As you watch images of Paris besieged by fear and people scrambling to get back to their lives, you cannot but think of Mumbai in November 2008. That was not the first time that Mumbai had been the target of hate and violence. But it was the first time that the city’s back appeared to be broken, the clichéd ‘spirit’ and ‘resilience’ now replaced by a deep, underlying anger.

The broken buildings Ajmal Kasab and his gang of terrorists left behind have been repaired but the scars run deeper than plaster and paint can fix. In 2008, we were not yet in a constant media and internet inspired race to find the right symbolic gesture and the right ‘hashtagged’ slogan to determine the occasion. No one changed their display pictures with the colours of the Indian flag and no world monuments stood solemnly in solidarity with Mumbai. No one said they loved the city in any language at all, except those of us left in it, looking at the pieces.