Couple of days ago I started taking the train again like any other thick skinned Mumbaikar...

Jogeshwari station seemed normal..... the beggar boy near the ticket counter was setting up his little mat..buisness as usual for him, i was impressed...no fire breathing terrorist organization was going to make him forfeit his daily bunch of one rupees.....no sir...

The place was slightly quieter,people seemed to be walking a little slower than usual,scanning the station for things they hoped not to see.........that day I wasn't the zombie that burries her face in the day's news.... I looked around my ladies' compartment,I saw the college girl , the bai who escorted the schoolgirl ,the working-in-a-bank aunty type,the mnc exec..the school teacher.....all of them shared the same daily train, all of them shared the same sense of betrayal...by something they had all taken for granted .

The train journey was their time to unwind, buy and clean the day's veggies,buy some cheap earrings,swap recipes,sing 'besura' antakshari , catch up on their reading or just let their heavy eyes shut for sometime...today they were doing the unusual..talking to their neighbour ...collective faces with collective emotions....sharing a collective mind

...acts of violence-the 21st century social leveller

Im not going to forget the day of the bombings anytime soon,we owe it to those who died not to.
That day,I had just taken my regular route from university (Santacruz) to the closest rail station to Lokhandwala (Jogeshwari).....2 hours before the bombs...I still shudder to think what would have happened if I decided to go to the library or something...(These were 2 of the 8 bombsites)

I'm glad that today, mumbai is suffering from selective amnesia...we have forgotten the fear we havent forgotten the act

Today,I am proud to belong to you,Mumbai.
My birthplace ,my home.