SPEAK UP
Mumbai, tujhe salaam. City never lacks grit & equanimity in adversity.
I’ve lost, but want to exult as my own city proved me wrong, again. Just when I thought a terror-weary megapolis, ravaged by previous blitzkriegs and reeling under fresh threats, may display some ripples during the 12-day Ganeshotsav, Mumbai showed how erroneous I was.
Not one incident of the slightest bit of disturbance was reported. Lord Ganesha united us all, irrespective of caste, creed and religion. As we sang and danced at Lalbaghcha Raja, Juhu Ka Raja and at the courts of umpteen other Rajas, threats didn’t bother us. Huge crowds thronged immersion processions with elders, kids and even the physically-challenged participating with great gusto. That was Mumbai’s answer to dastardly terror caveats — there is no shackling its spirit which shall ever soar like the mythical phoenix.
I remember a sentence from Gregory David Roberts’ novel Shantaram, where the author describes Mumbai (then Bombay) thus: “...a city in a constant state of decay and resurrection.” The juxtaposition of decay and resurrection is what characterises the soul of a city that always rises from the ashes of disintegration faster than what the messengers of destruction would have imagined.
Mumbaikars inherently believe that life’s essence embodies the principle of opposites — hope and hatred, love and hostility, life and death. Nothing comes to a halt. The perennial smile on the face of the weather-beaten city dweller refuses to fade away.
It’s this smile that saw the city through 26/7 floods of 2005, 11/7 serial train blasts of 2006 and 26/11 terror attacks of 2008.
Badgered by calamity in such quick succession where blood spilled unrestrained, any other city would have collapsed. Not Mumbai. Even as the administration failed them time and again, Mumbaikars kept their heads above their shoulders and emerged more resilient each time disaster struck — raring to move on within hours!
Ordinary citizens showed the way to bond whenever circumstances attempted to be messy. Transient scars failed to scare.
As they say, the human spirit isn’t finished when it’s defeated, but only when it surrenders. A day before former US President John F Kennedy took the fatal bullet, he said of his country, “...after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we will be remembered not for victories or defeats, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”
The same applies to Mumbai. Despite various jingoistic campaigns and parochial attacks, people from all over the country come to the city searching for their own El Dorado — a place where money can be rapidly acquired, if you have the tenacity and talent.
Jeeyo Mumbaikars. Long live aamchi Mumbai.
CBSE Datesheet 2025: CBSE class 10, 12 timetables expected soon at cbse.gov.in
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