September 11, 2011

9/11 - ten years later.


It’s been ten years since that horrible day, September 11, 2001. Of course you remember where you were, and you have probably written about it, but have you thought how things have changed in the last ten years? How have you changed since that day in September ten years ago?
The 9/11 Blog Carnival has no rules, just that your post have something to do with 9/11. You can write about your experiences, your reactions, how it changed the way you live your life, what you were doing that day…anything.

I remember watching the horrors of 9/11 unfurl on television as a 9 year old, ten years back. Initially, it made no sense to me. Planes are supposed to fly in skies, not ram into buildings so what was happening?

It took me some time to understand what had really happened. I 
realized the significance of our flags being at half mast, I realized the significance of schools closing shut for the day & the significance of TV reporters bursting into tears as they reported the attacks. 
Still, I was too young to understand it all. As I grew up and with every passing anniversary of 9/11, I learnt more and more. The more I learnt, the more terrified I was because it opened my eyes to one of the harsh realities of this world. Every 9/11 anniversary brought with it more stories of the people affected and the lives lost. All I could do was pray for the souls lost.
I cannot help but fear for my and everybody else's lives. I think everybody has this fear somewhere within them but we are all too busy enjoying life that we do not really let this part in us come out. However, on days like this, when all of us think about such tragedies together, we cannot keep that fear hidden behind us  anymore. 
In a few weeks time, I'll probably forget about it, like many of you. But is it worth something to be forgotten? 
The mastermind behind the terror attacks then is died and down in the sea somewhere. His body is rotting and he's gone but there are many like him around; waiting to pounce & kill.
We should be scared, day in and out, but again that's not how one lives. That's not why we're born. 
I don't know why people resort to terrorism, I don't know what they want - and I think I don't want to know because it'll be an unreasonable "need/desire" which will be hard to digest. It's just sad that in spite of being born on this lovely mother Earth with equal potential as anyone around us, people resort to such enmityI have enemies too, people who I hate and people I don't talk to. I get mad at them, but I've never wished for misfortune to befall them.

It leaves me wondering how can some people go about killing people in scores and scores? 
A few months back, I watched United 93, a movie based on the United Airlines Flight 93, which was one of the 4 planes hijacked on 9/11. It was supposed to crash into the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. but ended up crashing in PennsylvaniaI cried my heart out watching that movie. I was imagining myself being one of the passengers but I just couldn't put myself to imagine what the passengers on that flight really felt & went through. The way they made calls to their families and spoke to them for the one last time was heart wrenching.  
We cry on just watching such documentaries; imagine what went through the minds of the people who actually had to go through it all.

Just this morning, I was reading an article on how one man in the south tower of the World Trade Center,  saw his coworkers take the stairway to death but luckily survived!
It's a touching story, you can read it here.
How many such people might be out there, who narrowly escaped. How grateful they might be to God for keeping them safe. If only everyone could be as grateful everyday!

No matter how many years pass by, no matter how much we weep and cry, nothing can be undone.
Being in this part of the world, one can only imagine what may be going through the minds of the people there who lsot their dear ones in that part of the world.
We may not be able to do anything big but let us be united, atleast in thought, against terrorism. By terrorism, I am not referring to the entire Islamist community. It's wasn't them. It was just one despicable man with his troop of a few men. Let us be united against this group of people who deserve nothing but expulsion out of this universe. 
So many lives were lost, hearts were broken, lives were torn apart, oceans of tears were shed - that was 9/11.
It was a day that changed everyone's lives. What I learnt - live everyday like your last; anything can happen anywhere and at any time! 


Let us all observe a minute of silence remembering the lives lost on that terrible day. 
                                                      For God has not given us
                                                                       A spirit of cowardice,
                                                                    But of power and of love
                                                                    And of sobermindedness.