Do we really Care?

Written on Dec. 3, 2008

There’s a vigil at the Gateway of India today. It’s a protest gathering as well as a showing of solidarity for those who passed away in the terror attacks on our beloved city recently. There’s a horde of people going – I see people chatting about it at the water-cooler and online as if it’s the Bombay Times anniversary bash that they just got invited to. Pardon the sarcasm, but I have been questioning over the last couple of days – do we really care?

Do we care about those who died or what happened? Do all those people crying foul and asking for resignations concerned about what happened or about their ratings? Many who are attending seem much like a 3-year old attending a relative’s funeral. He doesn’t know who died or why and thinks more about the crows circling the premises than the person on the pyre. Yet, he bows his head out of obligation, and well, cos everyone is doing it. What if, we are attending just to keep appearances? To not be labeled as selfish bastards who have enough troubles of our own to deal with and could care less about who died.

These terror attacks are not new. There have been similar happenings in Delhi, Malegoan, Ahemdabad, all over the country. There wasn’t a vigil then, why now? Have we finally found the time out of our busy lives to mourn the dead? Or has the fact that we could have been at CST or at Leo’s that fatal night chilled our bones and made this personal? The tragedy has struck too close for comfort and suddenly we are aware, that our surroundings are not safe anymore.

Is that why we are conducting a vigil? A little for those who died, and a lot for those who survived, to reassure ourselves that our collective voices are the harbingers of change. That tomorrow, it will not be you or me who dies the hands of a terrorist as we ride in a train going home or unwind with a drink after work. To overcome the guilt of being secretly glad that it wasn’t us.

I sure as heck hope not. But it will be just one of the questions on my mind as I stand at the Gateway, sharing that moment with a sea of Mumbaikars, who have shown up because they really care and not because they could get off work early on this pretext. Hopefully.