It was my brother's birthday.

"It's 7:45 PM and I have been waiting here for 15 minutes. No sign of you turning up," I told him over the phone.

He replied, "The next 15th minute we will be there. Hear what has happened - there is a breaking news - terrorists hijacked 3 US aircrafts and went and crashed them - one on the Pentagon and 2 others on the World Trade Center, causing a lot of damage to all those majestic buildings."

I was shocked. Like the rest of the people in the world, I felt really sorry for the people who had lost their invaluable lives because of this incident. I wondered how human hatred could reach such a point where people wait for their fellow human beings to turn up for work and then go and crash the plane causing all those on the plane and also those inside the buildings to lose their lives, losing their own lives also in the process. They consider this as the sole objective of their life - the purpose why the Lord Almighty sent them to earth, so much so that they even give up their life for this 'sacred ' mission. If only they really loved God and knew him as their own religion preaches, they would not even imagine a thing like this! There is no religion that teaches man to hate his fellow beings. Universal love is essence of all religions.

There are a lot of implications that have come about because of this grave happening but there are three things, which really struck me. The first thing is that the common people in America have really realized what it tastes to just exist (leave alone live) one day in areas like Kashmir. That their leader is not taking any active steps to bring down terrorism in this part of the world is an entirely different issue. But it is a fact that people are really able to feel for the plight of these unfortunate people, which they did not even think of before September 11th.

When I look at Tidel Park, I feel it is an architectural masterpiece but I am reminded of the twin, 110 storeyed buildings that collapsed on September 11th. Initially I felt that the Americans are making too much ado for the fall of the twin towers but upon looking at our own monuments with a sense of pride, I can really realize how it would have been for the Americans to see their cherished assets reduced to sand and dust, all in an hour's time and that too, burying so many invaluable lives in the same pile. What a nightmarish experience!

An hoarding belonging to an insurance company that puts up contemporary and topical captions read: 'Remembering the Mahatma - what better time?' At first I did not understand what it really meant. The next day on a popular newspaper I saw the photograph of a soldier kissing his wife goodbye before leaving for the war. My heart bled for those soldiers. In a country that was peaceful until 4 weeks back, suddenly such a situation! How pathetic! There is no guarantee that he will come back from the war and this war had to be fought since these people have to return the insult and damage they had suffered. Is there no other peaceful means by which this issue can be settled, I really wondered? "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind" suddenly flashed into my mind. How true! I only feel that both races are playing a bloody game - that of making each person's home a grave and the one who does it first wins the same! God save our world!!!