Editor's Note: This was written soon after the WTC attacks on September 11th, 2001. It lay unpublished in the files until I realised that here was an article that deserved to be published lying unread in my files. Here, for the first time, are Lalita's thoughts on the September 11th attacks.

The plot had it all. It was terrifying, brilliant, daring. It was a plot that any novelist would have killed for. The attack on the US was sensational. And preparing to liquefy landmarks of American power seemed almost a cinch. All the terrorists had to do was to get into the country - easily achieved with perfectly forged passports and papers. A few of them had to learn to fly a plane and what better place to learn that than in the country whose planes they were going to hijack. The terrorist pilots didn't need to be straight A students at flight school. Besides, the only classes they needed to attend were those where they learnt to manipulate the plane to fly at a certain height and in a certain direction. (No points for learning to take off and land!) That done the terrorists had to manage to get knives and paper cutters onto the plane. This was helped by the lax security at the airports. (Apparently in the US the discretion of the official plays a big role in the kind of hand baggage you are allowed to carry. If it "looks OK" to the official you could swing in meat cleaver.) And of course they needed the airport schedules.

That was all it took to expose the world's superpower, raw and bleeding. We are all shocked that anyone could think to kill thousands of innocent people in one morning. But if we could possibly set aside the horror and pain we feel at the act, we may find ourselves raising an eyebrow or two at the novelty and brilliance of the plot. In a time where countries that are beleaguered by terrorism think they have seen it all, some cunning mind comes up with a new and more devastating method of destruction. One would have thought using the human body as a weapon, made famous by our neighbouring terrorist group the LTTE, would have been the last word in terrorism. But suicide squads using commercial transportation as weapons redefines the meaning of the term weapon.

Any time we read a book and marvel at some devious plot, we must remind ourselves that some mind somewhere could be conjuring up fantastic ways to maim and destroy people. And it won't be for the next thriller. Terror strikes in real time.