remembering the day

I was in buffalo, new york, struggling through my undergrad studies. it was a beautiful tuesday morning. I had a fitness class at 9 am. I hate morning classes but I had no other choice as that was supposed to be my last semester and I had to take something to complete my credit hours. I was a few minutes late as usual, but the instructor was used to it so she didnt say anything.

After the 50 minute class I went in the library and studied for a while, another unsuccessful attempt at completing the homework that was due a few days later.

“Pentagon was tough, how did they do it.”

I looked at the desk in front of me and saw two white kids talking to each other and giving me strange looks. I had no idea what they were talking about. I was accustomed to strange looks and behaviour ever since i was in the united states.

Tired of my ramblings with the homework, I went up to the first floor of the library to check my email. While I was roaming around looking for an available PC, a friend of mine spotted me and came to talk to me.

“hey, do you know what just happened?” He looked kind of excited, kind of upset, kind of worried.

“no… what happened?” I was clueless.

“planes crashed over the world trade center buildings and both the towers have collapsed.” He sounded like a news reporter to me.

“what are you talking about?” I was under the impression that he was overwhelmed by some action movie he just watched last night.

“I’m serious, it’s all over cnn. A plane also crashed over pentagon.” For the first time I started to understand what was going on. But I was still naive.

In the mean time I found an empty terminal and quickly occupied it and logged in to the system. My friend went on his way, perhaps to break the news to some other unaware sole.

cnn.com was the first thing I typed as soon as I started the browser. The site that always took a moment to load on the super fast internet connection of the school, took a few minutes that day, only to find out that it was just a web page with a picture of twin towers, smoke coming out of them, followed by the news details. I was breathless. I could’t believe what was happening.

I noticed a commotion few feet away from me, in front of a tv screen that normally shows information related to the library and news related to the school. I figured out by then that the crowd was gathered to watch cnn and rest of the day will not be normal. So I logged myself off from the computer and joined the rest of the public who was watching the news with eyes and mouth wide open.

I saw the videos of second plane hitting the tower, the towers collapsing, people screaming and running, and pentagon burning, showing repeatedly over the various news channels. My first reaction was, dude, this seems like a hollywood movie, how could this be real.

but it was real.

rest of the day was, indeed, anything but normal. Soon a university official accounced that they were clossing the school for the rest of the day and all the classes were cancelled, and that all of us should go home as soon as possible. I got home and watched tv in the lounge of my dorms for few hours, and then went to sleep in the afternoon. When I woke up, everything seemed like a dream. But I knew it was not a dream. I checked the news again and they were still showing the same videos from the morning.

I left my dorm room and visited my friends, where, of course, the topic of discussion was what happened and what might happen next and what might be the consequences. Needless to say, everyone was shocked and unsure about the future, and most of us were scared. really scared.

After the dinner I was really fed up of all the discussions and debate we were having. So I decided to leave. Once back in the comfort of my room, I talked to my family back home. They had also heard the news and were concerned about my safety. I assured them that I was perfectly fine alongwith my friends and there is nothing to worry about. I didn’t know what else to tell them. The entire conversation took a good hour.

It was late night. I was stressed out by the events of the day. I went to sleep.

A day the world will never forget had come to an end.