Ordinary grace

The Mumbai nightmare is over. Or is it just beginning, as we grapple with the full extent of loss? In the coming days, the abstract horror of the spectacle we just witnessed will gave way to individual, heartbreaking stories. Terrorism has the curious effect of binding us, bringing us together in our collective trauma. Mumbai reflects India8217;s aspirations back to itself, in a magnifying mirror. And this time again, it revealed what common citizens are capable of. Even as our politicians were parsing and calculating for electoral effect, the rough gallantry of ordinary Indians offered a parallel story. When Hemant Karkare8217;s widow softly refused monetary recompense from Narendra Modi, she returned the attention to its rightful holders. The NSG commandos who put their lives on the line, conducted a superb operation, and dismissed a TV reporter8217;s gratitude with a brusque, almost embarrassed, 8220;it was our duty8221;; the city police and firefighters who battled the unknown for days; the heroism of hotel staff who put others first; the crowds who gathered in silent solidarity with strangers 8212; they stepped out of their ordinariness.

They were from all over the country, from far-apart backgrounds, who found themselves together in the furrow of destruction. And in that moment, they acted out of their best selves. The images of this tragedy are hard to forget 8212; the policeman giving water to a bloodied child, the nanny who saved the two-year old son of the Jewish couple in Chabad House, the families thronging outside 8212; we relate to them,

because we relate to each other.

This is not to extract some easy redemptive strand out of the Mumbai tragedy 8212; there may be none, for those who have lost the people they love to the inscrutable rage of unknown terrorists. What happened will continue to haunt India. But meanwhile, it has also reminded us of what we are capable of.