Candle Callisthenics

• Workshops to equip people with disaster management skills
  
• Public Interest Litigations (PILs) demanding technology upgradation for the police/security agencies
  
• The Maharashtra State Legal Services Association is offering free legal aid to survivors to claim compensation
  
• Efforts of mohalla committees to maintain peace between communities
  
• Hospitals offering free trauma care and counselling for those affected, including policemen
  
• Sustained campaign by peace activists to steer opinion against "war as solution"
  
• Independent efforts demanding accountability in governance and implementation of police reforms
  
• Individual /group efforts to rehabilitate survivors, especially widows and children

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An SMS went around last weekend urging Mumbaikars to "come and be one at Bandra Barista at 4 pm" or "for coffee at Taj Land's End Sunday evening"—both picturesquely located on Bandra Bandstand, with actor Shahrukh Khan's bungalow in between—so that the process of "changing India" could move ahead. The SMS ended with a chiding exhortation: "Choice is urs. B thr or laze Sun away n DON'T complain". The hip coffee shop drew energetic young people from obviously well-heeled families who got out of expensive cars, spent time choosing their favourite coffees and along the way also discussed how they could work on bringing about change.

As Mumbai resumes its rhythm after the terror attack, hundreds of people are gravitating towards groups and activities that they believe will bring in fundamental and far-reaching changes in governance. 'Change' is the buzzword of groups with evocative names or catchy acronyms. The reference point for many of these well-meaning groups is the unprecedented turnout—police say about a lakh but unofficial estimates put it at twice that—at the Gateway of India on December 3, a week after the attack.

The drive for action has turned many a middle- and upper-class Mumbaikar into an unlikely activist. It has spawned groups of different stripes and motivated individuals to turn into independent vigilantes. It has led to a number of e-petitions and e-groups on social networking sites. From car stickers to filing PILs, every act has taken on the halo of activism. But pop activism rarely brings about fundamental changes; it only makes activists feel good about themselves, say veteran activists and sociologists.

Take the case of Dr Rakesh Kishore, a Delhi-based entomologist, who hailed a taxi from Hotel Taj President at Cuffe Parade, close to where the terrorists had got off the rubber dinghies, to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus last Wednesday. He made friends with driver Lallan Pandey and exchanged mobile numbers. As he alighted at CST, he deliberately slipped under the car seat a bag containing croissants and a water bottle, and called up Pandey and told him a bomb had been planted in his vehicle. The cabbie panicked and called the police. Within minutes, a police team arrived, accompanied by officers of the bomb squad, who evacuated the area and checked for explosives.

Kishore, who was standing a few feet away, then called their bluff. Detained at the Azad Maidan police station, he explained the hoax: "I wanted to check the preparedness of the police." The officers were hardly amused. "We haven't taken action so far because it would give him unnecessary publicity," said DCP Vishwas Nangre-Patil. Hoax calls are a cognisable offence.

PR professional Aroona Bhat and friends from the entertainment industry formed 'Staying Alive' to literally drive home the need for change in governance. They set off from Mumbai, starting at the Gateway of India, and driving via Ahmedabad and Jaipur (both targets of terror attacks) to reach New Delhi, presented a charter of demands to the prime minister. Their banners in Mumbai aroused high interest and much talk, and they even had an anthem—'Yeh haq hamara hai'. Bhat is thrilled with her group's efforts.

"People are looking for ways to express their outrage at the system and demand change. They want to feel part of the change," observes Kamala Ganesh, a sociologist at Mumbai University. She attended a meeting at which some professionals discussed a possible "civil disobedience movement" on Gandhian lines and was the only one to ask how accountability and governance could be turned into "mass issues".

Every effort is laudable, says Gerson da Cunha, co-convenor of the Association for Governance & Networking in India (AGNI), but the effort has to be focused and well thought through. With former IAS and IPS officers, he formed a citizens group to push for police reforms and get people to vote, for he believes that's the only change driver. "We must get the angry public on voters' lists," says his friend and former chief secretary D.M. Sukhthankar. With citizen-backed municipal corporator Adolf D'Souza as an example, the Juhu Residents Welfare Group and a handful of groups are working towards having independent candidates—instead of those from political parties—for the forthcoming general and assembly elections.

Fundamental change is generally the result of sustained and focused efforts over years. Few caught up in the current wave of activism realise or acknowledge the time, dedication and energy it takes to push through reforms. Many are waking up to the possibilities that activism holds and the sense of "doing" that it creates. Mehul Patel, a young US-returned techie, is an example. "I just couldn't sit at home after 26/11. I just couldn't party five nights a week. I had to do something," he says. From the level of look-and-feel-good activism, he seeks to graduate to something serious. "There's a lot of fire in the belly and mind, but people like me now want knowledge and guidance," he says. Patel has spent last few days gathering signatures for a PIL on the politician-criminal nexus and police reforms.

Jatin Desai, a journalist and member of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace & Democracy, warns against anger-driven pop activism degenerating into jingoism: "The good thing is that young people are coming out from the class that has isolated itself so far; the worrying part is that they have little political background and direction."

Activism, especially pop activism, seems to be the flavour of the month in Mumbai. Everyone wants to do something, even if it means dreaming of change while sipping a cappuccino.