“As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that”
— Joe Biden
Memories of 9/11 flooded back, as US President Joe Biden called for unity in his speech commemorating Sept 11 attack on 20th anniversary.
“20 years after September 11, 2001, we commemorate the 2,977 lives we lost and honour those who risked and gave their lives. As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that,” he wrote.
We all know it is the personal and things that strike the closest that take over the largest chunk of memory space. And so it is with me too, as I recall the traumatic four days from 11th to 14th September when my sister-in-law, as we would say in jest later, ‘was somewhere in the air,’ when the Twin Towers came down in New York.
Well… it was a peaceful Tuesday morning like any other on 11th September, 2001, for my nephew Rahul Dev Sharma, who worked in a prime position at the tech giant Oracle Headquarters, located at Redwood Shores, till a phone call woke him up at his home in Santa Clara.
“Just the previous day I had seen my mother off at the airport as she was headed for India. Frankly speaking I was beyond reaction, with what I heard.” He had been cozy in bed in the early hours and little did he know that the next few days of his life, would forever stay etched in his memory, as the most unforeseen of events would start unfolding before his eyes.
“… as I recall the traumatic four days from 11th to 14th September when my sister-in-law, as we would say in jest later, ‘was somewhere in the air,’ when the Twin Towers came down in New York”
His mother Usha, had boarded the United Airlines flight on 10th September that was to go to Delhi via Hong Kong. Landed safe and sound in Hong Kong, barely had she begun to settle down on the connecting flight to Delhi with a co-passenger who was having trouble handling her baby, that all of a sudden commandos rushed in. There was utter chaos and noise as they asked the passengers to get off the flight and hustled them into transport that took them to a hotel. With no contact with the outer world, she had no clue why this was happening and was able to somewhat narrate the circumstances over one phone call in the US to her son Rahul and another call to her elder son Atul in India. All hell broke loose globally as people watched in utter disbelief as the Twin Towers came down. America had been attacked in a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the militant terrorist group Al-Qaeda!!
While calls went to and fro as we in India panicked, there was no way we could have found out where and how Usha Ji was and what were the ways and means of her coping in the face of this eventuality. Two days later she was rushed to a third country, Malaysia. Though lodged comfortably in a hotel, the family fretted, fumed and sent up prayers while she just seemed to have lived in the moment, in those grueling unending days.
Bombarded by calls from relatives, friends and numerous unknown people, both Rahul and Atul were quite at their wits end, till Rahul traced a friend, Prashant Sinha, in Australia, who could connect on phone with Usha Ji. They heaved a sigh of relief as finally they had at least some information on Usha ji and her whereabouts. It was on 14th September finally that she was made to board a flight to Delhi and finally reached home to everyone’s relief. Scared and tired nothing could have made her feel happier than being in her own country and in the welcoming arms of her family.
“At Oracle everything seemed to be normal. I remember the entire staff collected around the lake on the campus in human chain, in a show of solidarity,” remembers Rahul, even as US President Joe Biden in his speech commemorating Sept 11 attack on the 20th anniversary called for unity.
“20 years after September 11, 2001, we commemorate the 2,977 lives we lost and honor those who risked and gave their lives. As we saw in the days that followed, unity is our greatest strength. It’s what makes us who we are — and we can’t forget that,” he wrote.
The destruction of the World Trade Center and nearby infrastructure at that time, seriously harmed the economy of New York City and created a global economic recession. The U.S. and Canadian civilian airspaces were closed until September 13, while Wall Street trading was closed until September 17. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. The construction of the World Trade Center complex’s replacement began in November 2006, and the building opened in November 2014.
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