Don't go back to sleep, not this time atleast!

My title might take a lot of people by surprise!
I know we certainly did not deserve the butchery, the cruelty with which there were ghastly attacks on humanity last week in our city. Safe havens and second homes to us, we saw the pride and symbols of our country go up in flames with an unbearable loss of human lives.
Ever since these attacks, I have been waking in the middle of the night to look around me,my immediately family sound asleep and then going back to sleeep again.
BUT ISN"T THIS GOING BACK TO SLEEP THE REAL REASON OF OUR APATHY, OUR HELPLESSNESS TODAY?
We have incessantly blamed the politicians for our state, but don't we ourselves deserve the government we have been getting?
I know many people who go out on a vacation when the poll date arrives.
I know many people who have no interest in the governance of thier own building or area, forget the society at large?
We never ask questions when an infrastructure develpoment project, say a bridge, a highway or even our area streets, get delayed or thier costs escalated?
We never ask when the BMC, the telephone dept and the sewage people, why they come and dig the same road thrice within a year.
Did we ever, till recent, ask our beaurocrats, WHY did they not furnish thier duty well?

How many of us have used powerful tools like the RTI to make the govt. answerable to our questions?
Its our own "non-interest and non-inteference policy" which has proven very costly to us. Hasn't our own convenience cost this loss?
We say that Mumbai pays it taxes but have we people, ever, I repeat, ever, asked the government how they spend it or made them accountable for thier laxity?

Some people say, we won't vote! Isn't that what your politicians want you to do? If intellectuals, civilised society does not exercise this right to franchise,wouldn't we be considered dead! Cause if you are not a vote bank, you are no good!

All I urge to people, brothers and sisters, not to go back to sleep this time!

Also, some of the media which has been senselessly propogating and fuelling notions,please do not make a dahi batata puri or bhel and try to sell your stories!

My heart goes out to the fact that now the "intelligence" has pointed threats to schools and hotels? What world are we going to raise our kids in?

PLEASE PEOPLE- COME TOGETHER AS ONE VOICE!
FORGET YOUR DIFFERENCES AND ASK QUESTIONS-QUESTIONS THAT WERE NEVER ASKED?
AND PLEASE CHANNELISE YOUR ENERGIES AND ANGER TO ATTAIN ANSWERS AND BRING A CHANGE TO THE SURROUNDINGS WE LIVE IN, WHERE WE OURSELVES WOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR STATE.

GOOD GOVERNANCE COMES WITH ALERT CITIZENS!

AND IF YOU GO BACK TO SLEEP AGAIN, YOU PROBABLY WONT RISE AGAIN!

The Aftermath

Various channels kept flashing "Breaking News" about the loss of lives..the tally was still on and the combing operations in full swaing, as I was writing this page.
What I feel bereaved is of the fact, what happens after the media and the limelight changes it's course to something fresh and more meaty. What happens to the hailed martyr's families..the ones who have lost thier hopes,thier futures and the sole bread earners of thier families..
Am not a blog writer,but this incident has moved me to express what has been bottling up in the last three days..
I request people to come forward,suggest means to do something for the families of these departed souls!

We Won't Bounce Back!

Just wanted to share something with you......a friend of mine has beautifully put in words what I am feeling....I"m sure many of youfeel the same and are fed up of these terrorist incidents occurringagain and again....when is this going to stop, how is it going to stop, who is going to stop it, I don't know, but I do know that we should not put up with this lax behaviour anymore for if we do then we will live our lives in fear forever.Please pass this on, to your family and friends. Let's do the LEAST we can.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The veil has been shattered. We have watched terror attacks on TV,read analyses on websites and discussed 911, 267, London and Madrid over coffee. Bad things were happening out there and we were shocked,whining and thinking "they" are going through what they had planted a generation ago.
But it was always out there and them that got affected. It was always terror in third person.Nov 26th changed it...
The attacks were at locations that were closeto our hearts. At locations that were painfully very familiar to us.Locations we might have been on th fateful night.The rooms, restaurants and banquet halls of the Taj and Oberoi were our haunts. We smiled cynically at the metal detectors and securitychecks at the entrances. What an irritant, we thought. We felt we wereout of reach, safe and above terror. Nov. 26th changed it all!
I hope it stays changed. I hope we don't "bounce back" as the journalists put it. I hope we don't go back to thinking we are impervious. It is our callousness, this bouncing back, that strengthens our enemies. It is our indifference that prevents us fromdemanding tough action.Some of our colleagues, some of our fellow citizens, and some our guests have borne the brunt of what happened . It might havebeen you and me. This is not drama in third person any longer.

I wish there were some easy solutions to this, a 'framework' that wecould apply, some consultants we could call in. But there aren't. Somemomentous changes will be required in our country and society if weare to make life more secure for us and our children. Each of us willhave to play a part in this change.This morning, as we strive to maintain calm and pray for thoseaffected, let's not forget that this is terror in first person. Please don't bounce back tomorrow morning.