Mumbai's been through 60 hours of terror. The last terrorist was killed at the Taj Mahal hotel this morning.

Along with  the beautiful heritage building of the Taj Hotel something more intangible has been mutilated and wounded...the spirit of its people.
We  Mumbaikars are resilient. We have to be. We are fighters. We battle for a foothold in the local train on the way to work, we battle for employment, for the basic necessities, for fresh air and sometimes just for a place to relax.

We have always got back to work after every crisis...a little grimmer, perhaps, but never-the- less, ready to do battle as always.

But not this time. For the first time the trains are empty, three days after the first attack. People are unwilling to step out of their homes. People are wondering what is the point of living in India's foremost city if their lives are just about as valuable as a scrap of paper tossed around by the breeze...


The attack is over, but the hearts and minds of all of us who live here have been branded with searing images...images that will stay with us.

One of the most poignant is that of two year old Moshe..the child of the Jewish Rabbi who was killed along with his wife and parents. Only Moshe and his nanny were allowed out of the building in which they were held hostage for around 48 hours.

 Can you imagine it, it is his second birthday today...and he's been orphaned. I wonder who will look after him now?

Another image that brought the tears into my eyes was the funeral of 31 year old Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan who died while battling the terrorists.

. His mother was not crying, but her legs buckled under her and one could see the mute question... "Why my son?" in her wounded eyes as someone held her up beside his body.

The horror stories are endless...parents losing children, brothers searching for sisters, spouses  rummaging through piles of corpses dreading to find their loved ones....

Only one question runs through my mind....WHY? Why do people do this ? What problems can be solved this way? Will there ever be an end to this?