" Mumbai Spirit, my foot !! "

The above words were uttered by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Mr. M.N. Singh in a talk show yesterday in a private TV channel in defence of his views that people in Mumbai have become insensitive to such atrocious incidents. So have Mumbaikars really become apathetic ?

My answer is a resounding yes .

I would say that if not " Insensitive " the Mumbaikars have " Resigned " their faith on the Government machinery . The response from Mumbaikars have shown us that despite the failure of the government machinery the common man on the street took the onus on himself
rescuing and helping scores of innocent people. But then their is another hidden picture perhaps which I realized when I talked to people. Some people were sensing an opportunity to invest in stocks as the News Channels all over were beaming the ominous reports of the blasts . Some were very casual in the approach saying that one day everyone one has to die and all that crap . Others said that they had no option but to carry on with their routine life as such incidents take place every now and then. I agree but then does the action of carrying on with regular life due to compulsions speak about the Mumbai Spirit.

For me the Mumbai spirit is about the Hotel owner opposite Churchgate station who served tea and snacks free of cost to to people, its about people who queued all along the roads offering water and snacks , tempo wallas offering transportation to people,blogs set up instantly offering to contact relatives, people queuing up outside hospitals the very next day to donate blood and of course people who were part of the initial rescue operation .But then if you let out your emotions you know such people exist in minority and the fact of the matter is that people ( including me ) have no choice but go back to work in the same old train hoping that they would never become a target . Hope that the city which we all love so dearly never ever faces such incidents in the future so as to question its spirit !!!!