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Relief and distress written all over e-mails from US Sunday, September 16, 2001

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA/AHMEDABAD: Computers screens staring at Net users poured horror and pain, anguish and agony as hundreds of mails poured in from different parts of the US, with people desperate to get in touch with their near and dear ones as New York became a target for terrorist attacks on Tuesday.

Shabana I Desai, a resident of Juhapura in Ahmedabad forwarded a message sent by her sister Shaheen, who stays in Milwaukee near Chicago which said: "Thanks for your mail of today. Please pray for our well being. It seems we are not safe here. I don't want to write anything in the e-mail. We are fine here... just keep praying for us. My kids are doing fine here. Shaz has lot of questions in his mind. I will not send him to Islamic Centre for some days. Aapa, hope you all are doing fine there. Salaam to you all and love to all the kids. Allah Hafiz."

A perturbed Shabana told TNN after receiving the message: "I am very disturbed after getting this e-mail. Though this is the worst act of terrorism which chills our spine, I want to know who will give protection to Indian Muslims living in America! Is anything being done by the government to provide security to them as well! Our government is conveniently forgetting the plight of Indian Muslims who are living in constant fear of being victimised."

Gautham Iyer, an employee at the Duetsche Bank's US headquarters, in an e-mail message to his friend in Vadodara, said: "I am alive and I have got a second birth today. It all started at 8.48 am. I just walked into the office, which is right opposite to the World Trade Centre, reading a mail. I heard a thud kind of a sound as my seat is very near to the window. Initially, I saw a lot of paper stuff falling, and when I looked up there was lot of smoke coming in and small metal particles hitting my window. I ran as fast as I could and reached the ground floor for further announcements ..."

"It's just like the earthquake, yaar ...," wrote Khyati Nayak, a city girl now studying in the US. Khyati wrote: "People are terrified ... they can't believe anything like this could happen in the US. They are sending hate-mails on the Net. I think the Americans are real nationalists."

"As my room is on the 76th floor of the WTC, I wanted to call him to find out if he is fine. So, I took the lift which were still working and went to the 9th floor. I tried calling him. Then I heard this second big sound which shook my building and saw lots of debris falling. This time big metal pieces coming towards my window. I ran fast. I ran down the nine floors in a minute ..." said Gautham in his mail.

"I witnessed one of the worst events in history. I saw everything collapse in front of me. I am not sure if I should be happy for coming out alive or sad for those thousands of people who died. There might me many friends who are trapped in it. I am fine now, but still in a state of shock. I cannot believe this has happened," added Gautham.

And, it just wasn't from the US. Mails poured in from Canada too. "Hi, what a day of terror!! I was actually afraid, because if someone can target the US, then no country in the world is safe. We could not work, and kept talking about what had happened. I heard that Nostradamus had predicted that in the first year and nine months of the new century, something like this would happen in the new city. Was he meaning New York?" wrote Dhruva Sheetal, a Vadodara girl now settled in Canada, in an e-mail to her friend.

A Vadodara-based portal, which posted a message board to connect people from Vadodara to their relatives and friends in the US, was flooded with e-mails from desperate people trying to get in touch.

"I am happy to receive the mail from your organisation. I was trying to contact my home, but could not due to the heavy traffic of phones. I am unable to contact my son and father. Could you please tell them we are safe? My brother stays in Manjalpur," wrote Jagdish Patel to the city portal.

News Source : Times News Network [India's best Newspaper]

 

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