Mumbai mindset veers away from lurking danger

Pratibha Golecha, 18 and giggly, stood before Shopper’s Stop in Bandra on Saturday. Confronting her was a posse of private security guards. The mall had started checking incomers’ bags following a high security alert in the run-up to Independence Day. Golecha, a student, had earlier been to lunch at Pizza Hut. There too, there was tight security. Golecha, however, said she did not worry. Her attitude reflected what may be the Mumbai mindset - ‘Whatever will be, will be...’

“There are cops everywhere,” Golecha said, referring to all the uniformed men she saw. The change was everywhere: an atmosphere of increased alertness, the presence of uniformed people a reminder of lurking danger. But in Mumbai, so densely crowded that it is one continuous soft target, at least some citizens are coming to terms with the possible danger to their lives. They have done it with resignation and a belief in fate.

Golecha appreciated that the baggage check was for her own safety and said it reassured her. But she said she had stopped thinking about the danger of a bomb blast.

Jagruti and Amit Parekh, a couple who run  a business jointly, walked into Lower Parel’s Phoenix Mills, feeling that it should have had more security. (The mall has started checking handbags and cars already, but not at all gates.) “We just walked in,” Jagruti said. She said even though she felt unsafe in malls, she would continue visiting them. Even if there was enough security, something untoward could always happen, she said. 

Yusuf Shaikh, a film professional, who also visited Phoenix Mills, said the fear of a terror strike is overwhelming only “when one sits down and thinks”. Terrorists could strike at unexpected places, any public place was a likely target of a terror strike, he said.