Behind the obvious!

      Hi friends,

           I had the intention of writing something about Tokyo Olympics, the Paralympics that followed and India' s sterling performances in both these Olympics. But because of postponement for no apparent reasons, it didn't happen and the steam died down. 

                     Before I turn back again , another anniversary of the famous September 11 has arrived. This is a landmark anniversary as 20 years have passed after that fatal day, which changed the way America dealt with terrorism. It was my first trip to USA in 2001 and we were newly married. My husband left on September 4th, 2001 to California  via Washington to arrange for our accommodation. I was to travel around end of September. Technologically, it was the early era of cell phones and also pre social media.  I stayed back with my in-laws and tv, hotmail, rediffmail were the only other means to get information and stay connected. I was otherwise apprehensive as it will be real long hours by flight and I hate travelling by planes. But my love for exploring places beyond India keeps me going. My previous travel abroad was when my husband was posted in Isle of Mann, one of the British Isles between UK and Ireland. The stay in Isle of Mann and subsequent touring of London still remains special to me as my first trip abroad. Coming back to my US trip, I was preparing in every way for that debut journey. On the evening of September 11 (2001), I think it was raining incessantly for some hours in Hyderabad, and as a result we experienced power outage. That means we could not watch tv to see the updated news. My parents and my sister called from Trivandrum in our  landline to check whether we watched the planes crashing into twin towers, World Trade Center etc. They wanted to confirm whether my husband safely reached California from Washington. Naturally, we were quite shaken up to hear that from them and my husband had not clearly communicated to us whether he reached San Francisco. It was a total feeling of helplessness and uncertainty, as the only means of communicating was through e-mail which he would not frequently check. I don't remember how I confirmed that he reached safe but I was trying all possible means. Maybe a colleague or someone confirmed that he already reached the West. He was just cool and calm, when he spoke to us after that  and was oblivious to the kind of fears that we went through! After a few weeks, I headed to San Francisco with the thoughts that people like us will be heavily checked before being let off. I don't remember the security check in Mumbai airport, but after landing at San Francisco airport, I was just asked 1 or 2 questions like 'do you have pickles, sambar powder in your luggage' and that too with a smile. I felt relieved as we began our phase of life in US. 

                                   The 20th anniversary of the terror attack could not have come at a worse time, when US decided to pull out of Afghanistan after a failed war on combating terror leaving ordinary innocent Afghans at lurch when Taliban instantly conquered the presidential palace and re-establishing those nightmare days similar to 1996 to 2001. While some Afghan families, especially women and children, planned the escape to Western countries, millions remain trapped under the brutal rule. To add to that countries like Pakistan, China , Russia extend the support to this Government for their own ends. Every day, I keep praying for those women to escape that country to live freely. These kind of terrorist organizations continue to give bad name to the Muslim religion. For those uninitiated, and were too young during the 9/11 attacks, the ISIS and Taliban under Osama Bin Laden wanted to take revenge on US because of their continued support to Israel and their (US) army presence in some Middle East countries. 

                             Before I sign out, I would like to say that the performance of Indian players in Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics were stellar. But the sad part is, we will remember only Neeraj Chopra and not paid attention to the Indian javelin thrower in Paralympics who not only won gold, but also created a new record. When our total medal tally in more than 100 years of Olympics is around 36, a small country like Netherlands which has population less than Kerala,  had a total medal tally this time of 35! When the rewards for those medallists poured in from Government and other big companies, sportspersons like Aditi Ashok, the Indian men's relay team who came 4th and created a record for themselves were totally left out. Another irony is that most of these players including hockey teams had to hire foreign coaches to reach that level. There are lot of things to be said behind these obvious pictures, but I am stopping here.

Love,

Deepa.