I was at the famous Bandra Bandstand which is the place where King Khan lives and the The Taj Lands’ End(not to be confused with the TajMahal hotel) is situated. The Irony was such being a curious traveller myself I was clicking pictures of almost every interesting thing that came my way, so I clicked the picture of The Taj when I was summoned by one of the cop sitting there, my heart came in my mouth and almost instantly my mind wandered at all the possibilities that could occur.
1.He would snatch my phone and smash it.
2.He would take me with him to the police station.
3.He would give me a third degree.
Gathering courage, I went to him and almost instantly said “Sorry”, but to my surprise in the politest tone possible he just asked me to delete that picture which I had taken and said that no one is allowed to click pictures of hotels after 26/11 incident when the Tajmahal and the Oberoi were attacked. I deleted the picture in front of him and said sorry once again. The time was around 6.30 P.M and ironically at 6.53 P.M the city faced its first major attack after 26/11. I still wonder that, the cop who called me must have also thought about this incident later that day as much as I did, thinking that he let the major catch of his day to go away even without a proper scolding.
Such is the case that blasts now occur in the dream city as though they have been written in its veins, 16 major terrorist attacks since the 1993 Bombay Blasts stand as a testimony to the same. The government keep changing with false promise of peace each time but blasts keep happening not only in Mumbai but also in other parts of the nation.
The terrorist achieve their aim of disturbing the law and order and claiming lives while the only sufferer is the common poor man who has to travel in the city to earn his livelihood. The home minister completes his duty by giving a speech expressing his inability to control the attacks and ministers paying visits to hospitals to show their solidarity and also increase their vote banks.
Few, organizations like NIA, NSG, CBI, CID etc are deployed to probe these which often results in no result and files of these blasts are closed, people forget about the blast when a new one occurs and the vicious cycle goes on endlessly, the only ones remembering these days are the families of the ones killed in blast who have to face the sorrow all over again on the death anniversaries of their near and dear ones.
Had India learnt something from USA which did not gave up after the Manhattan skyline was ripped of its two most spectacular skyscrapers, America raged a war against not just Osama Bin Laden and Taliban but also against the whole terrorist community, had Indian government shown such resentment after 26/11 happened and not made people like Kasab and Afzal its guest feeding on the taxes of those whose relatives they killed, India would have been free of its problem of terrorism by now and Indian people would have walked on the roads oblivion to the fear that the next step could be their last.
