CANNOT FORGET. WILL NOT FORGIVE!!!

 2 years gone, and he has very conveniently returned to normalcy. 2 years gone, and he has bounced back, like he always does. 2 years gone, and he has, for one more time, gotten busy with his own business. Yes, I am talking about the Mumbaikar, who has perhaps seen, dared and faced more than any of us. He surely cannot forget what happened to his city and its people 2 years back. Bitter memories haunt him like nightmares. He doesn't want to forgive those, who turned his paradise of a home into a horrific city under siege. the rage in him is so intense that it will not die down for some time now. His state of mind tells him that forgiving would be a crime. No Mumbaikar, no Indian will forgive! But what have we really done about it...lit a candle? Said a little prayer? Missed our favourite shows and surfed between news channels all day long? even I have done the same. But what difference does it make? What will a silly candle do? It will die down in an hour or so...what after that? Back to the grind? And come 26/11 the following year, we will again pour out our patriotism by lighting another candle! A candle burnt is not enough...a thousand candles burnt won't be enough either! The sous of the slain martyrs and unfortunate victims can only be happy with our gestures, not proud. Their live's worth cannot be paralleled by a few candles or memorial functions. They surely deserve better than that. The only way we can make their sacrifice count is by being their perfect successors. Why can't we pledge to be another Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, Sandeep Unnikrishnan or Tukaram Ombale for that matter? True, all of us us aren't born with that kind of courage but with a population like ours, a small percentage of people would be enough. But we are so lazy that we don't even go out and vote, let alone join the forces or run the country. 


Let's light a candle in our hearts this time and actually do something. If diplomacy does not work, we'd better turn extremists. We can't be caring about the rest of the world when our own house is on fire. It is time to give BACK, not give IN!


The reason I stress on Mumbai and Mumbaikars is only because none of us can even begin to think what the city and its people have gone through, time and again. We can only sympathize but we will never know their pain. What the families have lost, no amount of compensation can make up for. Money cannot fill up the absence of the lives that were lost. Life will move on because it has to, but the emptiness shall prevail lifelong for we cannot forget what had happened. And we will never forgive because life will never be just the same anymore.