnitude of devastation they have inflicted upon us.

India is a soft state. period. But this is not the time for that - we can do our paralysis of analysis during the post mortem once the ordeal is over.

And this time I am relieved about one thing for sure - the "no negotiations" stand that we have taken. For a person who set aside his class 12 board exams to watch the Kathmandu to Kandhahar drama, I personally feel that this is a stand that ought to have been adopted then as well.

And now - it is the city that symbolizes the classless India in its true light; the city that never sleeps; the city that I grew up as a child in - the bylanes of Andheri where I ran around with my strawberry ice creams, the Chowpaty, the Juhu park - the memories are vivid; and to see THIS city being held to ransom by a bunch of trigger happy terrorists make me feel helpless and angry.

I attend classes on economics and financial management at IIM, where we are taught about sustainability and engage in debates of growth versus development, even as Mumbai burns.

I honestly feel the shallowness creeping in, each time I take a reality check. Something can be sustained only when it exists to be improved upon. It requires a lot of resilience to keep re-building each time you are destroyed. My 90 year old grand mother, a freedom fighter herself, who's lived in Mumbai for 60 years of her life breaks down over the phone even as she speaks to me about the uncertainty my generation is facing.

As Amit Verma puts it, blogging has never felt so insignificant.

And the reality check is this - even as the country fights as Maharashtrians versus the rest of India (outsiders), we see foreigners(the true outsiders) making the most of the situation and rendering us helpless.

I only hope that this turn of events has managed to unite us to the true cause of our nationhood and pray that good sense prevails over the agenda of internal bickering.

India has survived as a civilization for centuries - even when the rest of the world was uncivilized and barbaric - and we will not allow 20 odd gun runners to dent our self esteem.

We will be back on the streets of every city in this country and borrowing from Sambit Bal, Editor of Cric Info, and I quote "I can't wait to see a stadium in Bombay reverberating to the sounds of cricket. I will be there".

We will rise from this immense loss and move ahead - this I believe is the essence of the spirit of Indianism....

P.S. - I am not posting any pictures on purpose for 2 reasons
1) I don't want to advertise the product of terror being exported to my country
2) I sincerely want this dear city to come out of the stigma at the earliest

Some links that I have been inspired reading and I recommend you read as well.

An overpowering bleakness - Sambit of Cricinfo
US Blames squabbling Indian politicians for the attack
Light a candle and take the pledge
Amit Verma's (Ex-TOI)site