Mumbai, scene of several terrorist attacks last November is bouncing back, with devastated hotels reopening and cafes where scores of people were gunned down all doing brisk business.
The attacks, which were reported by 2point6billion.com, lead to an immediate shut down of businesses in the Colaba area for several days. The Taj Hotel, one of Mumbai’s great landmarks, suffered massive damage as machine-gun toting terrorists from Pakistan moved throughout the hotel, gunning staff and residents down, throwing grenades into rooms causing fires to break out throughout the premises. Just behind the hotel, the popular Leopold’s café was machine gunned from the street. In total, 195 people died and several hundred were wounded.
Today, the scene is quite different. The Taj Hotel, which suffered extensive damage, is now partially reopened and the lobby restored. Getting in now however requires a three stage security clearance – scanners and bag searches. Businesses within the hotel have mostly reopened, and although deferentially quiet, the hotel is busy – crowds of tourists, and businessmen have returned to normal levels.
Leopold’s Café, where terrorists stood and opened fire at head and chest level at diners, is packed, lunchtimes and evenings, even as the scars still show. The restaurants wooden pillars and ceiling still show high velocity bullet damage. Most shocking of all, the front window, with its chest high row of bullet holes directed straight into the main dining area, is still standing intact, its damage highly visible yet not off-putting to those who dine there.
Resilience has always been a Mumbai specialty. In this secular city full of businessmen and the destitute, Muslims and Hindus, the rich and the poor, one thing remains quite apparent. The people of Mumbai will just get up, brush themselves down, and get back to their previous life. It’s a remarkable sense of defiance, and one almost unthinkable anywhere else. Mumbai, even in the face of terrorist attacks and a global depression, is most decidedly back.
