JOIN USKin of Indian victims yet to recover
New Jersey resident Arjan Mirpuri’s 30-year-old son Rajesh was among the 3,000 people who died on 9/11 when two airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers.
“My son did not even work at the World Trade Centre. He had gone there that day to attend a trade show,” Mirpuri said.
It has been 10 long years since but the pain and sadness in Mirpuri’s voice and expression is still palpable. “Whatever happened on 9/11 was wrong. It should never have happened. We still feel miserable and upset about the tragic events of the day,” he says.
Mirpuri will organise a religious ceremony, now an annual fixture, on 9/11 in memory of his son. “We have tried to move on in life. We have to accept God’s will but nothing can compensate the loss of losing a son in such a manner.”
Surgeon John Mathai, who lost his younger brother Joseph, says 10 years may seem a long time to many but for him the years have not dulled the pain of the “unfortunate” event.
“The loss of my brother is a loss that will never be replaced. Ten years have gone by but there has hardly ever been a day where I have not thought of him and the wonderful time we spent in New York,” Mathai said. A leading technologist, Joseph had decided to attend a meeting at the World Trade Centre at the last minute.
When he last spoke to his wife Teresa, he had told her that there was smoke inside the tower and was waiting for instructions to get out.
John feels his brother must have escaped from the building as “there were no burns, only injuries. So I’m supposing they managed to get down somehow.” But it still was too late.
John recalls that he had visited the ‘Windows on the World’ restaurant on the 106th floor of the north tower with his brother where they enjoyed their sushi meals. “I have not eaten sushi since his death,” John says.
Attorney Umang Shastri, who lost his cousin Neil, says a foundation that the family has set up in memory of Neil has served as a “distraction” that helps in not thinking about his tragic death.