Tiger’s death silenced Mumbai

Nov 18, 2012 - Shoban Singh |

mumbai

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It had taken no more than an hour for Mumbai to regain normalcy after the last terrorist attack witnessed in 2011. Trains and stations were as crowded as ever; traffic snarls belied the fact that a “terrorist attack” had just taken place.

The clichéd “spirit of Mumbai” was perhaps back at work then.

But on the evening of Saturday, November 17, a deafening silence engulfed the city; one, which has been unprecedented in recent memory. That’s what the demise of Mumbai’s legend Bal Thackeray brought upon.

In stark contradiction to the collective belief that there would be widespread violence by the Sainiks in case Mr Thackeray dies, the Sainiks quietly gathered in thousands outside Matoshree. They stood in absolute silence, only sloganeering intermittently, extolling their demigod, who much to their shock had just passed away.

The eerily empty roads of Dadar and its otherwise jam-packed station at 7 were a sight of sheer disbelief. One of the chemist shop owners in the area said, “The news broke at 5 pm and by 5.05 pm every shop was shut.”

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