It has been ten years since that day. Time flies - it literally does. It just seems like yesterday that i packed my bags to go to Buffalo, New York to pursue a M.S. degree in Computer Science. It was a little over one year after my arrival in the US when the most unforgettable morning of my life so far unfolded.
I was in the students library around 8:50 AM EDT- Capen Hall as it was called.It was a Tuesday morning and I had a 9:30 AM class on Machine Learning (by Dr.Sargur Srihari).Before going to class, i stepped into the library to check my mail, browse ESPN.com to check baseball scores - a recently acquired habit. A crowd of students had gathered and were intently watching the TV monitors but the rest of us who had checked in to the library were blissfully unaware of the events that were unfolding.I first saw the news on ESPN - which had a small link with the headline "Terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York".
It was now clear to me why the students had gathered around the TV screens. Soon, an announcement to cancel all classes at the University of Buffalo was made.I met up with other Indian grad student friends, one of whom drove us to his home - his parents were visiting him from India and barely one week earlier, they were tourists in New York who went sight seeing - to the Twin Towers, I remember seeing the images of the planes crashing into the buildings over and over again - until I became numb.There were a number of things that i forgot to do - including informing my family that i was safe. I received an e-mail on that very day from a friend in Austin, Texas, pinging me just to make sure... that even though i was in Western New York, hundreds of miles from the disaster, that I was still alive.A similar e-mail from my sister reminded me of what i should have done and i responded back that i was safe, but not fine.
That entire semester, I was listless and fared pretty poorly at school.Baseball became my refuge, Fox29 my TV channel for escapism and God Bless America became the first song that I learnt by heart since leaving India. A lot of things have happened since then - after all its been a decade.I do not want to get into the political side of things even though the attacks themselves were the biggest political statements made since a long, long time
I used to blog at Yahoo 360 - my last blog post was in 2009 after the Yankees won the World Series.Today, I just found out that all the posts that i had made since 2004 have vanished into thin air. I have now come to Blogger to start a new blog - i desperately needed to post about my thoughts on the tenth anniversary of 9/11
It is not easy to get over it and I do not think I ever will. Peggy Noonan has a column in today's WSJ that made me realize that. The pain has never gone away - two years back on 9/11/2009 in my apartment in Minneapolis, I knew that my days living in America were numbered. I knew that it would most probably be the last time I spent September 11 on American soil.The tears came streaming back and I wept in my apartment after posting at HotAir.com which had become my favorite blog
I moved back to India in early 2010 after studying, working and living in the US of A for a decade - and here I am looking back 10 years into the past. Blogs are ultimately personal diaries - and I want to take some time to remember and pray for all those innocent victims who lost their lives - for the NYC firefighters who perished while trying to save the lives of others - for those passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, who paid with their lives to thwart Islamic totalitarians and for the brave soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan,Iraq and elsewhere.
God Bless the United States and its people. It has been ten years gone - but it shall never be forgotten.
I was in the students library around 8:50 AM EDT- Capen Hall as it was called.It was a Tuesday morning and I had a 9:30 AM class on Machine Learning (by Dr.Sargur Srihari).Before going to class, i stepped into the library to check my mail, browse ESPN.com to check baseball scores - a recently acquired habit. A crowd of students had gathered and were intently watching the TV monitors but the rest of us who had checked in to the library were blissfully unaware of the events that were unfolding.I first saw the news on ESPN - which had a small link with the headline "Terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York".
It was now clear to me why the students had gathered around the TV screens. Soon, an announcement to cancel all classes at the University of Buffalo was made.I met up with other Indian grad student friends, one of whom drove us to his home - his parents were visiting him from India and barely one week earlier, they were tourists in New York who went sight seeing - to the Twin Towers, I remember seeing the images of the planes crashing into the buildings over and over again - until I became numb.There were a number of things that i forgot to do - including informing my family that i was safe. I received an e-mail on that very day from a friend in Austin, Texas, pinging me just to make sure... that even though i was in Western New York, hundreds of miles from the disaster, that I was still alive.A similar e-mail from my sister reminded me of what i should have done and i responded back that i was safe, but not fine.
That entire semester, I was listless and fared pretty poorly at school.Baseball became my refuge, Fox29 my TV channel for escapism and God Bless America became the first song that I learnt by heart since leaving India. A lot of things have happened since then - after all its been a decade.I do not want to get into the political side of things even though the attacks themselves were the biggest political statements made since a long, long time
I used to blog at Yahoo 360 - my last blog post was in 2009 after the Yankees won the World Series.Today, I just found out that all the posts that i had made since 2004 have vanished into thin air. I have now come to Blogger to start a new blog - i desperately needed to post about my thoughts on the tenth anniversary of 9/11
It is not easy to get over it and I do not think I ever will. Peggy Noonan has a column in today's WSJ that made me realize that. The pain has never gone away - two years back on 9/11/2009 in my apartment in Minneapolis, I knew that my days living in America were numbered. I knew that it would most probably be the last time I spent September 11 on American soil.The tears came streaming back and I wept in my apartment after posting at HotAir.com which had become my favorite blog
I moved back to India in early 2010 after studying, working and living in the US of A for a decade - and here I am looking back 10 years into the past. Blogs are ultimately personal diaries - and I want to take some time to remember and pray for all those innocent victims who lost their lives - for the NYC firefighters who perished while trying to save the lives of others - for those passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, who paid with their lives to thwart Islamic totalitarians and for the brave soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan,Iraq and elsewhere.
God Bless the United States and its people. It has been ten years gone - but it shall never be forgotten.
