As I add my thoughts and woes about what I have personally gone through,the anguish that I share with the other thinking millions of this nation and world, I might go unnoticed, but these thoughts and concerns should not be lost in the melee of angry frustrated voices that want to lash out at the bungling establishment that India today has become.

Unfortunately, now the neighbour Pakistan too has amore severe situation and these 2 aborted children of the Britishmother today are fighting for their
lives, one which knows it hasfire burning within it that can take the whole nation down, and theother is ignoring that fire that is shooting up at regular intervals inits various cities as citizens are paying with their lives in boththese countries.

I was born in this city, and returned to it tolive my life looking for my wholesome growth and prosperity along witha part to play in the nation's growth.
I did that almost till the early part of the beginning of the century.
I am sad that my city played host to the most gruesome act of mankind, 13th time in my living memory.

Andit has been ironic that it has played host to external forces here,just as it has witnessed internal criminals playing the seek and killgame with its own people, on grounds of communalism, religion anddiscrimination, grounds that the external criminals have used to theirbest advantage to reign carnage on the streets and homes of India.
Iam shattered, this city has actually lost it's spirit of life, andlives with what is now called "the Spirit of Mumbai" - a cliched term,the life of zombies that carry on living within hours of death anddestruction raining around them, mentally, morally, conscientiouslydead.

As Shekhar Suman pointed out, and many would concur withhim - that we, the silent majority, the common man who daily getscrushed in trains and buses when traveling to work, who gets clogged upin hours of excruciating waits on jammed and dug up roads andsenselessly manned traffic signals, who end up bribing officials muchmore than having put food on our own table, we who earn our living andearn this nation a bountiful tax money - have become so used to thisdegraded quality of life and we have given up, knowing well that wemight not return back home in the evening once we are out of our homes.

Theacts that were played out on TV from 26th Nov 1030 pm right till 29thNov 5pm, the 60 hours of battle, that ideally we are only used tohearing about happening on our borders, have added to the above woes,and made the city more numb to such events somewhere deep. We thepeople of India, a huge part of who are still illiterate, might fail tocomprehend the impact and continue our ways as before.
Yet, this13th time, Indians seem to be seeking something different. But in theoptimistic way of life, it has hopefully brought a lot of sense andlessons to those of us who are spiritually alive and need a force, aninspiration to make this world a better place.
In the wake ofthese attacks, it is very clear that the Indian governance, the stateand city governance has failed in areas that were very visible to all
ofus all along, and might not need any specific discussion, but these areareas that need to be highlighted to everyone, now and repeatedly sotill they are improved upon. These failures are so known to everyonethat we are all used to taking advantage of these loopholes, more so tosay, the loopholes in the psychology of our corrupt and ineptgovernance that in case we go for a change, everyone will feel thatsome individual freedom/right of theirs is being violated.

Butthis is exactly what we need to come back to and make it a point tolive within some boundaries, the way we do when we go to other nations,where we go and live, but don't spit outside, drive as per law, throwgarbage as per law - live in the legal boundaries of that place. Whynot in India? here are some areas I wanted to let out about...
a.
Themedia - Indian TV media showed it's immaturity, insensitivity,incapability and unprofessional behavior at the time of such urgentcrises.
No doubt full marks that we have an independent media, thatis bringing issues to the fore, but now it is high time they get intoself-regulatory mode and put in protocols for such coverages, or evendesist from coverage based on the criticality of the situation. It waspathetic to see these guys - bungling reporters creating illogicalconspiracy theories for their own - instead of regulating themselves tocover the incident more professionally. We all know the media ispowerful here and now in India

But they misused their power in a lot of ways (remember - bandar ke haath mein ustara!) Let me give you 2 instances

1. by being totally unprofessional when the DG NSG was wanting to briefthem at a very short notice - which was an excuse used by them tocover up for their inefficient coverage of the briefing on theevening of 27th outside the Taj

2. by thrusting their mikesand cameras into the faces of distraught evacuees rather thangiving them free space to get out of the situation (they
probably should have been first sent to a relief camp like structurethat should have been set up outside the hotels at some distance)

Itseems some components of India can work somewhat efficiently only whengiven an advance notice, while on the other hand, we have aninefficient government and IB that won't even pay attention to advancenotices/warnings.
The media needs to come out immediately withsteps to regulate their coverage professionally, though I think justlike the Indian politicos, these media houses also are bent uponone-upmanship that could be doing a lot of disservice to them and thenation in the long run. But this, if there is some sanity in theindustry must be done.

b.
The public at large in this metrocity now has stopped understanding the meaning of what is a criticalsituation and what is a regular gun fight between underworld warlords,and there by they do not understand when a curfew is clamped in areas.I was told that curfew was clamped in the south mumbai area.
It wasso saddening to see that the residents of the surrounding area were outon the streets watching the proceedings as though they were watchingsome movie. This is the callous attitude that this city has eventuallyfallen to. That people here have no respect for the law and order, andthey think they are above anything else that exists around them, anattitude very clearly magnified by the politician and socialite classes.

Peoplein general need to be made very clearly aware - and this cannot happenin the current political scenario - of their rights and duties, andwhere there is to be drawn a boundary for their freedom of ex-pression.Only an army rule can be able to achieve this level of discipline inthis nation but that seems to be something that the army itself willhave to decide along with the Patil clan president.

We are alltaking our freedom too much for granted, and unfortunately, Indiansseem to understand things only in the extremes of situations.
Allthe lower class citizens of the cities need to be very immediately madeto understand their rights and duties in cases of emergencies so thatthey do not cause a mess when it is a serious situation as they didwhen the commondoes came out of the Nariman house. Pathetic policing...


c.
If I recall the moments during the whole telecast when I cringed at theway the situation was being dealt with when I felt that things shouldhave been done in a better way, it was when some of the evacuees werecoming out of the building and when the cops were seen horribly unableto keep the camera crew and media personnel away from the crime scene.

Weall have seen how meticulous the 7/7 London metro attack analysis andinvestigation was carried, with hardly any information leaked out tothe press. Similarly, the 9/11 attack also had little access to themedia directly after the site was declared a crime scene. What do wesee in India? We see the media crew all over the Taj shooting crucialpiece of evidence and God knows how many such pieces were touchedaccidentally?
Is there any media professionalism, or they have shownthemselves to be in the same category of the dogs they have beenfollowing up about?

The media professionals, most of them fromthe Hindi and vernacular channels seem to be fed on only one thing, dowhatever to get some sound bytes and get viewer attention. Some of themore professionally owned channels also ended up in the same situationbut most of these other folks just went about on a rampage in their ownway, even when thrusting their cameras and mics into the faces of theevacuees and hostages How sick!!!!
The great Indian reality tamasha unfolded on the screen for all news channels and they all fed in frenzy.

d.
Thepolice did a so-so job in their own limited manner, the pandu havaldarstyle that got most of them in the cross fire. We need cops who knowwhat they represent, who are educated and can converse in at least 1foreign language, with a physique that could put a model to envy - alaAshok Kamte
These cops need to understand the seriousness of theirbusiness, and should choose of their own discretion to keep out ofpolitics. Most often given their poor pay packages, they end up lickingthe political feet, but that is because the kind of people selected inthis service also is through a poor social network
of the same tribe.

e.
Dueto the high level of corruption at all levels in India, people havecome up with their own ways and means to deal with it and to achievetheir own means and ends. India has become a free for all country.Everyone here is out to reap their own seeds that they sow for theirown benefit. People tend to get together
in groups to meet their owninterests which has no way any connection to anything bigger/nationalinterest. for e.g. if there are any illegal activities happening in anycolony, the people in the colony will not consider it worthwhile to goto the cops 'cos they know the police will be of no help. They willnever be able to help the citizens interest unless their own interestin met. Hence they will set up their own private process tosecure/manage their place of residence. Such
self interestactivities most often does not come handy in the overall publicinterest in case of any kind of emergency. This also goes to show thatthere are no protocols and processes in place which is a need for agrowing economy like ours. We are still living in the same world wherewe depend on the elements to get some of our needs met instead ofhaving a well defined policy and human trusted network in place.
Inshort, we have no trust in the system hence we devise our own systems which either replicate in purpose or are totally like islands in theirpurpose. This is just the kind of isolation that we put on ourselves intimes of emergency.
The Nariman house location is a very goodexample - in times of emergency, the roads were narrow and the placevery congested to be able to carry out a proper commando attack on theplace. This is because the whole area is constructed based onindividual needs and not to a proper bigger plan. Such a disregardfulapproach is the case with everything in this country.

f.
Likebegets like. this is the policy that this nation follows. A corruptpolitician/leader will give way to corrupt followers and then the wholesystem gets riddled out like this. Those who don't want to join thechain tend to ignore it, and then it comes back to haunt them as it didthis time. those who join it, very few of them remain unaffected orremain far from it, but only milk the system of its benefits. those whotend to try and correct it are shown the way out one way or another.
Theonly way this can change is through a forcibly high level of disciplineat the leadership level, which with this political will is notpossible. When the BJP PM candidate wants to be a PM before he dies, hewould not want to divert his attention to any other topic, but will tryto find a means to get to his goal, thereby politicising the wholeprocess. The change that we need will never be there, unless we thesilent majority tend to ignore him. but will the lower level massesunderstand this if they are paid to vote, if they are tempted with justthat much that would sustain them for some time till they again come tothe politician
to ask for more? it's like getting someone hooked onto drugs, and keeping her/him to it, by getting them to do what youwant, under the temptation of feeding them regularly with it. That'sthe tactics these politicians follow with their vote banks and theirself styled criminal leaders.

g.
India has no respect foranything that could improve the way and quality of life. That is to saythey have no value for any resources, human or otherwise, and this is atrickle down approach from the top. When I talk about India, it is thatincorrigible India that takes sadistic pleasure to rule the masses atthe expense of its own money.

How many times have you seenthat important electric/electronic equipment is bought at the expenseof the taxpayer's money and that equipment is either lying unused,misused or just not in place where it should be used. Look at the PCOsset up in BEST buses in Mumbai, or the Vodafone bill pay boxes, or theCCTV set up at some sensitive places like stations, or for that matterso much of natural resources get wasted anywhere and everywhere. Thepile of sand on the road, the interlocking tiles left around thestreets, the vehicles parked randomly with no care for the law, thewastage of water, the wastage of food.. how do we all see this as beingrespectful for the self???

What does this show you? That Indiawill care at all when its people die? Or they will ensure a betterposition for themselves for an uncertain future?

All these events and failings point to a few things.

Thepoliticians in order to cover their incompetence, have set up thesystem in such a way that they get in only people who suit their owntribal mentality.
As a result their self interests are met and thosewhom they favor ensure that these politicos get away with whatever theydo however they do.
This applies to all the people in all thedepartments of the government machinery. Those of you who have anycontacts with local corporates, politicians and are able to get theirfavors know how this works.

Public apathy, inaction and lack ofpublic will to change the incompetence has been a big failing which isagain caused by the nexus of the politicians with the rest of thesystems which thwarts the efforts of anyone trying to get to know thesystem well. The RTI act is a welcome move in breaking this barrier,but it has to go a long way in achieving its results.

The votebanks have been consolidated by these incompetent people since theyknow that the people in the vote bank are the needy ones, to whom theycan provide the basic needs of a house, food and water (at someoneelse's expense) and they will provide the valuable votes to keep thesepeople in power. People like you and me, the silent majority, who workfor our goals are not in the target audience of these politicos.

sowith the knowledge of these failings of our government and policies,why do we all keep quiet? simply because we do not have the resourcesand initiative to fight the system alone. But do we have to be alone inthis fight? When we know so many others are also suffering the samefate?

The answer to this question lies in a very interesting conundrum.

-Do you individually place your self before the larger interest, so thatyou yourself benefit from your singleton short term efforts, or youplace the larger interest of everyone in front, letting your selfinterests on the sidelines, so that everyone with the larger interestin mind gets to improve the system for everyone's current and futurebenefit first, and then the self interests can be taken care of. formost of us, the self interest comes first. Hence the problems that needthe larger interest of the nation first get to take a backseat. But weall remember the sacrifices that history has in store for us to learn alesson from. This nation was given independent rule by the British whenpeople decided to keep the larger interest of the nation first.

Maybe it's time, after 61 years of foreign rule, to get independence from the inner feudal corrupt inept rule. On my part, I am willing to go and put a little bit of my self interest behind the larger interest of the nation. We need to change now, not later. We need to change the system now, not just the people. The change in system is radical, it needs all the experience and labor that we put otherwise into our own work. Lets share part of it and direct it to the larger cause.