I wrote these lines almost a year ago, as images of horror and grief at the tragic events of September 11, 2001 swirled all around us. Many others must have done likewise. Today, as the first anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center comes around, there will be more introspection, more such reflections.
In this special remembrance of those tragic events, some of those who were in the “eye of the storm” when the two planes hit the twin towers, and others who watched the tragedy unfold from further afar, share their thoughts on how the event has changed their lives.
“We’ll never forget.”
Pratik Patel worked for Fiduciary Investment between the 90th and 100th floor of the World Trade Center’s Tower 2. When the first tower was hit, Pratik felt the explosion as their building reverberated with the shock. It took a mere 20 seconds to walk over from his cubicle to where he could see the other tower very easily. It was ablaze. Pratik was one of the lucky ones to escape. A few days later he had driven to the area and recalled, “The trains were working, the tunnels were open, and as I looked up at the sky, it was such an eerie feeling to see it enveloped still by the same gray smoke, with the twin towers gone. It will never be the same again.” His company offices no longer existed, but he was grateful that only one-third of the close to 1000 people who were on the payroll were in the towers when the tragedy struck. “A lot of the back office people come in after nine. Had they struck an hour later, there would have been many, many more fatalities.”
Today a year later Pratik says of New York, “The city is definitely vibrant and alive. I now work in midtown, 20 minutes away from downtown where the WTC was. Midtown Manhattan has its landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center (where I work), Times Square, Broadway shows, Central Park and more. I couldn’t really tell you if downtown Manhattan is recovering, given that I’ve only been there twice since September 11. There’s an anticipation of a rebuild of some sort due to many businesses in the area suffering.”
“The environment at the workplace is fine. When we moved into the new premises last November, there was some anxiety and discomfort. You can’t compare any location or office building to the place we occupied in the World Trade Center. It just doesn’t match up.” He adds that once they got over those thoughts, everyone decided they had to move forward and treat things in a professional way. His team of colleagues are young, vibrant people, but though they are back to acting as normal as ever, the underlying message is always there – “We’ll never forget”.
On a personal level, things have changed tremendously for Pratik. “I graduated from New York University in 1998 and became a working machine eager to learn and succeed in my profession. My life had become very simple — work, save, succeed and everything else will take care of itself. I worked long hours and the rest of the time was spent with my fiancée. I was happy because I had surpassed my expectations but failed to look at the big picture, which, as I see it know, became clearer day-by-day post September 11, 2001. The appreciation of life should not be taken for granted. My parents probably realize that everyday when they look at me. Their spiritual ties have enabled me to look at the world differently. I want others around me to be happy because I realize the pain that they almost suffered on that tragic day. Everything is not about dollars and cents. I’ve been to Europe twice in the past year, albeit on business. However, now I appreciate the simpler things such as beautiful sunsets in Greece, boat rides in Stockholm, driving through the country in Germany and taking the ‘tube’ to visit my cousin in London.”
“Prior to the tragedy, I was very one dimensional. Life was work, and work dictated how my life would be lived. No longer is that the case. The importance of family and happiness is certainly a big factor as to how I live my life. Though I’m not as religious as my parents, my belief in God and fate has never been higher. I’m still very driven to succeed but my job is secondary. As you know, we lost many people in our firm and quite a few of these individuals were around my age, 25. My heart broke as I cried at funerals and services for my lost colleagues, witnessing the pain and suffering by families of loved ones. Personally, I’m frustrated that it takes a tragic event such as this for me to look at the big picture. Enjoy life to the fullest because what you normally take for granted is the most precious and most difficult to replace if it is ever taken away.”
“I’m more family-oriented today than eleven months ago. I’m still very much driven at the workplace, but the people I love take precedence over everything. I had failed to realize that for a few years, but now it’s something I’ll never take for granted. Mentally and physically, I could never be better. It’ll be tough in a few weeks as we near the 11th and memories creep into my head of the events of that morning. However, I’ll be at the temple in front of God and by my sides will be my family.”
“It was a double disaster for us.”
Dr Bhupendra Patel, the Chief of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital, Queens, New York was leaving for work when he heard the news of the disaster. He rushed to the hospital to put the disaster management plan into action. That meant getting the emergency rooms ready, extra beds, staff meetings, and so on. Today Dr Patel looks at the city and the community in New York and talks of how things are since the tragedy. “I think since the Pearl Harbor disaster, nothing of this magnitude had happened in this country. The first few months were difficult for the entire South Asian community, because of the fear and suspicion with which we were viewed by the Americans who could not differentiate between the terrorists and us. That is why you saw attacks on members of the Sikh community. It was a double disaster for us; a lot of us are American citizens and felt the anguish and pain as well as the anger. But we became victims as we found that anger directed at us.” Dr. Patel feels that the Indian American community’s political clout did help as Senators, Congressmen and even President Bush stepped in to condemn any attacks on the South Asian community. Still, he feels that things have been tough for the community with the INS deporting people of South Asian origin for various reasons. Dr. Patel also feels that both the Indian and especially the Muslim community from the subcontinent must work towards educating Americans about themselves.
“No conflict between Islam and other religions”
Dr Khalid Siddique a leading member of the Muslim community in Atlanta could not agree more. He recalls that in the early days soon after the attack, the community faced anger and hostility from the American public, but there was also a desire to understand what caused terrorism and what Islam and its teachings stood for. “It was refreshing to see that after a few months there was a positive change in the attitude of the Americans who started realizing that the teachings of Islam are not what was being projected by the media, and that terrorists responded to political agendas and not to Islamic teachings.”
However, says Dr Siddique, the positive trend continued only for a few months and then it seems to have evoked some resentment among right wing communities and their representatives who started quoting certain aspects of Islamic teachings totally out of context to project it as a religion that propagated violence and vengeance. “That has been of tremendous concern to us. However I am encouraged by the fact that even among those right wing communities there are certain leaders who show Islam the same respect that they show other religions and who have spoken against the disservice being done by projecting Islam in a negative light.”
Dr. Siddique is also encouraged by the fact that the FBI and the Justice Department have initiated moves to communicate with the community, taking into consideration their concerns and informing them of their rights. But at the same time there have been visits from the FBI and other agencies to several mosques, putting several Muslim religious establishments under scrutiny, which has been disheartening, he avers. Dr Siddique says that in the job market too people with Muslim sounding names have faced discrimination. “We are hoping with time the realization that whatever happened was due to political discontent in the world and that there is no conflict between Islam and other religions, will come through to the people.” On a personal level Dr Siddique says that after what has happened he feels even more passionately about his religion than he had ever before, and though the Muslim community continues to be apprehensive about their future, they plan to attend vigils and interfaith meetings to show their solidarity with America and the people of America.
Accelerating the downturn
Dr. Patel says that the economic downturn and the corporate scandals have mercifully shifted the focus from September 11, because when the economy takes a tumble in USA the entire world gets affected. Indeed the economic downturn was accelerated in part by the disaster and several South Asian businesses were impacted. Narendra Reddy, a commercial real estate broker, says that the fall of the stock market has made investors turn to real estate, and though people are still holding tight to their purse strings, since March this year the real estate market has come close to normalcy. He said that the one thing that surprised him was that in spite of the fed cuts, consumer confidence has remained so low. “I didn’t expect the economy to take so long to rebound.” Narendra says that while the stock market downfall could not be blamed on the disaster, it definitely contributed to indecisiveness and uncertainty amongst people. However, he adds, the fear that had gripped his clients is slowly changing to acceptance that these things happen and life must go on.
Alka Bhardwaj, a residential real estate agent, says that even though after September 11 things had bounced back more quickly, business has definitely been slow since summer. While real estate has any way been a cyclical business, this time around there has been a definite impact because of September 11combined with the economic downturn. Today it’s a buyers? market and she expects things to be slow for another 6 to 8 months.
Shiv Agarwal who owns the Global Mall, a mall for South Asian services, as well as several strip malls and apartment complexes in the city, says that as far as leasing space in the mall is concerned, they have been set back by at least 6 months. He says rentals in the apartment complex have gone down from 2 percent vacancy last year to 10 percent. “I have a lot of people from the IT industry coming to me trying to figure out what kind of business can they open up in the mall. People who were earning close to $200,000 are now trying to figure out how they can eke out about $60,000 to survive.”
According to Mani Jayaraman who owns Synergy America, an IT company, the H1-B visa employees have been the hardest hit and all companies have been cutting costs. He has kept his key people, and recovery seems to be in small, faltering baby-like steps. He expects business to remain slow till the middle of next year.
Travel agencies have been hit quite hard. Ashish Dharamrup of Everest Travels says that he has not seen any panic in people who have to travel. But delays due to long security checks are causing businessmen to miss flights and not reach their destinations on time for meetings. Therefore a lot of them are switching to telephone and video conferencing. Several small companies have folded or merged with others.
Economist Dr Jagdish Sheth says that September 11 did not have that big an impact on the economy, which was already going downhill to begin with, but the reaction to the attack did aggravate things further. Prior to it the government had decided to give individuals tax benefits and that continued afterwards too. As a result when funds were needed to revitalize the economy, there was no money at the government’s disposal. Hence even though a surplus had been forecast for all states including Georgia, they ended up being negative. Corporate CEOs were under pressure to project big growth and since the country is driven not by paychecks but by wealth, they started distorting the numbers and that resulted in the corporate scandals that further impacted the already sliding economy.
Looking ahead
According to Dr. Sheth, the South Asian community has been impacted very strongly because a large segment is involved in the hotel/motel business which has collapsed, as well as owner managed businesses such as convenience stores, dry-cleaning stores, and Laundromats have been impacted. The Muslim community too has been affected and also South Asians in big IT companies have been asked to go.
On a personal note Dr. Sheth says he travels extensively and sees that the European countries are pretty nonchalant about the WTC disaster and security measures have not been beefed up. Europeans can differentiate between the Arab communities and the Americans are reacting out of fear and not out of anger because they cannot differentiate between the ethnic mixes. “It is very important to provide a significant amount of training and education to all front line service workers,” says Dr Sheth, “that will stop unnecessary harassment and profiling. I am confident things will continue to improve unless there are more attacks by Al-Qaida.”
Dr. Sheth says that he has talked with Islamic scholars and economists, as well as opinion makers who feel they are being unfairly treated. One of the key issues that come up, he says, is the question whether people of Islamic origin, when they settle in other countries are able to put the country before their religion and the perception is that they are more bonded by their religion than the country they live in.
As we commemorate the first anniversary of September 11, Dr. Patel says it will definitely bring back the haunting memories that seared the psyche of the nation and the world, but it is going to change the new generation that was born literally with a silver spoon in its mouth. “It will teach those who have been used to getting whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted that you cannot take things for granted and that there is more to life than material success. It will take time, but the Americans are pragmatic, positive and forgiving people and they will pull through this and continue to work hard and live life to the fullest.”