A Ringside View
I get goosebumps, whenever I recall those days. The day had started as usual. We had boarded a bus in the morning and had taken the usual route from Arlington to Maryland, passing by the Pentagon on the way. Classes began and we were in the middle of a lecture when the Director of the facility walked in and informed that there had been a bizarre accident in New York. Someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre Building! He had just finished informing us when word came through that a second plane had rammed into the second Tower.
The date was September 11th 2001. We were a group of international participants, attending a training course being conducted by the US Census Bureau. Asked to vacate all Federal Buildings, we quickly bundled into the bus and made our way back to Arlington, where we were staying. As we passed the Pentagon, we saw thick plumes of smoke rising from within. There was a flurry of activity and sirens blaring everywhere. We were a nervous lot, not sure what was going on and what to expect next!
Reaching our hotel, we retired to our rooms and for the rest of the day were glued to the television seeing the action as it unfolded before our eyes. The participants of the training course were from all over the world and included Africans, Arabs, Pakistanis, three of us Indians and a few from a few other countries. In the current situation, we had every right to feel jittery.
I was especially worried, as my wife and children were in New York and I knew they had plans of visiting the World Trade Centre, sometime that week. All telephone networks were down and I couldn’t get through to anyone at that end. Finally, late in the evening, I managed to get through and to my greatest relief, all of them were safe.
That night, we had little sleep. My two companions from India and I stayed together and watched the television continuously. We were convinced that being foreigners, we would have to face some enquiry or the other. We kept our passports handy and looked up the numbers of our embassy at Washington, just in case. Nothing happened and after two quiet days at the hotel, we were informed that the training course would continue as usual. Quite a tame end to a dramatic day!
Exchanging notes with my wife, I realized what a providential escape they had had. My wife and kids had planned to visit the WTC that very day. They were ready after breakfast and were waiting to drive downtown, when they were informed that they were not going that day, “Why we are all ready”, they piped up in unison. “You are ready but the WTC isn’t”, was the laconic reply! Only then did they switch on the television set. We thanked God for his benevolence!
The drama had not ended- in the evening, my wife tried to convey the news that we were all safe to our folks back in India. The international code for India started with 91 and Delhi had the digit 1. As she dialled the first three digits and paused to check the remaining numbers, the line crackled and someone said, “emergency, how may I help you”. She had unwittingly connected to 911, the emergency number. Panicking, she slammed the phone down and told her brother, a longtime resident of the US what had happened. Within minutes, the phone rang again and the police enquired whether everything was fine. My brother in law assured them that things were fine and disconnected. They were, however, up till late in the night, expecting a patrol car to drive up and check. Thankfully, that did not happen. What a night!
The days that followed were uneventful. People were wary but went about their work routinely. I finished my training course and took an Amtrac train to Hartford, Connecticut, where my family members were then staying. As my train was reaching its destination, it stopped a few miles short. Passengers started de-boarding. On enquiry, I was informed that there was a fire at the station and that passengers bound for Hartford were getting off rather than wait. I did not have any means to communicate with my relative who was waiting at the station and spent the next hour and a half sweating in the compartment, quite unaware whether the fire that was ablaze at the station was an act of terror or not. Finally, the train moved and the relief that I felt on reaching the station is hard to describe.
The next stop on our itinerary was a visit to a cousin in Boston. She had planned to take us whale watching and we were quite happy to go, as we had never seen whales before. The newspaper headlines, that day reported of a call stating, “blood will flow in Boston”. The call later, thankfully, turned out to be a hoax but at the time we were not ones to take chances. We dropped the plan to go downtown and went instead to a place a few hours away. We definitely had a whale of a time.
A pre-planned part of our US visit was a trip to Disneyland at Orlando. We decided to push ahead with the plan and boarded a flight from Kennedy International. The flight was practically empty, our family being the largest group on board. An uneventful flight, we planned out our visits to the various theme parks, starting early in the morning and coming back to our rooms late at night. Day one and two were full of excitement. The sights and sounds were so vibrant and all of us had a great time. Late at night, we got a call from New York that my brother-in-law’s wife had gone into labour and was admitted in the hospital. He had to leave at once but insisted that we continue with the plan. The next two days, on our own, we managed to take in all the sights but with a little bit of nervousness. We were glad to be back in New York after the trip.
Our saga of adventures was not yet over. Waiting at the airport, the kids were thirsty. I picked up a bottle of sparkling water and was in the process of opening it when the cap flew off with a loud pop. In a flash, we were surrounded by policemen. Everyone was on edge and I could well understand their situation. Seeing a family with little children in tow, they withdrew without a fuss. What a relief!
We had ringside seats to events that shook the world. Now you understand, why the goosebumps?!
