Loss & Spirit

Yesterday I heard the news of the bomblasts. My work in office was over. I was not supposed to cover any of the events that had occured so I headed home. My mind was working over time though. The chain of events that had taken place played in my minds. I was attending several frantic calls and messeges from my loved ones. Through all this, and the traffic on the road and in my mind I made my way home.

The images I saw disturbed me and the reports from my colleagues who were at the hospital shook me. The ambulances and the crowds i encountered on my way home juggled inside. I was sitting, preoccupied when my friend asked, "Have you ever regretted losing something?"

"NO" was my blank reply.

What does material loss mean? People were losing their limbs, their hands, their peace of my mind from the traumatic events they had witnessed, and losing lives as we were going through this mundane conversation. Material loss, including losing stuff that one bought from his or her first salary, gifts from loved ones and things with which a tag of fond memories are attached, they just don't seem to be important at all when you see what people have lost in this world.

No, I don't regret losing anything in my life, because for me the value of the people I love is so much that nothing else comes close. Losing someone I loved the most has taught me that nothing else is as important to me in this world. If people lose their house, or everything that they have earned in their lifetime, they can still pick up the pieces of their shattered dream and build a new life. Material loss is fades when you witness the loss of a person in your life.

What must the blast victims be going through? They have lost their body parts, hearing abilities, their trust, lives of loved ones but they will cope, they will continure to live. The loss though will remain. One will know what loss is when one experiences the true meaning of losing something so valuable that no material can match up to it. The void will remain but life will go on.

The Spirit

Having lived in Mumbai for a good amount of time I can clearly say that the spirit that Mumbai (as cliche as it may sound) has, very few cities in the world have.

Through floods....riots...bomb blasts....it's the people of the city that amaze me. I have experienced the floods and been through the bomb blasts....have heard a hundred experiences apart from my own and have not heard anybody say, ' I was in need of help but i didn't get it.'

Slum dwellers near the railway track came out of their houses to carry the injured people out of the burnt compartments...people who had vehicles..including cars, taxis and riks carried the injured to the hospital...nobody waited for the police..or the ambulance to arrive....they did not get put off by the gore...instead they lifted bodies lying in a pool of blood...staining themselves...and using their resources.

When the mobile phone networks were jammed people offered their phones to each other....when the roads jammed after everybody abandoned the local trains last nite...people came out on the road and distributed water & food to the stranded people...

And the next day people reported to their office, last night's memories giving them more strength to go on the next day. Some may say that people have learnt to live with it...may be..but it still is amazing how the city never sleeps, comes back to it's feet every time it's knocked down. People have big hearts out here. They do not live in their own sweet world, they live as a community and not like snooty self obssessed individuals.

If you experience the real Bombay you would fall in love with this city, and it's sad that this city has had to face so much through all these years and is in such bad shape.