As published in Indian Express ( Dec 4 2008)

“Dad, is it Lashkar-e-Taiba ?”, asks my eleven year old daughter with casual nonchalance. I feel a strange sense of disquiet engulfing me. The dreaded terrorist outfit which may have allegedly master-minded the 26th November 2008 Mumbai massacre has become a dark intriguing item of immense household curiosity.

The repercussions of 26/11 are gradually sinking in, even as the great city of Mumbai struggles to comprehend its magnitude. The electronic media has revealed a shocking inadequacy of creative imagination, and collectively jumped on the “ 9/11 platform”. Of course, what we saw was horrendous, but such smart packaging also suited their immediate objectives.

Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said on 15th August 1947 “ There is a a moment which comes but rarely in history , when we step out from the old to the new , when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation long suppressed, finds utterance”. It is time for India to express itself. But to do that it will have to find it’s soul . South Mumbai will have to discover it too.

South Mumbai has never understood life beyond Reliance AGM meetings, gold prices, Bollywood drama , restaurant-hopping and endless partying. But it is time for the commercial capital to take its politics more seriously. Did Mumbai need to experience 26/11 to understand the gross violations of Raj Thackeray on his own fellow Indian citizens? But the truth is, they were conspicuously silent, in fact, many secretly espoused his divisive philosophy. Now they send sardonic SMS campaign messages about Thackeray and applaud the multi-regional hue of our Black Cats. Did they forget within one appalling night that the slaughtered Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar were all gutsy brave Maharashtrians ? Blatant hypocrisy at it’s regal best! 26/11 is an opportunity for us all to bridge differences and bury hatchets , and do away with petty parochialism.

26/11 in a way redefines “resilience”. Because resilience was always a clever and convenient invention best suited for five-star story-telling. Society columnists waxed eloquent, because the victims were cab drivers, migrant labor, local train travelers, poor shopkeepers, the clerical staff, in short, the suburban float.. They invariably came to work the next day following an adversity because they had no choice, it was their helplessness then, it will be their helplessness now. But this heinous madness has destroyed that resilience myth by targeting India’s well-heeled. Death is a brutal equalizer.

The problem with Indian electronic media is that they believe they run a parallel government , and are quasi-activists. But just by holding public darbaars and looking constantly distressed , voices emanating out of choked throats does not quite address the issue of Bihar floods, does it? Or the farmer suicides? The fact that political establishments have to now raise the performance bar is indisputable, but we should stop vilification of our entire political culture. Such pedestrian politician-bashing is only populist pandering for cheap TRPs. The last thing that India now needs is a demoralized political leadership.

My daughter’s friend just called her. Her father owns Café Leopold., the first port of terrorist call, where she saw him amidst bloodshed and AK 47 bullet shots.. She also lives in close proximity to Nariman House, where a battle was fought in full throttle. . Fear, blood, death, revenge, hatred, destruction. These are all she hears. She is all of 12. Can we imagine the psychological scar, the imperceptible emotional stain., which can so easily become perpetuated on that fragile frame?

The impregnable walls of the Taj may have withstood the mounted attack. But what of the vulnerable mental fibers of those youngsters who saw the cruel carnage on real time television ? India’ real success will not lie merely in creating crisis infrastructure, military and commando preparedness or pre-emptive security checks . It will lie in winning that battle-field, that little space in a spotless young child who is our future.