Mumbai, February 14:

India’s financial capital was quiet today with people going about their business as usual, a day after tension spiralled following the arrest of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.

Kindergartens, schools and colleges opened as usual, the omnipresent Mumbai dabbawallahs were visible at various railway stations going about their usual chores.

Office-goers hurried to their places of work as the city returned to normalcy.

Trains and public buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws created the usual traffic snarls on the highways and the four arterial roads as well the link roads around the city. In fact, there were queues of people outside cinemas like Cinemax in Andheri and Thakur multiplex in Kandivli waiting to book tickets for the Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer Jodhaa Akbar which tomorrow.

Though it was business as usual, Jet Airways Executive Director Saroj K Datta felt incidents of violence, like those seen in the city during the last several days with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena stepping up its campaign against north Indians, did not augur well.

“More than the damage to public or private properties, the bigger damage is to its image which takes a long time to build,” he pointed out.

But environmentalist Debi Goenka said despite sporadic violence hitting Mumbai in the past few days, the image of India’s business hub had not taken a battering. “It’s only the politicians who have suffered a further loss of credibility,” said Goenka, executive trustee of Conservation Action Trust.

Mumbai University’s joint director of Institute of Distance Education (IDE) PS Vivek made a different point: “This was nothing, it did not even affect the city’s psyche in any manner. Mumbai has been through much more in the past and the image of the city has not been hampered. It was blown out of proportion by the TV channels.”