"The falling sky"
Just one hour of a beautiful Tuesday,
Just a few minutes of life, like any day,
Just four speeding planes and a usual busy
Man-hattan Pentagon,
A proud America believing, no one on earth
dare strike at her belly,
But the sky came crashing on earth,
Engulfing cloud of dust chasing screaming
people into streets,
Hundreds of panicked faces in the
towering inferno
cries for help..help....help
collapsing ceilings...falling pillars...
the Titanic of land came down,
merged in the sea of fire and smoke.
Pearl Harbour of new century in the making...
Oh God! forgive them for they not know
what are they doing !
Let's not be a party to savage war cry!
May the victims' souls rest in peace...
I wrote this on first anniversary of 9/11 and submit it again on the tragedy's fifth anniversary. But after submission, certain thoughts made me confused - why are the Indian Media and the Indians madly aping the Western Media and carrying the sentiments of the West while in business, cultural andpolitical interest of ours are so diffeent from theirs.
Is the time ripe for USA-UK's top political and business class to realise that being world leader owes a lot of moral responsiblity to act in an equitable and just manner in any regional crisis without fervour. That was found wanting even in Israel-Lebanon crisis just a fortnight back. Has the USA become so rigid, that it forget to learn from historic blunders! If that be, who will be responsible for the death of the innocents in American land? Without being fanatic and not being a Muslim, I believe, the citizens of USA has to ask the answer from their own selected representatives.
Secondly, is USA citizens weeping for those millions of innocent citizens killed and still being killed in India, Palestinia, Iraq and Afganisthan? Answer is No. US Citizen have a world that is restricted within the boundaries of USA and at times may stretch to Europe and White-nations. But being a country of researchers, US citizens must be aware that social discrimination by those in power feed religious radicalism and lead to fanatism as we witness now across the Muslim world. And USA playing politics of geo-political business interest for centuries, has pushed itself into a situation where its own frankestein is killing its master.
Many may forget but how can we term the greatest man-slaugher of human sivilisation ws committed by USA at Hirosima-Nagasaki, but still can carry the aura of being champion of of protector of human lives and human attitude across globe.
It is a setback to Indian democracy and a tragedy too that Indian media is spending more sound bytes on 9/11 and USA tragedy year after year, while killing of innocent children and women and men by butcher Bush-Blair attract no coverage in anniversetries. Our media don't find it auspicious to remeber those innocent lives lost in Iraq, Afhgan, Palenstinia - the number is many times more than 9/11, that is the irony. We also imitate media. Do we Indians remember our own innocent citizens - the 93 blast victims, or pay homage to Jalianwala Bag victims, to take vow against it? No. India has long missed the bus.
As far as tragedies in India, we have added a few new customs in remebering death - we now carry candle and place flowers. Good or bad - its mad following of western white-culture. Like we have aped Valentain's day, Father's day, Mother's day to allow card companies to do brisk business!
Let 9/11 not be a day for only remebering Americans who lost lives in four locations in USA alone, but also a time for remembering those Indian,Iraqi,Palestinian and Afghan brothers and sisters,who lost lives, for no fault of theirs. Lets pray for the innocent Indians became victim of various terrorist strikes in India sponsored by ISI with tacit support from USA-UK. Lets pray for the thousands of innocent Iraqi Children and women and men murdered in Iraq war faught under a lie by USA-UK( no WMD, no Al-Quida Link ), and a huge number of innocents lost right to live in Afghan due to USA's selfish intention to protect its own groundtroup by using carpet bombing strategy. And the latest addition to the horror called USA's dirty politics called Israel's bombing and destruction of Lebanese citizens, unprovoked.
USA's list of crimes mounting. Imran Khan in his latest TV interview was right when he said, the issues raised by a section of disciplined Muslims and Laden on USA over Palestinian, was justified. We cannot disagree that. Let's pray that the world become a better place to live by thinking that human lives whereever be have same value to Indians and remeber their demise with equal grief.
Dated: Sep 11 2006 ( republished)
My comments 5 years back:The crux of the blog is " innocent human lives lost at any corner of the globe is a great loss." it hardly touches upon communist or muslim fanatics or for that matter fanatics of other religions. we, the people, who are not fanatics and do not represent any vested interest, feel quite amused at the immaturity of indian tv and news media that is dancing with the tune of western media[ result: world has become more dangerous to live for us and safer only for usa]. western media don't light candles for the lives lost in india,lebanon, iraq or afghanistan. politically and historically, last two counties have deep rooted ties with india since time immemorial. religion is like clothes to a civilisation. today we wear one, tomorrow we change and dress with another. take a ancestral route of the indian muslims, majority of them have ancestral link with hindusim, budhism... so, if we want all faiths to live in a secular fabric in a secular democracy, the urge should come from within to respect human lives wherever it is lost for no fault of theirs. we should not pick and choose those as dictated by western media.we should yearly pay homage for the lost lives of Jaliwanbagh, Mumbai blasts 93, 7/11,5/26. western culture does not always represent the best of attitude and best of human engagement best exemplified by jaliwanbaag massacre and hanging of bhagat singh-trio. when we are talking so much about global village, world turn into a small coffee house, like the one here, we need to realise there should not be any politics in showing respect to innocent human souls who untimely left the earth.
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