Adil Najam
I, too, am a Mumbaikar today.
I wish I could reach out and for just one moment hold the hands of the woman in this AP photograph. Maybe shed some tears on her shoulder. But I do not know what I would say to her. I do not think she would want me to say much. The expression on her face matches the feeling I have at the pit of my stomach and in the depth of my heart. I think – I hope – that she would understand how I feel. I can only imagine what she is going through.
And so, in prayer and in solidarity, I stand today with Mumbaikars everywhere. In shock at what has happened. In fear of what might happen yet. In anger at those who would be so calculated in their inhuman massacre. In sympathy with those whose pain so hurts my own heart but whose tears I cannot touch, whose wounds I cannot heal, and whose grief I cannot relieve.
The solidarity I feel with Mumbaikars is deep and personal.
The first time I ever visited the Taj Mahal Hotel was with my wife. We had been married just weeks and were not staying at the Taj but went to the historic “Sea Lounge” at the hotel for tea and snacks during a short visit to Mumbai. We went to the Oberoi Hotel the same visit in the naive and mistaken belief that we would find Bollywood bigwigs hanging out there. In later years I would come back and stay at the old wing of the Taj – down the corridor from where Ruttie Bai Jinnah and stayed – I would even present in the grand ballroom whose pillars, supposedly, had been brought from her father’s estate. Each time I passed through Victoria Terminus I stood in awe of the pace as well as its presence. In awe of the architectural structure, but also of the sea of humanity around me. I cannot hear of terrorists attacking these places without my own muscles twitching in anger.
But my feeling of solidarity with Mumbaikars is much much more personal than these few fleeting visits over many years. Deeply etched into me are the horrific echoes of 9/11 in New York and the string of terrorist attacks on Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and all over Pakistan whose reports have become all too familiar – but never bearable – on this blog. I know what living with terror feels like. I have thought too much and too deeply about what it feels like to be the target of violence propelled by hatred. I know the pain of helplessness one feels as one stands stunned in grief, wanting so desperately to do something – anything – but not knowing what to do. This is why I identify with the expression on the face of the woman in this picture. This is why, like so many others in the world, today I too am a Mumbaikar.
This is why I stand with Mumbaikars everywhere, in prayer and in solidarity. At a loss for words but with an urge to speak out. My words of condemnation will not change the actions of those who have committed such heinous murder and mayhem. Nor will my words of sympathy diminish the agony of the victims. But speak out I must. In condemnation as well as in sympathy. To speak against the inhumanity of hatred and violence. To speak for the humanity in all of us that we all must hold on to; especially in the testing moments of grave stress.
But, today, I have no words of analysis. What words can make sense of the patently senseless? I do not know who did this. Nor can I imagine any cause that would justify this. But this I know: No matter who did this, no matter why, the terror that has been wrought in Mumbai is vile and inhuman and unjustifiable. And, for the sake of our own humanness, we must speak out against it.
And, so, to any Mumbaikar who might be listening, I say: “I stand with you today. In prayer and in solidarity.”
Unfortunately this thread has degenerated into the same old fingure pointing and blame game. Amazing how easy it is for politicians and propagandists on both sides to make fools of people. They all seem to be parrottng the same messages of hate that they have been hearing.
Sad that in this the message of solidarity and humanity that Adil Najam had started with is lost. We need many many more Adil Najam’s in India as well as Pakistan.
Girish,
You are wrong. I’d say Indian society is where our extremist fringe is.
While Pakistan’s track record is not clean vis a vis terror in India, this attacks has all the markings of the Hindu right wing.
I have read a lot of what your compatriots are saying and I must say I am very disappointed.
@Girish:
Girish, you are wrong in two counts:
1: Every Pakistani feels the same as Adil described
2: There are no camps of Lashker-Tayiba anymore, they are banned and every common Pakistani has suffered a lot in their hands.
Masood Azhar, yes, you are right. Why he couldn’t be arrested, I don’t know maybe somebody else could shed light on it. Dawood Ibrahim, a Bombay Don, may be important for you guys, but he is nobody in Pakistan and no cabby will drive you there or even know him. Talk to UAE government they might help you.
Also your link to a channel is not mainstream media and there can be hundreds of links be posted as what kind of hysteria Indian media is going through. Guys, first investigate then blame. Not so fast!
@S. Bones
Your assertions are too naive to be responded. But this article might help you some of the dynamics as why Pakistan cannot/will not do this kind of act.
http://bkhan.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/mumbai-terro r-shining-india-vs-rogue-pakistan/
It is very sad what happened in Mumbai and even sadder the killings in Karachi.
However, while we feel the pains of victims of terror, lets not forget that we (Pakistanis) too are victim of it.
India has been acting very hostile and aggressive towards Pakistan for past year or two. Their current handling of the situation is very upsetting to say the least. There own media is running 100s of different reports – Indian officials are busy playing PR stunts for the benefit of their political parties.
Current situation will calm down once India realizes that it cannot and should not mess with a nuclear armed nation and US realizes that their supplies to Afghanistan go through Pakistan.
For those Indians who talk about unification:
Sure, we Pakistanis have absolutely no problem – India can join Pakistan any day.
I write this in response to “Umar Shah”
“what motive would Pakistan have to do this?”
Understand this, the main motives are to:
1) unify the people of Pakistan if there is military aggression by India
2) Have an excuse to turn away from the US ‘war on Terror’ as Pakistan was only pretending to be interested in that front
3) If there is a military response from India then the Jehadi elements in Pakistan (taliban, etc) will profess support for the Army, ISI and possibly even the Civilian government.
4) The non Democratic elements in Pakistan want to return to the “old ways” of the common and unifying(Imaginary) enemy of India and the Military industrial complex of Pakistan
Pakistan’s only hope is the majority of its people stand by its elected government and root out the rest. I know India will do what it can to get the Pakistani Government to act genuinely against the disease of its own creation. This has to be achieved without undermining the Pakistani Government.