Mumbai 26 /11 Attack Anniversary City/Citizens back on their feet

by Ravi Dixit | November 26, 2009 at 12:57 am

464 views | 86 Recommendations | 9 comments

On 26/11 last year, India witnessed one of the biggest acts of urban terrorism unparalled in the annals of history. South Mumbai was successfully targetted by 10 odd terrorists and the siege continued for about 60 hours.

I sat here in Mumbai awake for almost all these 60 hours trying to make sense of the unfolding reality around me and put it all in one place for the world to see. The Original Story can be read here and here I am trying to recap what all happened once the seige ended.

Mumbai One Year since 26/11:

The city is burstling with activity and it is just another day when people are rushing to their work places in the morning, though the traffic seemed to be less than normal days. There is absolutely not an iota of fear in their eyes. The ciry seems to have fully recovered from the wounds inflicted upon them.

The turnaround started when the smiling moon of hope (december 5th, 2008) was visibly over the city skies and the spirits rallied upwards post that. Citizens directed their ire towards the politicians. There were thousands of people on the streets of Mumbai demanding action against people's representatives and justice; forcing both the Home Minister of the state as well as the Chif Minister of Maharashtra state to resign. In the last one year the state has seen assembly elections where the ruling party (Indian National Congress) came back to power and R R Patil is again back as the home minister.

Places of entertainment buzzing back in Mumbai!!

In the months following the attack, the business in the starred hotels saw a downturn, but that was a temorarily blip in this highly spirited cities and things are again back to normal as far as the crowds at city malls, multiplexes, pubs and starred hotels are concerned.

Hotel tariffs have dropped by as much as 20 per cent after last week's terrorist attacks on Mumbai [ Images ] that forced international tourists to cancel travel plans.

Tariffs may fall as much as 45 per cent in some centres coupled with the impact of a global slowdown that is already forcing companies to cut travel plans, analysts and travel agents say.

According to industry players, tariffs for hotels in Mumbai alone have come off from Rs 12,000 to Rs 10,200, overnight. Five star hotels in Kerala [ Images ] and Jaipur [ Images ], on the other hand, have seen a 10 to 12 per cent reduction in room rates.

As per the follwing report in Financial express the rebound in hotel occupancy across all major metros including Mumbai reeling under the double impact of economic downturn and terror attacks.

In what could be termed as the fastest turnaround for the hospitality sector, key metros in the country are once again facing a shortage of hotel rooms, compared with a 50% drop in occupancy at its peak last year.

Traffic on the roads

This was the first one to recover and the only thing holding the Mumbaikar's back from taking the roads is that almost half of the city is dug up for projects ranging from Metro / Monorail, Flyovers etc... Trains are running to full capacity as ever and people are thronging beaches as well as tourist attractions like the Gateway of India.

Mumbaikars are known to get back to their feet fast enough as the really fast pace of the city - having the distinction of the commercial capital of the world. The sence of getting the job done drives sway the fears and force the people of the city into submitting to the grind.

The only respite that the people of the country got was once the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil too was replaced and P Chidambaram took over as the Union Home Minister the chain of deadly bombings that had teh whole country in the grip of fear psychosis were stopped. Safety of the Indian Citizen got renewed attention by the politicians of the country. As during the run up to 26/11 there were major bombings in all Major Metros of India like the capital city of Delhi (September 2008), Bangalore(July 2008), Hyderabad (August 2007), Ahmedabad (July 2008) and failed attempt in the Western Indian city of Surat where 18 live bombs were recovered and diffused.

There was a clear pattern that was shaping up and no one could predict when bombs will rock any of the Indian cities. Mumbai 26/11 was the most audacious attempt and shook the entire nation as well as the political establishment. Host of steps were taken post 26/11 2008 and after that there have not been any bomb blasts in the major cities.

Today the citizens of Mumbai are remembring the fallen heros and as a mark of normalcy going on with their work. The media is doing its bit to remember the fallen citizens. One thing is for sure. The fear that was evident every time a citizens walked on to the streets of a major metor in India has receded to a large extent and India as a country has been able to pull itself together after sustained terror attacks in the year 2008.

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 03:03 on November 26th, 2009

Thanks for this.

Uwe Paschen

at 05:42 on November 26th, 2009

Good post Ravi and sad and tragic day that will be remembered for a long time.

Roy C

at 07:50 on November 26th, 2009

10 Muslim terrorists. Why doesn't the word Muslim appear here?

stejeb

at 11:46 on November 26th, 2009

Why doesn't the word Muslim appear here?

I have felt for a long time that if the media stopped doing that, and used the words murderers or criminals, the various factions world wide would lose their free publicity platform, I don't see that as a bad thing.

Good article, thank you.

israeli.agent

at 18:50 on November 26th, 2009

It 'offends', 'hurts' and 'alienate' Indian muslims, it seems. That was one of the greatest discoveries made by Indian media in recent times - Not calling a spade a spade.

Indian media's PoCoCo'ness is much more stronger than anywhere else in the world . and based on fear because of the demography of the country. They don't realize that by this the are silently imply the belief that all Indian muslims identify with these cheap, dime-a-ton terrorists.

At the maximum the Indian media can use the word 'community' or 'minority community'.

.Agent.