11 minutes of pain

As I write this I silently remember Terrible Tuesday and the pain it bought. Terror raised its ugly head once more devouring innocent lives who did not deserve to perish like this. Any human heart will reel in horror at the sheer viciousness of the attacks. But my question is are we all doing enough to stop such horrors from being replayed? I boarded a train home on the same line the very next day with scores of other people, exuding the famed 'spirit of mumbai'. For the longest 40 mins i have travelled for, i could smell the air choked with nervous apprehension. I left the trainstation & headed home feeling strange of how & why we all did not allow the previous day's shock to grip us. Was my mind actually fighting fear...or was "busy gettin bac to work"? We felt proud for having proclaimed "U dont scare us", to the perverts who committed this sin. But I feel that in an attempt to show the city never sleeps we, mumbaikars, have mutated into a species that never protests, thinking that gathering the pieces and resuming life is all it takes. Let me remind myself and my countrymen that there is a fine line between being brave and being desensitised. I pray that we never cross it.

"Water water everywhere......."

Mumbaikars witnessed the annual ritual of bonewetting rainfall this year followed by largescale flooding, suggesting that the ghost of 26/7 last year is yet to be exorcised, lessons still not learnt. Once the lungs tire screamin out at the deaf administration fumbling with the familiar knots, the common mind chips in with useful ideas of dealing with the deluge a bit more imaginatively. Forget Doppler, cleaning of sewers, the health of the Mithi & civic order. Now with the jaw dropping moolah allocated for floodcontrol, the adminstration can do any of this.

Import scubagear and distribute it at major waterholes. How novel to have mumbaikars asking eachother "So...did u dive to work today?"

Rename Mumbai as Venice instead of tryin to be a Shanghai and buy boats for public transport. All car companies can be asked to make car models that will double as boats during this time.

Anyone wanting to make movies like 'Waterworld' should be asked to locate their shoots here. Tell them gasping 'props' in background come free!!!

Shoals of live fish shud be imported and let loose in the abundant water and "Catch Your own Fish" campaign should be encouraged. Its shall be useful in times of 'are u nuts!!!!!' prices for regular foodstuff.

All ground floor flats in those wretched lowlying areas shud be designed as submarines. People can survive at periscope depth comfortably for days without surfacing.

So my advice to the administration is Try atleast these or........ GLUG U!!!