The Spirit of Mumbai

The Spirit of Mumbai – Just in words, or in matter too???

A few days ago before the Bombay Blasts, there was another event – which died down in a premature manner coz of the Blasts – A vandalized statue of Minatai, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's former wife, followed by Mumbai-wide riots thereafter… My uncle, with my 6-year old cousin, was stuck right amidst an angry mob, who were burning a tourist bus. Without any consideration (and this was well expected), the ruthless mob was setting fire to the bus. My uncle somehow managed to escape from the scene. Believe me, my friends, (those who say one becomes a Mumbaikaar within 5 minutes or 5 days after coming to the city), even after staying in Mumbai for 20 years, my uncle felt like a stranger there.
While discussing this with a fellow Mumbaikar who was bubbling with the “Mumbai Spirit”, I just got an answer – “Shiv Sena wale to aisa karte hi hain yaar (how obvious), but the best part is that they don’t hurt the public” (God!!! people in Mumbai are thankful to them for that!!) That, is the Mumbai Spirit folks !!! "Chalta hai yaar… karte hain karne do…." Truth is that even without the blasts, the people do exist in an atmosphere of terror, and that too created by the fellow Mumbaikars.
One speaks of the queues of masses ready to donate blood. Dear All, this is not a new scene. In 1993, even a small city like Agra (as compared to Mumbai and Delhi) saw massive blasts, and such a scene of people queuing up for donating blood was common… It’s the human spirit, I must say, and not some Mumbai Spirit. For humans, I believe, still have retained that element called humanity.
As for the stock markets, lets not speak about it… The Indian market has been coined emotionless even at Dow Jones when Sensex and Nifty both continued rising even during last years’ Mumbai floods and Tsunami!!!
Leute, Plz don’t consider this as a personal attack, maybe it’s just an emotional outburst of what happened with my uncle and cousin the other day. Just wanted to ask, on which point did I misjudge the spirit of Mumbai?