The last time Mumbai burned (July 11, 2006) I was heading back from Goa to the city by train. We left Margao station by around 6 pm and by the time we crossed the Northern border, some passengers received text messages from friends in Mumbai about the ongoing train blasts across the city.
An old man in the same boogie grew paranoid and asked his son who had just seen him off, to drive down to the nearest station, so he could return to Goa. He got off the train a few stations ahead of the border. The rest of us prayed and commiserated like victims who were possibly approaching a terrifying eventuality. When we entered Mumbai at 5 am, everything was silent and the stations were empty.
This time round, I was returning from Delhi airport on 27th morning to Mumbai. Passengers were glued to the flat screen TV watching the coverage on CNN-IBN, everyone wondering if they were making a mistake by entering a city under siege (a taxi blew up near the airport). But we took a chance and headed back anyway.
At the domestic airport in Mumbai, people looked glum and the rickshaw driver quoted three times the price. But I decided to pay him, since he looked sufficiently miserable. I felt relieved to be alive. My friend Slug was constantly on the phone with me, until I reached home.
I asked the rickshaw driver (in Hindi, my version of it ie),” Don’t you feel scared to drive with all this terror?”. His response was rather philosophical,” Ek din marna hi hai, tho kya karega?” (someday we need to die, so what can we do about it?)
written with alot of passion