9/11: The day the world changed

I still remember the day a lot changed for the world. One of my teachers called around 8.30 PM to tell me to switch on the TV as fast as I could. I wondered what was wrong and ofcourse within seconds, I saw images which since then have become a part of everyone’s memory.

For days together, there was nothing else in the papers except the 9/11 attacks, given their sheer audacity, planning and of course the fact that it was an attack on the most powerful country in the world. We have all read and seen the consequences of the events and the racial profiling which followed. That was heart-breaking. People being offloaded from planes because their co-passengers found them strangely dressed and muttering a language they did not understand. I remember my anger at the reports when authorities justified the incidents for security purposes. Suddenly the world was divided.

For some of us who began working at the time, the impact of the event could be felt. Night shifts became more hectic. I remember we couldn’t ignore even a single act of possible terror in some distant part of the world. Not even a hoax. A joke was no longer a joke; in fact you weren’t supposed to joke about anything anymore, especially at airports. Seen the British sitcom Outnumbered? You'll get an idea.

In my visits to the UK, even though no security official has been rude, sometimes I have felt a kind of cold behaviour; or maybe it’s just a part of their job now. I’m pretty sure no one enjoys it. But I have also seen them being curt. I remember clearly in 2008 that a person from Iraq wouldn’t be let though immigration because he could not provide the name of any big city that he lived close to and the official didn’t know the place where the man did come from! Senior officials were called in. I’m not sure if the man was allowed to go eventually.

Returning from the UK this year, I remember an airline official chatting happily with a British lady who was to travel to Sydney (standing ahead of me); she spent far more time with her than was required, asking all sorts of friendly questions about family and holiday. She must have spent a good 20 minutes with her and didn’t utter a word even when the lady changed her mind about where her luggage was to be taken. When my turn came, she became businesslike and said she would have to ask me a few security questions – whether I had packed my bag myself, whether I was carrying anything for anyone else. I didn’t mind any of these questions. It’s a part of their job. But I’m sure the lady going to Sydney could have been asked these questions too. Or maybe that’s not part of procedure.

I’m not blaming security agencies. They have a tough job to do. It’s just an uncomfortable truth that we have to live with now. 9/11 did change pretty much everything.