Must say just this

I have been horribly busy juggling work, ante-natal classes, the sense of urgency that arrives with the beginning of the third trimester and a back that is incapable of supporting the increasing weight of the bump. And I am sure that everyone else is occupied with their hectic schedules of life, dropping kids to nurseries and schools, handling irate bosses, dealing with the financial crisis that has hit absolutely everyone, and just keeping life on track. We have no time to stand and stare, to worry about politics, religion, ethnicity and the like - we are too busy dealing with life.

And then this happens.

By this I mean what is happening in Mumbai. And what has happened before in Delhi, London, New York, Madrid, Karachi and so many other cities around the world. And when this happens, you stop in your tracks, and wonder, WHY?

What on earth is going on in their minds that prompts them to do this? What gives them the conviction that they can wage 'war' on innocent people, who are busy minding their business? Is this the new form of warfare, where anything and everything goes, where each one fends for herself/himself, where parents leave for work every morning not knowing if they will come back home to see their children?

We have become an insensitive, hardened mass of people. Every time something like this happens, we talk about it for a few days, and then get on with life. When it happens in a country far away from us, we dismiss it as the 'usual' stuff that happens in 'that part of the world'. We don't care - not really.

The one thing that has come out more than anything else for me from this episode of unimaginable tragedy is that human beings are a selfish, parochial lot. We try very hard to convince ourselves and those around us that we are 'civilised' and 'world citizens', but deep inside, we care only about ourselves. Not just those who are unleashing this terror - they are obviously doing it because they care only for themselves and their beliefs - but each one of us, because we just couldn't be bothered enough, since it is happening to someone else.

We are happy that we can still continue to discuss the weather.

And the financial crisis.

And the irate boss.

Not to forget, the ante-natal class.