Even in my native US, I had heard stories of Mumbai's fabled spirit. Maybe this is it, what I have been seeing all day. Maybe this spirit, that defies definition, is contained in all that I have seen this day: railway officials going about their work, with a brief pause to pay final tribute to a brave colleague; an elderly Bori taking his grief off to a quiet corner so others can get on with what they need to do; doctors and nurses working a never-ending shift and not flagging; food materializing for the needy and blood for the desperately injured...

Maybe this is what Mumbai's fabled spirit is: an ability to live, to do what it takes, in the midst of scarcely comprehensible mayhem.

I have heard parallels being drawn to what I am experiencing here, and to what I had witnessed back in the US on 9/11. In some ways, maybe the parallels are stretched, but in other ways they hold true. Mumbaikars are reacting as New Yorkers did then: by working as one, grieving as one, fighting as one, and showing a collective greatness in facing a great, grave challenge.

'Apparently there are over 30 hostages at the Taj', a colleague calls to alert me. The situation 'is ongoing', to use a phrase done to death on TV.

I don't know if this report is accurate - but I do know that terrorists tried to take Mumbai's heart hostage, and failed.

In this photo: In the stand-off's third day, Indian security forces close in on remaining terrorists

Photograph: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

Also read: Landmarks that were attacked

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