Running toward the explosion

Suketu Mehta's song for a soft target, the city of his memory and of his dreams, begins:

My bleeding city. My poor great bleeding heart of a city. Why do they go after Mumbai? There's something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness.

Mehta, who teaches journalism at NYU, is author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. His op-ed piece ran today in the Times.