Salaam Bombay..

In the wake of this tragedy as we pray for people loved and gone.. I heard something that was very uplifting for me..

The tragedy that hit the city yesterday resulted in a lot of people being stranded in various parts of the city and still trying to reach their respective homes at odd hours of the night..

To cope with this, people were out on the streets distributing food and water to hungry and tired people, providing them with shelter and maybe the much needed smile.. These people out on the streets live there because they don’t have enough money to be able to live in a house.. they probably also don’t know how they will feed their families tomorrow or how they will replace this precious resource of their lives.. Yet they are out on the streets, helping, giving and understanding..

Similarly when the Uphaar Cinema tragedy hit Delhi many years ago, mattress sellers laid out mattresses under the windows of the theatre enabling people to jump out and not be injured in the process. They knew that once they did this no one would buy these mattresses from them.. but still they laid out their bread and butter to help some unknown people who they had never met before..

We praise big industrialists or philanthropists when they make some big donations to charities.. yet we fail to see altruism and sacrifices in their pure form.. performed with no expectation of reciprocation, fame or accolades.. small yet so big and poignant..

That is the spirit of my people, my India. As Gregory David Roberts says in his book Shantaram, “that love may not have been invented in India but it was definitely perfected here” .. India.. where truly the “Heart is King!”