Some events have the power to imprint themselves on one’s memory. One morning about four years ago, my roomie Wayne knocked on the door at the ungodly hour of 6 AM to say “you may want to watch this.” In the living room, the TV was on. His mother had called from the east coast to tell him to turn on the TV. From then on to about 2 PM I stood transfixed watching the towers fall down. If I hadn’t had to teach that afternoon, I would have been there the whole day.
A few days later I wrote a piece for Tehelka (not available anymore, I notice) which I call the Looking Glass War. Not too bad even though I say so myself. 🙂
Life is a Random Draw 
Nu,
Whenever I think of 9-11, two things come immediately to mind:
1) My mother-in-law calling at 7am to tell me to turn on the TV. (Early morning calls from your mother-in-law seldom seldom portend good outcomes.)
2) The time we spent that morning discussing our perceptions that,
despite the shockingly primitive tools used to carry out the attack, this event represented a carefully orchestrated assault on US global hegemony which would have far-reaching consequences for the world as we know it.
I believe this piece on the Looking Glass War is one of your best, and I am proud to say that I was one of the first to read it.
Cheers,
Steve
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Atanu,
Well articulated piece. “Where were you on Sept. 11?”, I think, at least for people that lived in the US, is the question for the new generation, just like “where were you when Kennedy was shot?”
was for the one that came before us. Of course every year around this time it’s an orgy of remembering, but it’s only this year that I put down the events of that day in writing.
“Destroyed forever is the illusion that technological superiority gives immunity from the greater reality of the world beyond its well-guarded borders.” I agree, and sadly this continues to apply even now, what with Katrina and Rita wreaking havoc within US borders. Natural disasters were always some third-world country’s reality, not the US’, but not anymore.
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