The Mumbai siege has been playing on my mind for quite sometime. I have gone through rage & despondency to looking at the silver lining in the event. The supposed threat to Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi has given me the impetus to write my thoughts at last. The piece might not sound coherent as various ideas and emotions clamour my mind to gain prominence. Hopefully what I write is comprehendible if not for the thoughts, at least for the sentiments expressed.
Why have I not written about this till date? Why am I one of the last to write about this incident? I suppose it’s because at some level I am hoping that me not saying it will make it unreal. Yes, I am trying to escape the trauma of the incident, but don’t think I can anymore.
Why is this incident so important to write about as compared to all the terror attacks that happened all these days in India? Well…….. I am not sure. Probably because it’s Mumbai, the city I associate with movement and life. Probably because it was the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the perennial symbol of Mumbai. Probably because it was a planned initiative to kill and just kill and snuff out innocent lives and nothing else. Probably because the terrorists were young kids in jeans. Probably because for the first time in my life I saw our police force, and armed force act as heroes - the heroes that are depicted in our Bollywood movies. Or probably because for the first time in my life I saw the horror creature – zombie, come to life.
The definition of a zombie is the living dead. It’s an automated body without any soul or cognitive sense. The kids I saw carrying the AK 47s and terrorising the international community were soulless, like some big bad wizard or witch had sucked them dry of their souls. Or had they sold their souls? I don’t know. But I saw Zombies and I am filled with dread. It’s a lot scarier because these zombies were created as the army of God - the entity we all human beings can comprehend only through our souls. Yes, it was this dread that stopped me from writing this piece, because by writing this piece I would make the nightmare of the Mumbai massacre real.
How do you fight those who don’t feel? Because in any war it is fear which is the primary weapon used to gain victory and its fear that the fighting troops don’t compromise. Like the Hindi saying goes “Jo dar gaya, woh Mar gaya”, we have been fighting based on just this philosophy. Now we are suddenly faced with an enemy who can’t feel fear because he can’t feel. Whereas, we are already succumbing to fear at the very first front. We are blaming each other, and have collapsed like a house of matchsticks. But isn’t the only answer one can give to people who want to spread terror is not to feel it? Isn’t the best way to defeat this faceless enemy is to live life as we have always lived and enjoy every moment of our existence? Why are we allowing them to place us under duress and handed over our freedom to be happy, our freedom to be ourselves to them? The British used the “divide and rule” philosophy to rule us for a century and now we are allowing these jeans clad kids to do the same to us? Have we as Indian not learnt anything? Yes, it is time for our freedom movement to restart. This time we don’t have a name or face for the enemy, but the tool is still proactive non-violence. Don’t give the enemy what he wants and he will kill himself in frustration. Please step out and live your lives to the fullest, without any fear. This is the best homage we can give the people who died in the massacre and the heroes who laid down their lives to let us live without fear. Our motto should be “Live without fear” and then let’s see what these soulless, religionless zombies can do to us.
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