Opinion Blasts: Why Boston reminds us of Bombay
I can appreciate calls for 'perspective' by some people in light of attacks in other parts of world.
I may not be “from” Boston,but I’m “of” Boston,the city that was bombed earlier this week. The attacks hit a little too close to home; I have spent eight years in this beautiful city,and the bombs went off three blocks away from where I lived for two of these years.
In some ways,this takes me back to the Bombay attacks of 2008. While the scale of destruction is very different,the loss of security I feel is strikingly similar. I was in Boston during the 26/11 attacks,and I remember the helplessness that I felt,the slow realization that the people and places I loved and had grown up in were just as vulnerable as war zones across the world. Its a loss of innocence,almost. I realize that I should be very grateful that I did not have to face this realization until my early 20s,but it is truly a hard thing to come to terms with,regardless of the age when one faces it.
I can appreciate the calls for perspective by some people in light of attacks in other parts of the world that happen more frequently but do not get the same amount of media attention. But this does not diminish Bostons suffering bombs are bombs. No attacks are ever justifiable,but in the case of Bombay (or any other large city),one could argue that heightened risk is the price one pays for living in the commercial capital of a country fraught with internal religious tension and external strife. Boston does not face any of these things – it is too small (~600,000 people) and inconsequential a city for someone to be “making a point”. And if Boston isn’t a safe city,I’m not sure what part of the world is.
The theme of resilience that has been talked about in the aftermath of the Boston attack is the other reason I was reminded of Bombay. In the famous scene from A Wednesday,Naseeruddin Shahs character evocatively states,We are resilient by force,not by choice. After each major attack in India,we have started to look upon our resilience as a bad thing we think that it is precisely because we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off,that change does not occur. Politicians do not really take note,and citizens go back to their daily lives. The event that was targeted on Monday,the Boston Marathon,is not merely a race,it is a test of true endurance and resilience; to even qualify to run the Boston Marathon requires years of preparation and training. This spirit of resilience,of the marathoners,and now,that of the city,is being celebrated. And the resilience will go on to be celebrated for years to come,as more and more people pledge to run the marathon,in defiance of the perpetrators. Pop-culture icons have said that the bombs succeeded in only showcasing the goodness of humanity,as the first responders rushed to help the victims,and runners who had finished the marathon ran an additional three kilometers to hospitals so that they could donate blood. Bostonians have written about the bombings being a scar on the face of the city,but one that they will “wear proudly I would argue that being resilient by choice and not by force,being proud of resilience and not disdainful of it,decreases the impact that the perpetrators have on our lives. Perhaps,Indian citizens need to take a page out of Bostons playbook; we need to reflect on our own attitude.
However,one of the initial outcomes of the Boston blasts was also saddening and somewhat predictable: some media commentators blamed Muslims despite no evidence linking a particular religious group to the attacks. (At the time of writing,no suspects had been arrested.) While some Americans have resisted this prejudice,I hope that we all,whether we are citizens of Bombay,Bangalore or Boston,can learn from this. If we use these painful moments as an opportunity to show solidarity with one another,we will have shown resilience that is worthy of being worn proudly. If instead,we clamp down on individual freedom,if we start to live in fear,if we view each other with suspicion and hostility rather than friendliness and warmth,the terrorists will have won.
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