It was pleasant Sunday evening. However, staying at home all of Saturday and Sunday I had got bored. I thought of meeting up some of my friends that evening to kill my time and boredom. The rains, local trains, statue desecration, routine job life and other local happenings helped us keep busy. The recent serial blasts on the city’s western railway line had soon replaced these topics and exchange of ideas on reasons, anger, agony, possibilities was a hot subject to be conversed.
As the conversation galloped to heated argument and debate, one of our friends questioned what this Mumbai spirit is. His point of argument was that there is nothing called as spirit of Mumbai but it is in reality the urge to earn a livelihood. It is the question of his survival that urges a Mumbaikar to take a train to work the very next morning after the blasts. My Mumbaikar ego was definitely challenged at that point, somewhere I knew that it was correct but somehow Mumbai spirit is being taken in a wrong way. I did not have an answer at that moment and preferred to remain quite. The group dispersed after 2-3 hours of debate and as I walked home I kept thinking about some answer that hits like a tight slap. Thoughts also ran through my mind that my friend is just a migrant to Mumbai for job purpose and hence may not understand the spirit Mumbai, justifying anything to him would have been a fruitless effort. I dwindled between should I answer back or not and if yes what could be the answer.
In my quest to find an answer, I encountered Rajdeep Sardesai’s article on the blasts and following repercussions. It was not only my friend who thought that Mumbai spirit is hype, many news channels and media too was portraying it in a similar way. While Rajdeep was answering it on a macro level, I was one on one with my friend.
Here are few excerpts of Rajdeep’s comments (Source: ibnlive.com – read complete article).
“Perhaps it is gritty paapi pet ka sawaal that drives the Mumbaikar back to his job, the day after his commuter train was blasted. Dull helplessness seems to be the opposite number of the happy go lucky resilience. Yet gaze a little closer and you'll find that between the two polar opposites of celebration of the "Mumbai spirit" and doomsday predictions of "no spirit only hopelessness," there is another truth that lies in the middle. Ask the question: which network actually worked during the blasts? The roads? No. The police? No. The mobile phones? No. The network that actually worked was the human network. The average Citizen-Mumbai who ferried the wounded to hospital, who ripped through metal to extricate fellow travelers, who donated blood, drove the stranded, fed the hungry and sheltered the lost. Within half an hour the injured had been taken to hospitals. It was Citizen Mumbai who took them there, hours before the official agencies like the fire brigade or the police arrived”
"Perhaps the media critics are right, that singing odes to Mumbai's resolve is a fiction. Yet at the same time I believe that it is the Mumbaikar who can save Mumbai and it is he who needs to be seriously and solidly empowered if the city is to survive"
And now I have the answer to what true Mumbai spirit is – resilient and caring. Makes sense?
Thanks Rajdeep!
As the conversation galloped to heated argument and debate, one of our friends questioned what this Mumbai spirit is. His point of argument was that there is nothing called as spirit of Mumbai but it is in reality the urge to earn a livelihood. It is the question of his survival that urges a Mumbaikar to take a train to work the very next morning after the blasts. My Mumbaikar ego was definitely challenged at that point, somewhere I knew that it was correct but somehow Mumbai spirit is being taken in a wrong way. I did not have an answer at that moment and preferred to remain quite. The group dispersed after 2-3 hours of debate and as I walked home I kept thinking about some answer that hits like a tight slap. Thoughts also ran through my mind that my friend is just a migrant to Mumbai for job purpose and hence may not understand the spirit Mumbai, justifying anything to him would have been a fruitless effort. I dwindled between should I answer back or not and if yes what could be the answer.
In my quest to find an answer, I encountered Rajdeep Sardesai’s article on the blasts and following repercussions. It was not only my friend who thought that Mumbai spirit is hype, many news channels and media too was portraying it in a similar way. While Rajdeep was answering it on a macro level, I was one on one with my friend.
Here are few excerpts of Rajdeep’s comments (Source: ibnlive.com – read complete article).
“Perhaps it is gritty paapi pet ka sawaal that drives the Mumbaikar back to his job, the day after his commuter train was blasted. Dull helplessness seems to be the opposite number of the happy go lucky resilience. Yet gaze a little closer and you'll find that between the two polar opposites of celebration of the "Mumbai spirit" and doomsday predictions of "no spirit only hopelessness," there is another truth that lies in the middle. Ask the question: which network actually worked during the blasts? The roads? No. The police? No. The mobile phones? No. The network that actually worked was the human network. The average Citizen-Mumbai who ferried the wounded to hospital, who ripped through metal to extricate fellow travelers, who donated blood, drove the stranded, fed the hungry and sheltered the lost. Within half an hour the injured had been taken to hospitals. It was Citizen Mumbai who took them there, hours before the official agencies like the fire brigade or the police arrived”
"Perhaps the media critics are right, that singing odes to Mumbai's resolve is a fiction. Yet at the same time I believe that it is the Mumbaikar who can save Mumbai and it is he who needs to be seriously and solidly empowered if the city is to survive"
And now I have the answer to what true Mumbai spirit is – resilient and caring. Makes sense?
Thanks Rajdeep!
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