An angry outburst

Hey guys!! Well I returned from my trip to Mumbai this morning itself... It was a much needed break and left me fully charged up to face another two months of my MBA semester:-)
Although it was my second trip to the finacial and movie hub of India, the city pulled me inside all over again!! From the moment I set my foot out of the bus all I wanted to do was just roam around and get the maximum out of it that I can have within the 4 days long holiday I got.

During my visit there I got to be a part of the Navy day celebrations at The Gateway of India. Joining the huge crowd as all of us gazed up and enjoyed the sight of our brave commandoes slithering down the ropes from the low flying helicopter with The Taj in the backdrop, I was reminded of the horrible scenes of the past year. More than a year has passed by and still no concrete result has come out of the case on the lone surviving militant, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab. News reports ranging from the admission of his involvement in the attack to his subsequent denial and the latest one of the sacking of his lawyer by the court are the only reports available to the public but those who were the victims are still waiting to get justice. each day brings a new twist in this tragic story.

However I am not going to talk about the case here, let's save it for some other day. What I want to talk about is much more serious according to me, and I would love to know how you feel about it. While I stood in front of the Taj, a teenager standing next to me asked his friend, "It's not the anniversary of the attack today. So what are they doing this for?'

It didn't shock me that he didn't know about the Navy day, many people don't know. But what disturbed me was his question. Have we become so complacent and so busy in our lives that it's only on anniversaries that we remember such a black day? I remember many attacks which India has undergone, be it on Parliament, in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and the list goes on. And after every such attack a statement is released to the press - "The spirit of our people will not break by such cowardly attacks and we'll survive such attacks."

The question is how do we realize when this spirit of survival turns into nonchalance? How can we be sure that instead of being strong by remembering such incidents and being more alert and cautious, public would start taking them as an integral part of their lives, only to be to remembered on anniversaries or if it reaches uncomfortably close to their own home? Nobody likes remembering nightmares but these nightmares can only be removed with a conscious and continuous effort by all. Why take a recap of all the happenings and the subsequent progress only on anniversaries? Why shouldn't we try to solve and wrap up the cases quickly and effectively? While Mumbai was under siege, people from all over saluted the brave soldiers and the members of the general public who laid down their lives or went through hell to save others. For me those people are still and will always be the true heroes, but if we want to really respect them we'll have to come out of our cocoons and become much more aware and alert Indians rather than putting all the blame on the security forces or government. Rather than fighting the system from outside, be a part of it and change it from inside.

In the end I would like to say that rather than putting the stamp of a particular day on such acts, lets keep that anger alive in us so that we can send a strong and immediate response to such infiltrators.