Remembering Sept 11, 2001
M17 - Routine interrupted – the world within the common room - 9/11
Back in Melbourne...
Sept ‘01
The newness of the experience was wearing off and routine was taking over, friendship with words had not been struck yet, friendship with people however was growing.
The diary entries were turning drab, monotonous and a space for venting out what was possibly a first brush with ‘homesickness.’ There were lean phases, boring days, slow days, sad days, days of wanting to take the first flight back home, visit for a few hours and fly back asap. to own room and free space!
After writing out one such entry I went off for the much needed walk and followed up only a month later.
17th Oct ‘01
“…after I wrote the last few pages, went outside for a walk(wanted to get away), cried my heart out and went to the common room at 10 or 11 pm, sat down and watched the news and the rest is ‘history'. All of a sudden the news channels flashed a news story which had just reached them – the plane going into the World Trade Centre.
And then slowly and gradually news unfolded in real time and now the world is not the same and then I thought about what I had written in the previous pages and thought how foolish I had been. I mean, I have everything I could possibly want yet I don’t realize how fortunate I am. Well..it’s been a little more than a month since I put that down and I find myself in a similar state of mind again – a state of restlessness.
Maybe this is adolescent fervour reaching me at age 20 but I want to do something worthwhile, the whole clichéd thing about making a difference. The only thing is that my instinctive intentions are to make a spectacle out of the difference which is only rarely possible; people who make a difference are inconspicuous normally.
I didn't record any specific images or reactions to 9/11 in the diary, my mind was only beginning to make sense of the chaos that is the everyday-world today. that time was all hazy. But now, in hindsight, i recall the room, the television and the experience of watching, all so clearly, it must have impacted in some way...almost like a visual memory saved, frozen to be made sense of only much later..
In that common room...watching the wtc collapse in real time on television, tuning in to the american news channels and trying to make sense as the newsmakers themselves were. Was this real? or was this the extension of the 'hollywood myth'. and just when the unfortunate event was regarded done - the second plane surprised the news anchors and....the people watching of course.
In times like these, a crisis unfolding in real time, it is ironical, but the tv watching experience, brings with it a certain sense of unity, togetherness - that day it did.
The world that i wanted to see, was right there around that television, different nationalities, multiple cultures watching the television screen, reacting, unable to react....the world was right there in that common room that day....
M17 - Routine interrupted – the world within the common room - 9/11
Back in Melbourne...
Sept ‘01
The newness of the experience was wearing off and routine was taking over, friendship with words had not been struck yet, friendship with people however was growing.
The diary entries were turning drab, monotonous and a space for venting out what was possibly a first brush with ‘homesickness.’ There were lean phases, boring days, slow days, sad days, days of wanting to take the first flight back home, visit for a few hours and fly back asap. to own room and free space!
After writing out one such entry I went off for the much needed walk and followed up only a month later.
17th Oct ‘01
“…after I wrote the last few pages, went outside for a walk(wanted to get away), cried my heart out and went to the common room at 10 or 11 pm, sat down and watched the news and the rest is ‘history'. All of a sudden the news channels flashed a news story which had just reached them – the plane going into the World Trade Centre.
And then slowly and gradually news unfolded in real time and now the world is not the same and then I thought about what I had written in the previous pages and thought how foolish I had been. I mean, I have everything I could possibly want yet I don’t realize how fortunate I am. Well..it’s been a little more than a month since I put that down and I find myself in a similar state of mind again – a state of restlessness.
Maybe this is adolescent fervour reaching me at age 20 but I want to do something worthwhile, the whole clichéd thing about making a difference. The only thing is that my instinctive intentions are to make a spectacle out of the difference which is only rarely possible; people who make a difference are inconspicuous normally.
I didn't record any specific images or reactions to 9/11 in the diary, my mind was only beginning to make sense of the chaos that is the everyday-world today. that time was all hazy. But now, in hindsight, i recall the room, the television and the experience of watching, all so clearly, it must have impacted in some way...almost like a visual memory saved, frozen to be made sense of only much later..
In that common room...watching the wtc collapse in real time on television, tuning in to the american news channels and trying to make sense as the newsmakers themselves were. Was this real? or was this the extension of the 'hollywood myth'. and just when the unfortunate event was regarded done - the second plane surprised the news anchors and....the people watching of course.
In times like these, a crisis unfolding in real time, it is ironical, but the tv watching experience, brings with it a certain sense of unity, togetherness - that day it did.
The world that i wanted to see, was right there around that television, different nationalities, multiple cultures watching the television screen, reacting, unable to react....the world was right there in that common room that day....
