By Gouri Satya, Sr. Journalist
It has been 20 years since the World Trade Centre’s (WTC) iconic twin towers were destroyed by terrorists in New York, US, on September 11, 2001 killing almost 3,000 people and causing injuries to more than 6,000 others. Those on board of the two aircraft which crashed into the two towers also perished. Among the victims were some 250 Indians.
The WTC was a large complex of seven buildings, the two towers rising to the height of 1,368 feet and 1,362 feet reaching to the sky. They were the tallest in the world.
While a large number of those, who were exposed to the cancer-causing toxic pollutants in the dust and debris cloud from the collapse of the WTC hung in the air for more than three months, continue to suffer, the near-death escape continues to haunt the survivors even after two decades and for those who lost their dearest ones the loss is irreplaceable.
Each year on the anniversary, families and friends of the victims gather for a ceremony at the newly built Memorial Plaza. The names of 2,983 men, women and children killed in one of the greatest tragedies of humanity are read out. Six moments of silence mark the times when each of the towers was struck.
This year on September 11, a solemn ceremony was conducted at the Memorial Plaza. President Joe Biden attended the memorial event at the Ground Zero. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama joined in paying homage to the victims among others. The event was watched by hundreds of Americans gathered there, some carrying photos of their loved ones died in the attack.
When I visited New York in 2017, my curiosity as a journalist did not fail to take me to the new WTC complex, now rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and other buildings. The tallest, One World Trade Centre, is of 1,776 feet making it the third tallest building in the world. A Memorial and Museum to those killed in the attacks attract friends and relatives of those killed and visitors from all over the world.
A large number of surveillance cameras and armed cops keep a close watch. Nearly 3,000 names have been inscribed on the bronze parapets which surround the twin waterfall pools at the Memorial. A small hole above the victim’s name allows one to insert a flower or their National Flag and pay homage. The deep wounds and grief in the hearts of many left by the tragedy was apparent at the Memorial.
I passed through the rwin towers of the WTC, many times before it was gutted by the at tack of a passenger plane used as a missile in 2001. It was a tragedy where the innocents paid the price for the follies of the American political leadership, andd the rivalries of the CIA and the FBI, who hid from each other the reasons for the training of a bunch of Arabs learning to fly an aircraft in the training centres in a Southern state in the country. The body blow to American anatomy was really on the attacks in Pennsylvania and Pentagon.
There is a link there with Afghanistan, and a Saudi terrorist hiding there.
Now rthat Afghanistan is taken over by the Talibans with China supporting them strongly to the extent that the Taliban leadership there vocal about China being their best and only friend, there is an obvious threat to India.
Bearded Modi, looking more like a Fakir with his long beard, not as a leader of a country, is strung along by Joe Biden as a member of the so called Quad, to involve India further in confrontation in the sea. The other two members of the Quad -Japan and Australia, unlike India are close American allies linked by military alliance. Modi, his Party and the newspapers -even the Deccan Herald is interpreting this Quad membership and a meeting with Joe Biden, as if it is a triumph of Modi leadership and recognition as a power in the region.
Americans are good in spreading the risks to countries like India, not their close ally like NATO countries , Japan and Australia, and as a result when China eventually turns toward India, It will find America unhelpful. TODAY, i could see Indian media heralding the Chanakya Modi, when the snap shots are on India TV, the meeting between him and Joe Biden. Americans know that he is a sucker for this kind of deluded importance!
There will be selfies galore of him with other leaders and leader of tech giants too! China is a super power and India is not.
As a journalist, Gowri Sathya says he is, but, has he investigated further at least one of the families of the 250 Indians who perished as a result of this terror attack? The lives of a few American families , whose family members were dead working in the twin towers . But very little is known about the families of those 250 Indians who were dead too. A similar follow up of at least one of the Indian families that missed their member tracing to date would be really a journalist’s achievement.
Better details about the attack, about the towers during and aftermath etc.. are available in the Internet.
Can’t understand the purpose of this article, when every newspaper in the world, has covered this in greater length. This topic is arguably the most talked about and analysed. For a second, I assumed ,looking at the headline, that this author was going to tie this up with his Mysuru links. If he spent time and effort, he could have found at least one of those 250 Indians died on that day, who was a Mysorean, and that would have been relevant. Well……..
The propose is clear. This author wants to say that he visited New York, and that he saw what was left after 9/11. Typical Indian pride!
These days, thousands of Indians-mostly IT techies go to USA to the work that Americans do not want to do at the pay scale offered.
In early 1970s, the city in the Mid-West where I lived had at most 20 Indian families, and I was only one from my Mohalla in Mysore there. Today, you can count on 5000 Indian families, so many that Americans are not interested in them, and they live talking only with their community.
Indians have flooded the country. I avoid them as they tend to bosst , forgetting that back home hundreds of millions of Indians are poverty -stricken.
Today Modi meets Biden, who is using Modi and India to offload chores of watching China in the seas, where as Australian PM and Japanese PM get better treatment, as they are traditional allies.
Indian pride , that is all,