On one of the groups was shared this video of the 9.10 Dombivali Fast as it reaches the railway platform. There was a dare, too. 'Try getting in to this local train.' Honestly, it was pathetic. People were attacking the bogies as if their lives depended on it.
In a way, they did, too. The local train would take them to Mumbai, and fast. Yet the very sight was inhuman(e) because the scenario totally desensitised, dehumanised and objectified people as living skeletons!
Those who stay in Mumbai would maintain that such behaviour is a matter of habit. Each one would have his/her story about it. In general, such insensitivity, pushing others so that one gets in to the bogey, literally mowing down someone who falls down in that crazy hustle n bustle to catch the train, just moving on even if someone dies on the tracks, and much worse, the subtle, unstated yet obvious gangster like behaviour inside the bogey! Alll these phenomena revealing the dormant 'Flee it or fight it' animal instinct!
Often all these compulsions are sugar coated and glorified as the Mumbai Spirit. Is it really so? Luckily, for the last decade or so, there have not been any bomb blasts or riots or underworld gang wars in Mumbai. Otherwise, people would travel in the same trains, on the same tracks as if nothing had happened!
Is such habit formation that leads to a hard, rough core within, such desensitisation, such dehumanisation desirable? Why must life be so mechanical? How (much) must it hurt the idealists, the sensitive, if at all they survive the so-called Mumbai Spirit.
Honestly, the video reminded me of T.S.Eliot's "Preludes", "The Waste Land" and the "Hollow men". What cost money when human lives are easily dispensable, and cheap!
Pratima@ Have you noticed that all the acidic jokes on all groups about the Pune 'attitude' are from Mumbaikar's?!? Must be a case of lower self-esteem disguised as a superiority feel!
Quote of the day: 'Those who follow the crowd are usually lost in it! ' The author is anonymous!
Word of the day: expeditious. Expeditious means done with speed and efficiency.
As usual, we learn grammar Monday through Friday. See you on Monday for the "Let us learn" section.
No comments:
Post a Comment