The four years that I have been in Mumbai, I have been witness to several traumatic incidents - the 2006 July floods, the 2007 July train bombings and the just concluded terrorist attacks across South Mumbai. Never before has a city like Mumbai been held ransom by a bunch of crazy fanatical men!
One always hears about the resilient spirit of Mumbai, the fact that people go back to work the very next day. But I seriously question whether there is another option? Yes, the city springs back unbelievably quickly, but that does not mean that the common man is waiting for such crap to happen to them over and over again. The people of Mumbai are fed up.
To survive in this city itself is a struggle. Going to work everyday working through the thousands that throng the trains, buses and roads in itself is a nightmare. Space is a problem, clean air is a problem. We don't need more problems than those we already have!
I followed the terrorist saga on Thursday on Times Now and I thought they did a fairly good job of covering the situation. Arnab just needs to stop pushing the fact that it's a Times Now exclusive, or xyz about Times Now down our throat. We don't care Arnab if it came on your channel first! All we want to know is about the safety of the citizens of this city!
Media also needs to draw a line somewhere and understand what information needs to go out and what needs to be held back, ensuring that rescue work is not hampered in anyway. Getting that one additional TRP should not be the focus. On the same channel this morning I saw a hotel staff of the Taj who miraculously appeared and the channels hounded the poor traumatised victim for a sound byte. As human beings we love to hear tales of horror, including myself, but somewhere we need to become more sensitive.
As a third person to sit and analyse the situation, to type out this blog post is very easy. But if it had been me who had lost someone, I would have been livid and would want justice. I wouldn't want explainations and excuses.
But what is justice? Where are we going wrong as a nation? Are we unable to secure our borders and take a strong stance against Pakistan or should we be more aggressive and declare war or should we try dialogue and reason? Frankly as a young citizen of this country I haven't seen much progress on this front over the last few years. And I don't see a solution in the near future.
But I storngly feel that violence is not the solution, an eye for an eye is not the solution. Violence only ignites violence.
Unfortunately, religion has become the biggest curse on mankind. We don't know how to make it our strength, we just fight like cowards in the name of the god. It's jobless, vacant minds that get moulded by people in power. It's sad to think that a person can want to cause so much harm to another human being for no rhyme or reason, with absolute no thought or logic.
Every person who wants to divide us on any basis be it caste, state, religion or whatever else is a terrorist.
I don't know where the end is or what the solution is, but I strongly believe that anger and violence are not the solution. Let us not be open to manipulation, let us think for ourselves and decide what is right. It's sad to think that our children will be born in a world like this. When will it end and will India truly be a free country?
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2 comments:
chatu.. u have completely completely completely got me with the words, "every person who seeks to divide us on the basis of religion is a terrorist." Also.. we don't know how to make it our strength. I am troubled by our helplessness as citizens.. we can't DO anything immediate in this scenario and that makes us feel like we can't do anything at all. But that's not true. we can stand up and not let this die down in 3 days. we can keep talking about it. we can be so vocal and not ennui-ed that politicians will have no choice but to change. we can be so informed that finally an intelligent, honest man will believe he has a chance in the elections. we should exchange other ideas of what we can do.
I think media screwed up big time. One thing these people don’t understand is that it's not only us who could be watching the live telecast but also the terrorists inside. They can see the whole operation as well as the movement sitting inside, making it even more difficult for the rescue team. So as you said, the media should act more responsibly.
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