A whole new Mumbai

News of shootings and hostage crises in Mumbai shocked the world, and rightfully so. USA Today writes that the gunmen delivered "an unmistakable message: This U.S.-friendly democracy of 1.2 billion people has joined the front lines of the global war on terrorism" (via Slate). BBC summarizes the turn of events here.

This terrifies me. The Mumbai I know from traveling there in March and April couldn't have felt further away from the regularized terrorism of the Middle East and elsewhere. Though defined by tensions of rich and poor, new and old, Mumbai is (was) a vibrant, multicultural and foremost safe metropolis.

What's more, the violence did not occur out of the sight of tourists and expats, as is so often the case elsewhere.

Café Leopold is practically a right of passage for Western tourists visiting Mumbai and well-to-do Bombayites alike. The backpacker's bible The Lonely Planet writes, "Drawn like moths to a Kingfisher flame, most tourists end up at this Mumbai traveller's institution at one time or another." Jess, Rebecca and I ate there numerous times. It was there that I met up with an old high school friend, choosing the most obvious meeting point we knew.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, another site of shootings, also known as Victoria Terminus, is one of Mumbai's central landmarks and a symbol of British colonial splendour. The architecture, pictured above in March, is vast and exquisite. The Penn Station of Mumbai, CST is filled at all hours with thousands of people from all walks of life.

Though I didn't make it to Mumbai's Chabad House, you can imagine the demographic there. Innumerable Israeli tourists visit India each year, along with Jews young and old from around the world. And the Taj Mahal Hotel, a stone's through from where we stayed but well beyond our student budgets, symbolizes the super-wealthy elite of Mumbai, hosting movie stars and millionnaire businessmen nightly.

All of this took place in and around Colaba, arguably India's most conspicuous tourist hub, where Jess, Rebecca and I spent much of our time. I remember our discussions about crime in Mumbai; I was confused by the feeling of total personal safety I had there, night and day, especially having just come from crime-ridden Nairobi, Kenya.

It's why this news has hit me especially hard. I don't mean to harp on the presence of Westerners there; it shouldn't take dead Westerners to elicit the compassion of the media and its viewers about a crime. Yet I am a Westerner and – for better or for worse, probably worse – the shootings ring truer for me because of it. Perhaps my descriptions above will have a similar effect for some of you.