9/11: The pain has not dulled

'Love leaves a memory no one can steal'

Joseph Mathai was at Windows on the World attending a financial technology conference on September 11, 2001. Mathai, 49, a technology executive who worked for some of America's leading financial and high-tech firms, made a last minute decision to attend that ill-fated conference 15 years ago.Read

The father who lost his son

The years may have dulled Anand Puttur's pain, but any reminder of his lost son brings the sadness bubbling back to the surface. Read

'I feel like a rudderless ship without Swarna'

Lakshmi Chalasani, a retired English teacher, still remembers every word of her daughter, and everything she did. And with her pictures all around the house, Lakshmi still feels she is everywhere... Swarna was last seen on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center on the day of the 9/11 attack. Read

'I don't want my son to ever forget his father'

Jupiter Yambem, the banquet manager of one of New York's best restaurants Windows on the World located on the 106th floor of the North Tower, was one of the 164 people present in the eatery on the sunny morning of September 11, 2001 when a plane crashed into the World Trade Centre. Hiw wife, now remarried, remembers the painful journey after his loss.Read

'20 days after 9/11 we concluded he was gone'

Neil G Shastri, 25, an information technology consultant with Scient/IXL, was working in the offices of one of his clients; financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 103rd floor of the One World Trade Center (North Tower) when the plane hit the tower between the 94th and 98th floors at 8.46 am. Kruti received his last call some 15 minutes later. He was having breathing issues from the clouds of smoke.Read

THE DAY AMERICA WON'T FORGET

'I was glad to be alive'

'It looked like a scene from a war movie. The street looked like a war zone. I chanced to look up -- then the horror of it dawned on me. The WTC was burning! I whipped out my cell phone and tried to call my wife. No signal...' Sai Narasimham recounts the 9/11 horror. Read

'The fear was in what this world had become'

Dr Ami Dave, one of the first physicians to attend to victims after 9/11, remembers that day.Read

'Where are all the patients?'

Doctor-writer Sandeep Jauhar, who was at the WTC within hours of the attack, recalls the horror. Read

'When courage and helplessness worked side byside'

For New York City's men in blue, 9/11 was a mix of both. Read

'This is war, total war'

'The air was clogged with smoke, making visibility and breathing difficult. Small groups of people gathered around radios or television sets listening disbelievingly to the news. Many sobbed openly as they heard of the extent of devastation. Stockbrokers in suits and construction workers in hardhats walked down the street in a haze, covered in white ash.' Jeet Tayil describes the moments after the World Trade Centre was hit. Read

'They robbed me of my view'

'The whole day I stood by my window staring at the huge gray and white smoke as it emerged from downtown Manhattan and headed over to Brooklyn, the Atlantic Ocean and into the sky. The smoke increased in the afternoon when the third building in the area collapsed...' Aseem Chhabra reminisces the day that shook America. Read

PHOTO FEATURES

George W Bush's response to 9/11 attacks

Photos, published by the Presidential Library, captured before and after the 2001 terrorist attacks, show then-US President George W Bush in a scheduled visit to a Florida primary school and then having to address the nation. SEE HERE

Inside the White House bunker on 9/11

Photographs taken in the White House the day terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre that show how Dick Cheney and George Bush reacted as the horror unfolded. SEE HERE

'View from 1,250 feet: One World Observatory'

Thirteen-and-and-a-half years after terrorists attacked the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the new observatory of the One World Trade Centre which has been built in their place was thrown open to public. SEE HERE

SPECIALS

Memories of another day

September 11, Saisuresh Sivaswamy realised, had changed America forever. And with it, alas, the world. MORE HERE

Teaching the literature of 9/11 in an American classroom

'The world is all mixed up these days, and America can no longer claim immunity...' writes Amitava Kumar. MORE HERE

From crisis to hope

As a nation, we have much to reflect upon, much to heal, and much to work on, but we can rely upon the resilience of communities of all faiths and backgrounds to come together and create the world we want to live in and hand over to our children, writes Deepa Iyer. MORE HERE