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Five years on

Images of the sole superpower under attack are seared into our collective psyche. Air travel became harrowing and the industry went through doldrums. BHUMIKA K. asks globetrotters how things have changed for them since

Life and its meaning has changed for many since then. It's created a completely new lexicon, instilled unexplained fear in our minds, deeply mutated our psyche and made us rather faithless in one another. Fact is we've all had to learn to live with it and around it.

Five years ago today, people around the world watched with incomprehension the slo-mo visuals of two planes plunging into two towers of power which soon collapsed in a terrible metaphor. Since then we've seen train bombings, bus bombings, market bombings, threats, attacks and even as we take this edition to press, the Malegaon bombings in Maharashtra. Driving home the point that a person in New York is as vulnerable as someone in Nashik to mindless violence. From being a nebulous spurt of violence in a corner far removed from our daily lives, it's almost an everyday occurrence recorded as "yet another". Indiscriminately slicing across people and nations, 9/11 has happened over and over again, cutting the world into two distinct histories — a world before and after 9/11. It's only made us more mistrusting of neighbours, sent us into panic attacks, and taught us to live our lives believing in a world that is not planned for beyond tomorrow... if tomorrow comes.

Deep trauma

Anna Libkhen, a 31-year-old software engineer has moved on, despite the deep trauma of knowing people close to her who made it and those who didn't at New York. Now working in Bangalore for the last three years, Anna, an American citizen, talks of how though her life didn't grind to a halt, she became so cautious after 9/11 she thought twice about everything. "I didn't stop riding a plane. But I had never thought twice about a train ride earlier. And every time I travelled I thought it might be the last. Seeing security personnel all over the place now makes you feel safer but at the same time worries you that something may be wrong," says Anna. "I was right across the street when 9/11 happened... our office had moved out of the WTC's 67th floor just three months before. It redefined the word `terrorism'. Everyone became cautious. And Americans became more aware of what was going on in the world around them... they realised America was not as big and powerful as they thought it was."

Self-examination and misgivings

If it was a sort of revelation for Americans of a world beyond their borders, Asians faced a new wave of misgivings against their entire race. While on the one hand we were turning a global village with seamless travel on the cards, international travel became harrowing. It also came to symbolise the prejudices that are becoming ingrained in people's minds. "Guess what? If you have a beard and you are on a plane, reaching out for overhead luggage... everyone thinks you are a terrorist. Absolute panic has set in," says Arvind Chandra, President of the Bangalore Expatriate Club, collating some of the implications of 9/11. Arvind, who moved to Bangalore in 2005 after years in the U.S. and France, believes terrorists have succeeded in doing what they wanted — destroying faith. "If you are Asian, you are definitely profiled." On a recent visit to Greece, his passport was checked against a blacklist of 250 persons.

But Anna believes there's no discrimination: "No offence meant to anyone, but if someone Asian is seen as a potential terrorist, I'd welcome it if they are checked more. They should not mind it if they are going to come (through). After all, I'm sure Asian passengers also want to reach their destination safely."

"9/11 changed everything. Those were the days when your relatives could almost walk into the aircraft and say bye. Now you can't even carry toothpaste on board. It's ridiculous," says the 36-year-old Arvind, who works on the ITPL premises. "ITPL is probably one of the targets for terrorists. I think and worry about it every day that I may make it or not. It's something that we often joke about in the cafeteria... but it's not fun to be in a situation like that. I have seen people in the U.S. come back to work after 9/11 with Bibles in their hands."

He also feels less secure in India than when he's in the U.S., because at least the government there has done something about security since then. "I can't remember the last time here in India when I was asked to take off my shoe at an airport. But there, they make you take off your shoe and look into it, they take the SIM card out of your cellphone... here they just about do a body search."

Satish A. (name changed), a software executive from San Jose, travels to India every three months on work. "We in the Silicon Valley feel vulnerable and live in a sense of fear. 9/11 has basically meant a loss of freedom. People in the U.S. have always enjoyed great freedom and any small disturbance can change dynamics. They can't take crap for long — they either snap or don't deal with it at all."

New dimension

Heathrow also has brought with it a new dimension to these fears — how does one trust someone carrying even prescription medicine? "Talk of terrorism is more on CNN, not so much in our daily lives. Personally I don't watch TV anymore, because it's the same news every day," says Satish. This conscious decision also largely prevents his kids, aged five and two, from being exposed to this new world. While Satish has never felt targeted or racially profiled at any point, he believes such victimisation may be a vindictive response to the fact that there is a rising minority population in the U.S. that is financially better off than the local populace. "But for all that they have gone through, they have been rather tolerant," he adds.

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