9/11 documentary

In my post exam lethargy I borrowed a DVD from the county library called "9/11- A filmmaker's commemorative DVD". Not really sure what to expect I sat down to watch it yesterday and was completely blown away. Let me be honest, it's not a great documentary in that it's not brilliantly made. But the sheer power of the raw footage on display is enough to overcome that. It's been a few years since 9/11, some of the goodwill generated for the US of A on that day has dissipated and many in India have argued: look, we have our own disasters and own tragedies. We don't make the fuss that you guys do. Move on with your lives.

Actually I realised yesterday why that was so wrong. In India we don't honour our dead enough. I'm not just talking about Kargil, but also about victims of say the Orissa cyclone where over 10,000 died just a few weeks before 9/11 or the earthquakes in Gujarat and Latur. There are a few human interest stories in magazines and then we forget and move on. I know we must move on, but I think sometimes it's good to sit down and remember that behind each tragedy (whether it kills 20, 200 or 20,000) is a story and much grief that we must occasionally recognise. And the documentary helped me to do that.

I remember on the second anniversary of 9/11 when they were painstakingly reading out the names of the dead, someone in the room saying to me: oh god, what a bore, are they actually going to read 3000 names? On hindsight, well, why not? Each life lost there was precious and even if I don't agree with how the Bush administration has handled things since then (or before that), what's wrong with reading out the names of the dead- it reminds you that those who died were not 3000 people unlucky to be caught in the WTC or the airplanes that day, but actually people like you or me. It is indeed a very humbling thought.

Apart from containing the only available footage of the first plane crashing into Tower 1, it also contains incredible footage of the courage and calm of the New York Fire Department. What I found most moving was the fact that hours after having escaped with their lives and a quick shower, all of them were willing to go out there and start searching for survivors. There was no bravado, no heroism, no jingoism- just shock and weariness on their faces and the knowledge that they would have to go right now and rescue those they could.