Isn't the so called Mumbai ‘resilience’ its helplessness?

After every terror attack in this maximum city, I hear political leaders and mediamen  repeating, "Mumbai will overcome", "Mumbaiites are resilient", "Mumbai has withstood such attacks in the past" etc. Wow! What a flattery! Or, is it the secret way of assuaging Mumbaiites’ wounded feelings by injecting a kind of false pride in their resilience? I am not a Mumbaikar, but like any other countryman, I feel when something happens in this wonderful city that feeds millions of people both locals and immigrants.

Is it their resilience or helplessness? I am sure it is the latter. What do you expect them to do when a tragedy strikes? Do you expect them to mourn for weeks? Come on, don’t be silly. Every human being is resilient. However, we have to respect Mumbaikars’ patience. Even after facing tragedies after tragedies and losing many of their loved ones, they never protested in a big way. After every tragedy, they are back to their usual self the next morning because they have to work. Do you expect a tea vendor or a diamond merchant to close their shops and lament loss of lives in the tragedy? I don’t think so because they have to earn to support their families. This is the harsh reality. And it is not the resilience stuff that guides them.

I feel for my countrymen there. They have to bear the brunt of all the terror attacks directed at our nation. They alone bear the pain…I know they do it for their countrymen. Don’t you think so? Or, by circumstances, they are alone forced to bear the sufferings. The terror attacks are not directed at Mumbai; it is directed at India.  Everyone from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, or Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat should know this. Mumbaikars suffer for other Indians.  So, we have to be with them.

So, please don’t repeat the phrase “Mumbaikars’ resilience”. It is their helplessness. It is the same everywhere, be it in any other city in the country or anywhere in the world. Let us pray for our countrymen who lost their lives in the terror attacks.