Living Today...
"have you seen him...please...he is the father of 2 kids...2 babies....."
A widow cries out carrying a photograph of her dead husband, in a 9/11 footage showing on National Geographic.
"Many widows came crying to me, asking for help, asking if I had seen their husbands or if I could just locate his corpse or even a part of him. Most went home with nothing......."
-Fire chief Richard Picchiado, post the tragedy

WE all know of 9/11. Its a date that created modern day history...a date thats approaching in 4 days from today..a memorial that marks the death of 2994 people....People just like you and me. They went to work on a supposedly ordinary morning and their world came (literally) crashing down on them.

To be honest, I could not at the time register the IMPACT of the disaster. But watching a minute by minute replay in the National Geographic documentary: Inside 9/11, made shivers run down my spine. It was so rife with tension that I could barely keep myself from watching it like a normal, unattached audience. One line stuck with:
"The twin towers have collapsed. What was there this morning when we woke up is there no longer....."

I do not wish to go over the whole episode, pointing fingers at either Osama or Bush. I don't even wish to linger any more over the incredibly moving footage of tears that streamed down unknown faces or debris that scattered around making New York's posh lower Manhattan look more like a nuclear wasteland. What is gone is gone....TV networks have moved on to more upto date news...CURRENT issues. People, have *hopefully* moved on from the wreckage of that episode in their lives. But the towers have been lost and so have the thousands of people who died that day.....

A tragedy is a tragedy..its just the same...anywhere and in any circumstance it takes place. The Mumbai train blasts were no different. This violence and bloodshed has become such a routine in our lives today that going over it in this blog sounds most redundant to me. So I'll focus on stuff that we as individuals can atleast digest and assimilate into our lives.

I do not like crying over spilt milk..but I realize that whats lost can never be redeemed. It can only be remembered...period..Our loves and lives are FOR NOW...don't wait for tommorrow. Because what is today will be lost tommorrow. If you like somebody, wish to compliment somebody, want to sort out a misunderstanding, feel some tension in your heart: resolve it at the soonest and don't carry forward any baggage.

Tommorrow should be reserved for new hopes and fond memories, otherwise your shoulders will become way too heavy. Imagine spending a whole lifetime carrying forth unnecessary baggage: unrequited love, unresolved fights, friends who turned foes, grades that hit rock bottom....Just concentrate on living fully, loving deeply and letting go of things never meant for you...thats all...and thats for each successive day.

Besides reserving tommorrow for change, will avoid the sorrow that may come if TOMMORROW NEVER COMES...Its true. Life is becoming short and death, a daily occurance in the world we inhabit today. So live today and stock away all the baggage of the past.

I understand fully that things are easier said than done. My blog is replete with lessons and experiences I've had. They HAVE ALL been HARD. period. But I feel that putting it into words..like this...would help me in a catharsis of sorts and maybe..*I hope, fingers crossed* make a difference to atleast someone..among the millions in cyberspace who may come across it.

To conclude with these famous lines from a famous Bollywood movie that pay an ode to today:
"Visualize another dream today, aaj ek sapna aur dekh lo
Share another happiness today, aaj ek khushi aur bant lo
Drink up another tear today, aaj ek aansu aur pee lo
Live another lifetime today, aaj ek zindagi aur jee lo
For tommorrow may or may not be there, kya pata..Kal ho na ho"
(I'm not too sure about the order..but the meaning is down pat...for any bollywood fans:)