Life's back to normal!

So we are outraged!
And we’ve praised fellow Mumbaikars for their resilience!
We’ve cribbed at the TV news channels and admonished them for their blatant attempts at one upman ship!
We’ve called our politicians brainless fuckpots!
We’ve addressed a letter to terrorists and pointed our middle finger to them!


And in less than 48 hours, life is back to normal in Mumbai!

Of course, it is! Its simple to get ‘back to normal’. You just need to redefine ‘Normal’!!!

Passing through metal detectors to catch a local train / metro is normal?? Till a few years back airports were the only place with metal detectors – now they are ubiquitous – movie halls, shopping malls, offices, national monuments… and coming soon – metal detectors outside your bedroom.
Their were no strangers on trains. You’d share food, jokes, stories, tea, with each other. You’d help others with their bags. Now when we see a stranger come and sit next to us, we cringe. Keep one eye on his bags…just in case he gets off the train and leaves the bag behind..
The songs in Hindi films were welcomed by an entire generation of movie goers as an excuse to go outside for a smoke. Now they don’t let us carry cigarettes, matches and even chewing gum inside these multi-plexes for ‘security reasons’!

WHAT NEXT?

Are we destined to forever live our lives in xenophobic paranoia?

Our blogs. Our time-consuming but ultimately masturbatory attempts at making any kind of difference.
I type these words knowing that a few people will read this piece, nod or shake their heads, but ultimately, nothing changes.
Twenty years from now, people will look at whatever passes for the internet, do searches, come across our words and wonder just what the hell we were doing while such momentous events were happening around us - Just the way, we wonder about Nero and his fiddle.
Get your own answer ready, because you will be asked the same questions one day as well.