Mumbai under Siege
As such, feeling devastated with the recent events in Mumbai. I wonder how one can cope. I am sick, depressed, numb, immensely at a loss, sad, angry & overwhelmed. Is our world and life so fragile and uncertain ? Unable to find any solace, sent a text message to my learned friend Max Babi, to which he replied
” Invent some myths and believe in them; or the ugliness of reality will kill you.”
I was also deeply touched by my friend Michele, she called to inquire about us and sent caring email – ” Wondering, if “HUMANITY” survives “righteous certitude mixed with fearful ignorance”…
In the words of Vir Sanghvi the editor and columnist
“Sometimes a single image has more impact than a hundred tragic stories. That’s how it was with the sight of the twin towers up in flames symbols of American achievement reduced to rubble by the actions of a small group of jihadis. And thats how I felt when I saw the dome of the Taj Mahal Hotel blazing brightly in the Bombay night. That image will stay with me for as long as I live. And I think it is forever etched in the minds of anybody who has ever lived in Bombay or loves this greatest of all the Indian cities. To understand the symbolism of the old Taj is to understand the ethos of Bombay….The symbol of that Bombay was the Taj, over a century old and still one of the world’s best hotels.”
Abha Narain Lambah, a Mumbai based conservation architect puts it aptly:
“The loss of more than a hundred innocent lives can never be compensated, and I cried for the many people who would never come back home that night to their loved ones. But I also shed tears for the “Grand Old Lady of Bombay”, the Taj Mahal Hotel. In 2002, I was part of the team working to restore the historic stone work in the heritage wing, in time for its 100th year celebrations. The Grand Old Lady looked resplendent on her 100th birthday party in 2003, spruced up and ready to receive her guests. Today, as I hear grenades blasting through the monumental stairwell and see smoke billowing out of its lofty dome, it breaks my heart. One of the city’s most iconic symbols is burning, as if to symbolize the end of an era of carefree revelry, music and laughter. And, yet in its blazing fires, it still stood tall, with dignity, as if to remind the citizens, that come what may, we have to stand up to face this crisis.
It is not a random coincidence that terrorists have always picked on the most visible heritage buildings of the city as targets for their strike. It was the Gateway of India in 2003 and now the World Heritage Site of CST (Victoria Terminus) and the Taj Mahal Hotel. Because, what the terrorist wants to strike at, is not only the hardware of a city, but also its software, its most visible symbols, its icons. And what better way of scarring a city’s collective psyche than to target its heritage landmarks?
The metropolis of Mumbai is a complex matrix of the physical, functional and psychological realms that make up the intrinsic dynamics of its buzzing urban life. While the physical, infrastructural and functional realms are more tangible, what really defines the city’s spirit is its psychological space. This is made up of the city’s icons, its aspirations and the sum total of its public memories. Heritage structures inhabit this realm and therefore, inflicting a wound on a Taj Mahal hotel or a CST Station leaves us all more deeply scarred than we may consciously accept.
I salute the Taj Group’s resolve to restore every inch of the hotel, and it stems from the steely resolve of its founder Jamsetji Tata who built this magnificent hotel in the face of humiliation when he was turned out of the elite Watsons’ Hotel because of the colour of his skin.∞
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We have already gone beyond whatever we have words for. In all talk there is a grain of contempt.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
on 29 Nov 2008 at 5:58 pm 1.Sandy said …
Dear friend,
I have been sending prayers for you and your family, your neighbors, your friends and your beautiful city. Glad to know that you are safe–deeply understand your sadness. We must hold onto the light in these times of darkness–and beam our loving-kindness out into the atmosphere.
Sending light and blessings,
Sandy
on 29 Nov 2008 at 7:24 pm 2.Max Babi said …
Dear Ajay,
I have a poet friend originally from Karnataka, now a successful marketing expert in biotech in the US, who speaks Marathi fluently, plus several other Indian regional languages. His short verse in English has been getting more and more philosophical and pithy, something to be envied, indeed.
His name is Shankar Hemmady, in addition to being devilishly good looking he also is an accmplished raconteur.
He recently posted a poem at Facebook, asking questions that obviously have no answers, in connection with the terrorists siege of Mumbai, and at the same time the answers are self-contained in each query. If you fail to find that poem, I will post it here.
What disturbed me the most was some of the incredibly violent reactions expressed by other Indian readers. Kill kill kill, was the refrain, one chap went to the extent of suggesting kill all Muslims, he sounds like a Gujarati I am ashamed to say.
My rejoinder to these and Shan’s poem are there to see. Kindly take a look. You will see a reflection of your own inner chaos and turmoil there.
‘The earth has a skin disease. That disease is called Man.’
- Friedrich Nietzsche.
I strongly believe in Nietzsche’s lovely concept of Ubermanche.
We may be going away from being supermen who can evolve beyond the caveman that still dwells inside us, but I will never give up hope.
Let this debate rage, is the churning of an ocean that will lead to Amrit emerging from the whole mess some day.
Cheerz!
Max
on 29 Nov 2008 at 11:50 pm 3.Sonya Rose said …
This truly is a terrible tragedy for all mankind. I still can’t swallow this painful attack to your land and the innocent people of various spiritual beliefs–when we gave thanks to God here in America. The world we live in is so very complicated and I shall never understand it fully.
I will pray for hope to wash over all our shores, come into all our hearts. You and I may not live to see peace come to pass on earth, but we shall never stop praying for it.
Many heartfelt blessings and my sincerest condolences,
Sonya Rose
on 30 Nov 2008 at 9:25 am 4.Entropy said …
Thanks to Max his friend Shankar Hemmady has allowed to reproduce his poem, which is being posted as rejoinder-
The war on terror
Terror for terror
terrifies every place on earth.
An eye for an eye
makes the whole world blind!
does an arm for an arm
make all of us disarmed?
love for love
makes us all loving beings!
these thanksgiving times
let’s be acutely aware
what we wish for.
thank you for being my friend.
Hugs,
Shankar
on 30 Nov 2008 at 2:41 pm 5.Uday said …
I am able to relate and connect