On a personal note: Remembering 9/11

It's been 10 years.

Like many in our generation, I remember where I was and what I was doing that day. I know Latur probably had greater deaths, as probably did Bhopal; but this is the one that I was closest to.

I lived in Parsippany, NJ then and remember heading out to my car to go to work only to be told that the towers were bombed. I remember watching in disbelief as people jumped from one certain death to another. And then the videos of the plans actually crashing. And then the short messages people sent their dear ones from the planes. I remember a nation coming together immediately.

I remember walking into our regular diner the weekend after 9/11 and being asked: "You're indian, right?" by the guy who'd seated us every time before. If I were him, I'd ask too. I remember the Indians touting American flags on their cars for the next few months.

I remember feeling sad that this tragedy of epic proportions was becoming a media circus, yet being so part of it that I couldn't look away. I remember going to Ground Zero a month or so after 9/11 and feeling viscerally affected - the scene left enough clues as to how it happened: from the huge gaping hole with twisted steel and crumbled slabs of concrete to the charred buildings nearby I could imagine the myriad personal horrors that the people who were there on that day went through. I remember being annoyed by the street hawkers who had already started selling touristy swag nearby, but was numbed enough by the event and the place themselves to ignore such pettiness.

I remember going to Ground Zero last year and still feeling the same as before. I remember being a tad ticked off that the scene didn't look much different from before - maybe it had, but where was the monument to all the people who died that day? Where was the imposing answer that showed that we as humans will not bow down to terrorism?

I remember the firemen being nice to my kids and posing for pictures (they asked to sit on the fire engine), but couldn't ignore the thought that maybe some of them had friends who were no more. And I still couldn't understand the picknicky people swarming the site nor the hawkers with their "I've been to Ground Zero" T-shirts and mugs.

Fiercely apolitical, I have actively shunned news media in all its forms since my college days, but I couldn't get enough of the coverage of the Bin Laden capture. Real or not, it gave me closure to those events from a decade ago - and I didn't even lose any dear ones.

I cannot remember  a date to save my life, but I remember going to the World Trade Center on July 4th 2001.  I was badly hung over from the previous night and the meal from the restaurant at the top of the tower set me right so I could enjoy the view. I remember there being barbed wire surrounding the deck to prevent jumpers - seems kinda pointless now.

I kept the ticket stub to the towers and joke to my friends that I'm keeping it for its antique value, but whenever I happen on it while sorting my keepsakes, I'm taken back to this day, ten years ago.