I regret writing such a serious post, but feel its time I updated everyone on last week's events and tell more about the current security situation here in Mumbai. As I'm sure you've heard by now, about a week ago, there were bomb blasts that hit three different areas of the city. Most occurred in South Mumbai, which takes about an hour to reach from where I'm staying.
My roommates and I were headed across the city in a taxi when it occurred. We had planned to venture over to a neighborhood called Bandra in western Mumbai to visit a doctor whom had been recommended to us. As we navigated our way through the chaotic bumper to bumper Mumbai traffic at the peak of rush hour, all appeared to be normal from our taxi. It was only once we met up with some local friends in Bandra that we learned of the evening's events. The news sparked feelings of disbelief and confusion in us all. Of course everyone was full of questions, questions which would could only speculate about. Not really knowing how to react, I tried to judge how others, especially our local friends, were reacting, and respond accordingly. Although everyone was feeling passionately about the event, I remember one of our friends expressed immense anger upon hearing the news, sharing with us his deeply felt sadness and frustration that his city kept being the target of terrorists attacks and still nothing had been done to bring about justice.
After a hectic and understandably distracted meeting with the doctor, we decided it was be best to get off the streets as soon as possible and camp out somewhere nearby until the city had calmed down. So from there, we went to a friend's house in the neighborhood where we were greeted with warmth and hospitality. The overall mood inside the house that night was dramatically different than the atmosphere in the streets that we had just escaped. Everyone seemed to be quite relaxed and in good spirits. People were eating, drinking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. I was a bit surprised at how undisturbed they seemed by the startling news, especially given eerily quiet the street scene down below us, but looking back I realize this was the probably the best way to respond to the situation. Spending time at their home was a lovely respite from the confusion and chaos that loomed over the rest of the evening. We stayed at their house late into the night, eating delicious food and "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing" over her daughter's glitzy wedding photos. We left feeling exhausted but much more calm and at ease.
That night, we stayed over in Bandra just to play it safe. The next day I was expected to give a presentation in my 9am class, which, would have meant getting across the city first thing in the morning. Since everyone I spoke to recommended staying off the roads and hunkering down at home for a while, we decided to stay in Bandra a little longer and not head home until later when we were more confident in the security situation.
To be honest, I was quite surprised about the response the bombings received here. Of course news of the blasts were all over the papers, but other than that, the evening's events in no way seemed to dominate everyone's conversations. The day after, Mumbai woke up and went about life pretty much as normal- commuters went off to work, our university held class as normal, and transportation across the seemed to run rather flawlessly. The only major difference I noticed was the presence of police throughout the city. Since last week, many police barricades and checkpoints have been constructed on the roads. (I have yet to see the police stop any vehicles though, most of the time they are just standing around.) Don't ask me how this in any way remedies the security situation, but Mumbai police sure seem to see this as a successful method of heightening security throughout the city.
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