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The original was posted on /r/india by /u/Excellent_Use_21 on 2025-02-23 04:32:53+00:00.

I was in Bandra East when the '92 riots broke out. I saw the Nalla flowing red with blood—literally. People went missing overnight, families were torn apart, and the cops? They were outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and completely unprepared for the sheer scale of destruction. The city was burning, and law enforcement had no real control.

Even now, 30 years later, the memories send a chill down my spine. The screams, the smell of smoke and blood, the absolute terror of stepping outside, knowing you might not return. We learned survival the hard way—trust no one, always have an exit plan, read a room for danger before you even enter it.

Back then, self-security wasn’t a luxury; it was the only way to stay alive. Roads were blocked with burning tyres, people armed themselves with stones, bricks, glass bottles, and sticks. We camped on terraces, the big men of the neighborhood standing guard on rooftops, ready for whatever was coming next. Every noise in the distance could mean another attack, another loss. And rumors? They spread like wildfire—sometimes they saved lives, sometimes they caused even more destruction.

And yet, here we are in 2025, with an entire generation that has no connection to what happened. They cry about WiFi being slow, get “traumatized” by a mean comment online, and think survival means remembering their food delivery app password. They live in bubbles, terrified of confrontation, unable to handle a tough conversation—let alone actual survival. If the world collapsed tomorrow, most wouldn’t last a week.

This isn’t a “back in my day” rant. It’s just wild to me that privilege blinds people to how fragile society really is. One spark, and the so-called “civilized world” turns into anarchy. I’ve seen it happen.

Maybe it’s a good thing that the new generation doesn’t have these memories. But sometimes, I wonder—if they had even a fraction of the fear we lived through, would they finally come out of their shells and learn how to actually survive?