Exactly an year ago, serial bomb blasts on the suburban trains in Bombay ripped apart the lives of several innocent and unsuspecting people and devastated the livelihoods of several thousand others.
Back home, I sat glued to the TV looking at the gruesome images of destruction and death. And sat with bated breath when Western Railway declared that it is not going to bow down to the whims and fancies of the terrorists: "We will have WR up and running normally by the peak hours tomorrow. No matter what."
And they did it - at around 1:15AM on 12/07/2006 the services were resumed. And I silently rejoiced - a fitting reply to terrorism.
Word was beginning to spread about a Bombay bandh being called on 12/07/2007 by the political parties to protest the blasts. But they declared in one voice, in a rare display unity that there shall be no bandh. A fitting reply to their dastardly act would be to show them that nothing can stop us and that we would still go ahead and lead a normal day.
And that moment I was actually proud of all our political parties for displaying the grit and determinationt that they did. Balls to you terrorism!
Then, a week on, the entire city came to a complete standstill for 2 minutes to pay homage to the victims of the blasts. In silence, we made our message loud and clear to the world.
WR has repaired the one of the bogies that was impacted by the blasts and it will make its inaugural run today evening to correspond with the first blast.
And today, millions of us, travelling in the very same bogie would again give terrorism a fitting reply: "Do what you want - Nothings gonna stop us now".
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The city coming back to normalcy definitely spoke volumes about the spirit of Mumbaikars. I remember the pride that I felt when I saw the WR running normally the next day. They made the message loud and clear ‘WE WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO ANYTHING’. There are more people who deserved to be lauded in this effort of putting the city back on its feet. The men who cleared the tracks of the WR so that the trains could run fine the next day, the paramedics who moved the victims so that no more harm could be done to them, the people who decided that their life should be lived the way they want to and not the way the others want them to. Once again, I salute the spirit of Mumbaikars.
Never forget the blood that was shed,
Never forget the screams that came forth,
Never forget the sight of the bodies,
All bloodied and bruised,
Never forget that fiends did this,
Fiends, unworthy of being called humans,
Beings, unworthy of being called animals,
Remember that we shall not break,
That we shall not bow to this storm,
That our heads were held high then,
Our heads are held high now,
And our heads shall be held high for eternity,
But they shall not break our spirit,
They shall not bruise our morale,
They shall not kill our belief,
Our belief in ourselves!
Hey,
'This day that year', nicely put.
Though I wasn't in mumbai last year (was in Pune), I used to follow the happenings out here. I could still feel the spirit of Mumbai, miles away. One can never be away from Mumbai. Proud to be a Mumbaikar.
But the fear is still lingers, now too. Unlike last year, I have to travel by the same WR today!
How true!
Here's saluting the ability of people to bounce back after such a disaster.
i was at bandra station when the blast at mmatunga rd toook place and minutes after mahim blast went of...
it was good tht mumbai came back stronger... but it still hurts that the terrorists who did this havent been caught.. the mastermind'sare still at large......
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