Ten years ago on this day, the world sat in front of the TV shell-shocked, as footage of the crumbling twin towers amidst billows of smoke and debris, played out in a surreal loop.
Of the over 2,800 lives that were lost at the World Trade Centre attacks and four hijacked aircraft, 117 were of Indian origin and 70 Indian. Among them were four young software professionals from the IT major Wipro, who were working at what is now known as Ground Zero. They had been sent to work as consultants on a three-month project for Marsh and McLennan, a professional services firm.
Wipro tribute
Hemanth Kumar, who belongs to Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, Shashikiran Kadaba from Mysore and Deepika Kumar were working on the 97th floor of the WTC. A year later, Wipro named four halls in its Bangalore campus after these young lives that were lost.
When contacted, Shashikiran's family did not wish to talk about their grief. His cousin, who currently lives in the U.S., plans to attend the memorial service organised at Ground Zero, a relative who didn't want to be named told The Hindu.
Close call
Naresh (name changed), was scheduled to attend a meeting with a financial services firm at the WTC. “Three of my friends were among those who were stuck in that area. In fact, we were all supposed to go together but my colleague and I overslept. Once we got to know that there had been a blast in that area, we panicked for we were really worried about them. Communication network was jammed and we had no information on them for hours later. I will remember it as the day that I was fortunate enough to wake up late, and the day that my best friend missed death by a whisker,” he added.
Family's agony
Sudha, who currently works in Hyderabad, was among a team of management professionals who had gone to New York for a three-week training programme. At the time of the catastrophe, she was about to take the suburban train headed towards the terminal at the World Trade Centre when she heard about the attack. But the whole experience was doubly harrowing for her family. “Cellphones were not too common those days, and in any case I had not bought one as I was on a short trip. It took a few hours before I could call my family back in Madurai, and by then, my mother will tell you, she had died a thousand deaths,” she said.
