Sept 11, 2001

I do not believe in nice, little, round numbers which makes us feel good. So there is no necessity to 'look back' and be proud for something or anything. So when our tenth anniversary came, after long discussions on what to do about it, we actually ended up doing less than what we did during all the previous anniversaries.

There is always something about the way we ended up marrying. I can write a nice story on what happened but that will be more fantasy than reality. We married just like anyone else. Nothing exciting happened and flew back to US on the 8th September, 2001. At least that's what the plan was. When we reached the airport, Malaysian flight was overbooked and instead of two, only confirmed my ticket and after a minor ruckus, returned back to fight it out later.

After confirming both the tickets the next day we finally boarded the flight to the 'City of Angels'. After another uneventful flight, when I slept absolutely, instead of looking out watching all the beautiful clouds for about 18 hours. Korah picked us up and we ended up in our cozy little apartment.

The next day morning when Korah called me to switch on the television, I was in a hurry to go to office, as it was the first day after a long vacation. As I was pulling out of the apartment gate, I got a call from my brother-in-law asking whether everything is safe. While I was trying to figure whether there was an earthquake the last night, I was told that there was a terrorist hit in New York.

I think I returned back and watched TV. 3 hours difference meant that by the time I switched on the TV, it was close to 11.30AM in NYC and the towers are already rubble. It did not register at that time as I left for office or even a week later. 

When I remembered that it was only 6 month before, when we climbed to the top of the tower and spent a lot of time trying to look around.

When I remembered the brides and grooms lining up in front of the elevator to get to the top and get married, I was thinking how many were waiting there that day. That is when it registered. It was surrealistic.