It was this day 13 years ago that the USA was threatened like it has never been before. In a span of minutes the country was ablaze in more senses than one. I was in Calcutta then on my ‘every-10-months’ visit back home. I could only stare in disbelief at what was happening to the city that made me to a very large extent, to the diabolical fairytale that was unfurling on the television screen. In a few days I took the British Airways flight back to New York. The plane was empty except for a handful and no one said a word other than the basics. I went to Ground Zero as soon as I reached New York. Fall was hanging in the air and with it the smell of jet fuel and voiceless people searching for their loved ones. Below the conundrum of macerated steel lay the dead for no fault of theirs. And so we live through each year, we will not try to understand what happened, destructive destruction never makes sense, and it cannot be understood. We remember those who were forced to die, the bravery of the first responders, the tenacity of those who continued, common people who were more than common that day, the few hundred dogs who searched in the rubble night and day for survivors, and loved ones who were no more; they went into crevices and shafts where no human could go. And still they wagged their tails and cuddled up with someone who was crying. The last word in loyalty. Most of those dogs who responded to the tragedy of their best friend have crossed the rainbow bridge. But they will never move from our hearts. God bless all those who suffered needlessly that day and who will for years to come all for a group who chose to think differently.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 05:55:58 +0000