Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan

                   3 days; 3 days of utter devastation, pain, agony and inevitable prayers.On Thursday morning I woke up to the frightened screams of millions.Some shouted because they were in danger, some because someone they knew was in danger and some because the human specie was in danger.I; instead had anger in my eyes.....anger towards those unmasked animals who took the lives of hundereds.I wonder, who has the powere, more than God, who trained these monsters how to blow up the lives of thousands in just one go.All these days I have been reading the names of the unsung heroes, who shed their innocent lives in the last 3 days.Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar, Gajendra Singh, Sandeep Unnikrishnan and the list could go on forever.I see their families on the T.V., crying with eyes full of hope; that it might be, that my son or my husband or my father would wake up smiling, syaing that 'I was only pretending.'But hopes diminish once the fire ignites on the pyre.I salute the martyrdom of all the people and I applaud the killing of terrorists.Sometimes I just wished that if only these terrorists were sliced one by one, feeling the same pain that all those families of the dead are bearing right now.But what use??These bullies themselves want to die.

                   The captions in the newspapers that I have been reading lately; 'Warfront Mumbai' and 'Mumbai Under Siege', somehow just swipes the image of Mumbai - Mayanagri [City of Dreams] to Mumbai - Mrityunagri [City of Death].People are shouting on politicians why they couldn't do anything.I ask a different question; why couldn't WE do anything?Do we sit in our homes forever fearing that if I go out I might just die?Or shall we step out and show those cowards who pretend to be brave, just by taking control over hotels, that, we still don't care, no matter how much they try to scare us..!!

                  The entire incident stabbed me in my heart.Why?Why always an innocent being has to die?Why can't we stop all this?Why do we always go weak in our knees before terrorism?Why don't we have enough power to stand through death?Some questions will always remain unanswered......

                 But after all this catastrophe, there was one good thing to see on the streets of Bombay.All the Mumbaikars coming out of their houses to pay a tribute to the martyrs.This shows the spirit of Mumbai.After all Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan......

हर तरफ एक लालिमा सी है छाई

समझ नहीं आता ये खून है या सूरज की परछाई

हर तरफ एक अँधेरा सा है फैला 

समझ नहीं आता ये रात है या घर का बुझा हुआ दिया

कही दूर एक शहनाई बज रही है

पता नहीं शादी का जशन है या मौत की झंकार बज रही है

कही कोई एक बच्चा रो रहा है 

पता नहीं जन्मा है या अपने माँ बाप की मृत्यु का रोना रो रहा है

हर आँख से अश्रुधारा सी बह रही है

शायद ख़ुशी का भाव है या दुखो की बाड़ आ रही है

हर तरफ धुआं उठ रहा है

शायद दिल में भड़की हुई ज्वाला है या आतंक का धुआं उड़ रहा है

सभी लोग आज सड़को पर आ रहे है

पता नहीं जोश की लहर है या शोक मन रहे है 

सभी लोग आज एक गीत गा रहे है

कभी वन्दे मातरम् तो कभी जन-गण-मन गा रहे है....