Shards, Memories

Om Puri, Actor, Mumbai

I was flying to New York on 9/11 for a shoot, and had stopped in London when weheard. It was horrifying, I couldn’t believe something like this was deliberatelyplanned. Its sheer callousness shook me. For weeks, I was terrified of flying. When I flewout days later, the plane was virtually empty. It also set me thinking of Palestine: howif you keep ignoring an issue, it won’t go away but will finally erupt. The powerfulshould act responsibly, the US should be a good big brother, not a nasty big brother.

Shyam Benegal, Filmmaker, Mumbai

One thing 9/11 did was breach the fortress of America. This hadn’t happenedever in US history, not even with Pearl Harbor. The heart of the country’s commercialcentre and the Pentagon were attacked. It’s also changed the way everyone looks atwar. The use of terror has been validated in the carrying on of the war. There had been somuch terror before the incident too, but somehow now it serves to validate the use ofterror in war.

Kamala Sorayya, Poetess, Kochi

At first I even thought the US engineered it. In the Vietnam era, a presidentialadvisor had said: "We may have to sacrifice 30,000 of our boys so that 30 millionwill survive." I recalled this secret policy when Bush declared a crusade. After9/11, Muslims have been treated as a menacing community, Islam was misinterpreted, thephobia grew. I’ve spoken many times in NY to convince Americans that Islam has nomalevolent intentions. To me, convincing them of the goodness latent in Islam is ascrucial as the Haj.

Mahesh Dattani, Playwright, Bangalore

9/11 is a reminder that nobody is invincible, no matter how powerful you are.Everyone is vulnerable because the method of waging war has changed, you don’t knowwho your enemy is. Post 9/11, what surprised me most was that Pakistan and India werecompeting with each other to help the US administration—when President George Bushdecided to attack Afghanistan. I personally feel that every country must be offeringdiplomatic solutions to prevent a war.

Mrinal Sen, Filmmaker, Calcutta

Spectacles first,
then Holocaust,
like napalm in Vietnam,
further back, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Close at hand, Afghanistan.
What next?
I look neither beyond nor at the tip of my nose. I’m scared.

Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Artist, Baroda

It was an earth-shattering incident, destroying all illusions that a mighty powerlike the US couldn’t ever be attacked. It had repercussions in our context...the wtcattack was linked to every Muslim in India, and there appear to have been attempts tocapitalise on this. Such perceptions seek to malign all Muslims...there are, after all,different types of Muslims, just like with Hindus or Parsis. The attack brought out a big,frightening realisation—about our vulnerability, for the issue’s the same, inPalestine or Gujarat.

Nafisa Ali, Social activist, New Delhi

9/11 taught me how negative energies can create forces so frightening they candestroy anything. Even the US, who thought they were supreme, was helpless in the face ofthis. But the disaster’s fallout holds important lessons to be learnt. Other thansome initial killings of some ‘Arab-looking’ people, the US citizenry showeddignified poise in their grief, they didn’t go on a vengeful spree. If only the Modigovernment in Gujarat had learnt from this.

Gadar, Naxal bard, Hyderabad

9/11 was a protest against US imperialism. It was a landmark event, and it’snot for us now but for history to decide whether this was an act of terrorism orrevolution. America is like a giant river which thinks it can sweep away everything in itspath, but this changed all that. It was an attack on all the symbols of US power—theeconomy, the White House, the Pentagon. America’s own planes, their own technologywas used to attack it. It was unprecedented, even Bush had to hide for several hours.

Manjit Bawa, Painter, New Delhi

For me, September 11 has set off a great alarm. Actually, the alarm is for all ofus. We have to learn to respect each other, respect even the smallest of individuals. Weneed to realise that anybody can harm us, it takes just one individual to harm another, oreven a country. You can’t play power games any more. If we haven’t learnt ourlessons from the past, from Hiroshima and from this, we’ll never learn. Look at whatis happening in Gujarat, Kashmir.

Balkrishna Doshi, Architect, Ahmedabad

The wtc episode still depresses me since the building was done by my friend,Yamasaki. The building had a new vision, it had an architectural philosophy and nowit’s gone. In the US, architecture is recognised as a ‘visual andcatalytic’ element, crucial to the culture. In India, few can figure out theimportance of architecture or, for that matter, free opinion. That’s the realchallenge, to build such a culture here. The time has come to build the India of tomorrow,with a philosophy of human compassion.

Gurcharan Das, Columnist, New Delhi

Since 9/11, we live in a much less tolerant, less free world. Governments allover, even in India, are enacting laws reducing the freedom of citizenry in the name ofnational security. But liberty can’t be traded for safety. So now, not only mustviolence and terrorism be condemned, we also have to keep a vigil on the health of ourliberty. The less tolerant and free we become, the more the victory for terrorists.They’d accomplish what they set out to do.

Prasad Bidappa Designer, Bangalore

For me, 9/11 was the end of western ignorance. It’s sad that hundreds diedbut it opened their eyes to the violence happening around the world. It also led to theworldwide crackdown on terrorism. The US is doing much more now than in the past on thisfront. At a personal level, I was affected a great deal by the extensive coverage ontelevision. I remember tears welling up in my eyes as I watched the pictures that fatefulmorning when the attack happened.

Paul Zacharia, Writer, Thiruvananthapuram

For the first time in my life, I saw the unfolding of history as a massive,tragic spectacle. I remember it for all those killed as victims of political orders,valuing power above the simple right to be alive. The men who did it are also victims. Ithink of the killers in Gujarat the same way. Only, they are alive and ready to killagain. The primary meaning of 9/11, to me, is the totality of all that US foreign policyhas added up to, till that violent day.

Yusuf Arakkal, Artist, Bangalore

It was a terrible day for humankind. It released a wave of melancholy everywherebecause someone from every country died that morning. The TV images left me depressed.It’s time world powers realised selling weapons to other countries, making them fighteach other, is a dangerous business. It all comes back to you. You create a monster, themonster will eat you. The hatred we see around is a result of economic power games. Theshastras warned us against uncovering anu, the atom or the smallest of things.

Interviews by Ranjita Biswas, Darshan Desai, Soma Wadhwa, Leela Menon, PriyankaKakodkar, Savitri Choudhury and Madhu Jain