The hysteria was palpable, the fear was real, and the sense of doom was all around us in the city earlier this month as the India-Pakistan hostilities escalated. Can Mumbai be bombed? Will the city survive any attack? Is there an escape from a nuclear strike? and other such questions dominated conversations. Chats and WhatsApp groups were abuzz with instructions on how to save oneself in case of an attack from across the border and what to do in case of a nuclear strike.

Housing societies of the middle and upper-middle classes conducted their own safety drills to match the mock actions by the government and other agencies. Most Mumbaikars went about their days with tell-tale streaks of tension lining their faces, except the slum dwellers, who make up about half the city’s population, the outdoor workers, and the delivery executives for whom the city has hardly offered safety.

This is a city in which people routinely lose their lives climbing up on scaffoldings without harnesses, going down into sewer drains without any safety gear, boarding local trains, driving over a pothole on ill-maintained roads or simply walking on a street because it does not have walkable pavements.

In case of cross-border hostilities or a war, beyond the platitudes and the drills, almost everyone knows the truth—Mumbai is a strategic target, and, if it is hit, there’s very little that anyone living here can do other than contain the damage and count the dead. Let’s be honest. Mumbai was not planned or built to withstand a war or even........

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