Jai Mumbai

Bang...bang...bang...the bombs went off

one by one in Zaveri Bazaar, Opera House and Dadar

Kabutarkhana. There was panic and pandemonium, people died, many

injured.........but Mumbai was back in its feet next morning. Even as

politicians touted the cliched 'Spirit of Mumbai' platitudes and

media went in unison condemning them, an important event illustrated

why terrorists will never be able to break the back of Mumbai, or

India in general, however hard they try, the state-sponsored types or

those by the non-state actors.

The DQ Week was holding the

annual awards in Mumbai on that date of explosion and as the pictures

in this issue shows, the turnout was hardly affected. And this

despite the fact that the majority of attendees at the function were

Gujaratis and the 3 bomb affected places too mostly had Gujarati

victims. It's the resilience of the IT trading community, that

symbolized that Mumbaikars do not get swayed by bomb attacks. They

might get bruised but it is difficult to batter their spirits. Opera

House bomb blast spot was close to Lamington Road, Mumbai's IT

trading hub, yet half of Lamington Road still turned up at our

function. It was more a symptomatic cocking a snook at the

terrorists.

By rough estimates, Lamington Road

generates about Rs 100 crore of business per day; and there was no

significant drop in that number the next morning. Some might say

Mumbaikars are immune to bomb blasts now (they had more than 10 in

the last 20 years), but I would rather quote what one eminent channel

partner told me, “Aap dariye mat, aap ke event mein sab pahoonch

jaayega, ye hamare bhi awards function hai, dhamake hum hotel mein

karenge, yeh darpook wale ka dhamake se hum dar nehi jaayenge”. I

don't care what politicians might say, but for me as long as this

vibrant IT channel community of Mumbai retain their dynamism, Mumbai

will always shine (despite its numerous problems) and India will

march ahead.