When Locals in Locals lost their Lives - July 11, 2006

Dear Sudeep,

Your thoughts have brought back some wonderful memories of my train travel in Bombay. Having escaped the Mulund blast by a whisker, I completely sympathize with you and all the travellers of local trains in Bombay when you ask: -

``Speaking on behalf of my family (yes, I call it that because I believe it is that) of local-train travellers in Mumbai, I guarantee, at the end of all this, when the media finally tires of the 7/11 story, all us relatives will STILL keep going back to that same first thought, that same first question``

No matter what happens, once I reach Bombay by month end, I will start train travel again. Its a facinating world in those trains and yes, the bond the commuters share goes a long way in life, even though we may never speak a word to them.

Rgds,

Devkant.

Dear Sudeep,

Thanks for bringing us the individual commuter`s point of view so effectively.

You`ve asked in the end `why`?.

The answer is `Because they were there`.

If not them then someone else. In an airport, on a plane, at their workplace, at home, in a tunnel or bunker or wherever. It doesn`t matter where, as long as someone is `there`. Targets are just that. Forget the human angle.

But as you said yourself ``What matters is that you`re all in it, together.``

Rgds

Re: # 1

The living are the living
and the dead ones are the dead.
How does it matter if he wears a cap
or a turban, on his head?

On 7/11, barriers broke
as the bombs didn`t recognise `religion`.
Pujaris prayed for those who were buried
and Maulanas, for those who went up in smoke.

That day, no one saw but the colour red;
for colours of skin/clothes, we went colour-blind.
As we helped the wounded & counted the dead,
all we recognised was Mankind.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=
97119&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22

Mumbai Muslims give blood to Hindu victims
Published: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 10:22 PM Doha Time

MUMBAI: Indian Muslims queued for hours on yesterday to give blood to their Hindu neighbours wounded in the Mumbai train bombings, in a rare show of harmony in a city with a long history of rioting between the two communities.

``We don’t care whether it’s a Hindu or a Muslim who gets our blood as long as we can save them,`` said Abdul Khan, one of dozens of Muslim men waiting in line at the blood bank at Siddarth Hospital, near one blast site at Jogeshwari station. Many see Tuesday’s deadly strikes that killed more than 180 people and wounded more than 700 as the latest in a campaign of violence by Islamist militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed region of Kashmir.

This has long fomented suspicions between Mumbai’s Hindus and the minority Muslim population, and often triggered violent rioting. Mumbai, a metropolis of 17mn people, has been hit by a series of bomb blasts in the past one and half decades, the worst a series of explosions in 1993 that killed more than 260 people. Past attacks were usually blamed on Muslim groups trying to avenge Muslim deaths in widespread religious rioting after Hindu zealots demolished a 16th century mosque in northern India.

But such thoughts were far from Pasha Mian Sheikh’s mind when he threw open the doors of the Islamia Arabia Mosque, metres from the tracks near the suburb of Jogeshwari, to offer shelter, food and water to the walking wounded.

``People are trying to break our harmony but they have failed,`` he said of the bombers.

``Hundreds of Muslims yesterday showed a lot of courage and harmony when they helped out their Hindu brothers. Hindus and Muslims are together in Mumbai.``

Leaders of India’s hardline Hindu Shiv Sena party said they had been overwhelmed by the Muslim response. ``Hindus and Muslims walked hand in hand yesterday,`` said Manohar Kargaonkar, a Shiv Sena official.

``When you read a newspaper you always find that a Muslim terrorist is behind subversive activity. But these people have shown what brotherhood is.``

Analysts and community leaders say weariness after decades of conflict as well as rising prosperity from the country’s booming economy have helped cool tempers between Hindus and Muslims.

``We are getting increasing reports of Hindu-Muslim harmony from Mumbai this year unlike the earlier times, Maulana Jalaluddin Umri, a top Islamic cleric, told Reuters by phone from Delhi.

``They have realised terrorists belong to one community or the other, but what people have learnt is not to give in to terror tactics.``

Meanwhile, bomb victims recovering at Mumbai’s hospitals say they did not worry about the religion of those who donated blood.

``We will never give in to communal violence,`` said Lata Sirsha, who was injured on head and legs. ``This is the real Mumbai which cannot be defeated.``

Muslim community leaders said they would set up a blood donation ``camp`` in a show of unity with Hindu victims of the blasts.

``We’re talking to the hospitals and we’re asking if... we can have a blood donation camp in the community,`` said Dr Anwar Amir, the secretary of the Mumbai Aman committee.

``As soon as the Muslim population heard the blasts they came forward and were on the tracks helping to move the dead bodies and rushed them to the hospital.

``Muslims, especially women, made omelettes and brought tea and biscuits to help. It’s the resilience of the Mumbaiker people that they all come forward condemning this dastardly act.``

A senior leader of the former ruling Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, Gopinath Munde, said the blasts had helped to bring out the best in the two communities.

``This is the true spirit of Mumbai which keeps rising in each calamity.

``Train commuters, both Hindus and Muslims, who travel daily share a common bond and this was seen yesterday.`` – Agencies