People have been asking what it was like to have been here during the blasts one week ago. I don't know if everyone's expecting a tale of drama and suspense where I learned about the preciousness of life and more importantly, myself.
Frankly speaking though, and this might sound a bit callous (but I certainly don't mean it that way), the incident had very little effect on my life. I live in a suburb of Bombay and the blasts took place in the centre of the city, about a 30 minute journey from where I stand. When it happened, I was already home. In fact, I probably would not have known it had happened if not for a friend from the US leaving me a message to check if I was safe. A few confused minutes later, I was up to speed on what was going on a few miles away.
Now I'm not saying what happened isn't a huge tragedy and I feel for those who lost someone in the attack last week, but it seems like it had very little effect on Bombay as a whole. This is the city that endured a brutal attack in 2008 with 164 deaths and countless more injuries. The streets were a little quieter on the night of last week's bombings but by the next day, everybody was headed back to work (my own boss decided to be a little more cautious and asked us all to work from home). Nobody even seems to mention the bombings any more. There are a few more police checkpoints downtown but besides that, nobody seems to be batting an eye. It's a resilient city, no doubt.
I don't mean to pontificate about something I know absolutely nothing about (although I do quite enjoy doing just that) but maybe the silver lining on this very dark cloud is that the power to strike fear into the hearts of Mumbaikars is diminishing, and with it, the effectiveness of terrorism as a means to an end.
So there you have it. I suppose I wish I had a more exciting account of the events to offer up here but it's probably for the best that I don't.
This is exactly what happened to me while I was living in Algeria.
ReplyDeleteThe country has lived through horrible years (1988-2000), so this "tiny" blast in Algiers during 2008 was ... not that big a deal. Much less than what international news said anyway.
Well, it could also have to do with the fact that (1) the population in Bombay/ India is so huge, that in the grand scheme of things, a few dead is perceived to be not that big a deal; and (2) it is happening with such frequency that these bombings don't have the same impact anymore. The first round of Bali bombings had a tremendous impact on tourism in the Island of Gods, and was tragic and shocking. The subsequent bombings killed more people, but had less of a "shock" factor. Tourism numbers were impacted as well, but to much less degree. Were those who died later worth less? No, but that's the sad thing about these repeated bombings.
ReplyDeleteAs I suggested in my post, it's more of (2) than anything else. People have lived through much worse such that it's no longer such a big deal. They would rather go on with their lives than live in fear.
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