The Sprit Of Mumbai

Mumbai;” the city of dreams” is what each Indian would like to call her. She is a city where the old India has realized their dreams, and the young India hopes to realize theirs. She is the financial capital of this nation. She is the most happening place in this country, and off course with the terror strikes last week, she definitely is on the frontline of all the dailies and media around the world.
A common mumbaikar (a person living in Mumbai is addressed as a Mumbaikar, meaning a person belonging to Mumbai.) would not get shattered by seeing a terrorist attack like this as they have seen this many times. They always deal with terror situations with utmost tenacity and courage. Life starts to roll to normalcy within hours whenever a calamity has struck mumbai. Indians’ have always loved this mental condition of this city to come back to normal life in a short span of time. We have seen this happen when the stock exchange was bombed in 1992, and also when the the serial blasts ripped across the city in 2006. Such is the sprit that each mumbaikar used to believe in. This is romanticized as the Sprit Of Mumbai. This romantic term sprit of mumbai that the media coined for the people of this city has helped them to walk to work stepping on the rubbles after a bomb attack not wanting to remember what had happened. This Sprit of Mumbai has helped them board the same trains next day after a bloody bomb attack even without questioning the authorities once before they board them. This Sprit which the Page 3 materials talk about and glamorize on media after each mishap in Mumbai had thought an average mumbaikar to falsly believe in it and take pride.

The fact of the matter is that the people in Mumbai had no choice. It was the helplessness of a city that was romantically and scenically called as the Sprit of Mumbai. I am not sure how many cities in this world would have metros stop just for 2 hours before resuming service the next day at 3 in the morning. I would not know if there would be any other city where someone would leave home at 5 in the morning to work and return back only after midnight that too relentlessly for years. But I know for sure that in Mumbai this is common. Such is her strength and such is her will for survival. It is this helplessness of this city that has been called the Sprit of Mumbai.

This administered Sprit had somewhere taken away the true sprit of Mumbai. The sprit to fight for ones right, the sprit to shunt work and look around after a mishap, the true sprit to hold hands of each other in reassurance, the true sprit to voice out the concerns of the common man, the true sprit to salute the once like the NSG and the Fire Guards who help the common man in eventuality, and the sprit to accuse the failed lot who made a Joke of this nation by allowing such an attack on our motherland.
But now the true Sprit is back in Mumbai.
I feel so proud to see Mumbai get back its forgotten Sprit Of Mumbai today when they gathered at the gate way of India to protest against the attacks. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the anger of people of mumbai and also the suggestions which people of Mumbai have to put forth to the administration of this country. Now I know for sure that the Sprit of Mumbai is back.

My salutes to the Sprit of Mumbai.