Ask most Mumbaikars about what they expect from the verdict and you'll probably get just a resigned sigh. Because they've learned over the years, to expect nothing. 'Why stress about it -- the real masterminds won't be caught anyway,' is what one hears constantly. Maybe it's fair enough, given the general perception about justice in India. But is it ok to be apathetic, and just pass it off as just another failure of justice? Have we just stopped feeling that sense of outrage? Because it's more convenient for us to collectively be comfortably numb?
Can the city afford to forget its pockmarked past? America will make sure the world doesn't forget 9 / 11, here in Mumbai, come rain, riot or a couple of blasts, we're all ready to head to work, briefcases packed, ties neatly tucked in, dupattas firmly knotted, focusing only on making it in time to smell the armpits in the nine-seventeen fast to churchgate. An attitude that's euphemistically called the spirit of Mumbai or its counterpart, the spirit of survival. But does survival mean erasing the past? We'll forget the dead, we'll forget the injured, unless it happens to be someone we know. We'll forget the riots, the blasts that came later and walk unblinkingly into the future. Maybe that's the problem with Mumbai - that we forget all too easily.
About the AuthorVrushali Haldipur A mini-bite of the Big Apple, with fries to go....Read Morefirst published:September 27, 2006, 22:02 ISTlast updated:September 27, 2006, 22:02 IST
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Thirteen years too late. The judgements in the 93 blasts case will unfold in the coming months, with the announcement of the sentences for those found guilty. Sentences that range from five years to life imprisonment. Five years? For helping destroy a city? It's not even a slap on the wrist; it's kissing the Godfather's hand, with the violin score in the background.
Ask most Mumbaikars about what they expect from the verdict and you'll probably get just a resigned sigh. Because they've learned over the years, to expect nothing. 'Why stress about it -- the real masterminds won't be caught anyway,' is what one hears constantly. Maybe it's fair enough, given the general perception about justice in India. But is it ok to be apathetic, and just pass it off as just another failure of justice? Have we just stopped feeling that sense of outrage? Because it's more convenient for us to collectively be comfortably numb?
Can the city afford to forget its pockmarked past? America will make sure the world doesn't forget 9 / 11, here in Mumbai, come rain, riot or a couple of blasts, we're all ready to head to work, briefcases packed, ties neatly tucked in, dupattas firmly knotted, focusing only on making it in time to smell the armpits in the nine-seventeen fast to churchgate. An attitude that's euphemistically called the spirit of Mumbai or its counterpart, the spirit of survival. But does survival mean erasing the past? We'll forget the dead, we'll forget the injured, unless it happens to be someone we know. We'll forget the riots, the blasts that came later and walk unblinkingly into the future. Maybe that's the problem with Mumbai - that we forget all too easily.
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