I watched a documentary recently about the London 7/7 bombings. I was quite taken aback that it was marking the 10th anniversary of the attack – where did that time go?

I was also perplexed that while I remember the event quite well, I didn’t seem to remember that 56 people lost their lives that day. I think the reason for this – and this sounds quite insensitive – is that the numbers paled in comparison to the number of lives lost in the September 11th attacks in New York in 2001. And at the time, the yardstick for measuring any attack was very much 9/11.

Three tube stations, one double decker bus, 56 lives lost and over 700 injured – good God.

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keep to yourself

One of the first things I notice when I’m in any urban area is the increase in the sheer volume of people and a distinct lack of overt friendliness. The lack of eye contact between people using public transport in London has often been commented on. The unwritten rule seems to be that you go about your business and you keep yourself to yourself. I was on a train heading to London recently and would say that this unwritten rule is alive and well.

That was OK until the thought that a bomb could go off at any time came into my mind. I felt a little uneasy and exposed and vulnerable. Was I indulging in paranoid thinking? Was I being the country buff fearful of them city folk? Was it a reasonable thought process, albeit (hopefully) an unlikely prospect?

I decided to think about something else. But my mind kept wandering back to the documentary.

Emma Craig, a 7/7 survivor, said: “All of us lost our innocence on that day, our naivety – the thought that something like that could never happen to me or even to London.”

I shuddered.

But I also remembered the stories about that day that restore my faith in humanity. When the double-decker bus exploded, a police officer shouted “run”. Most ran but there were a few who ran towards the bus, not away from it. A firefighter disobeyed orders from his superiors to leave the underground in case another explosion went off. He stayed where he was, tending to the injured, and those dying.

Don’t be fooled

Just because people don’t make eye contact or seem to lack overt friendliness, don’t be fooled. People can drop the unwritten rule of keeping yourself to yourself in a heartbeat.

I’ve heard it said that this is why terrorism will never win. But Emma’s words temper this: “Quite often people say: ‘It didn’t break us. Terrorism won’t break us.’ The fact is, it may not have broken London, but it did break some of us. Sometimes I feel people are so hell-bent on trying to make a point about terrorism not breaking us that they forget about all the people who got caught up in it.”

It’s a fair point.

So, what did I conclude on my train journey to London? It was this: a bomb could go off at any time, though please God it won’t. And if it does, the kindness of strangers will undoubtedly prevail and maybe, just maybe, it won’t break me.