2006 Scholarships

I still remember that night. I was watching Television and every channel was broadcasting the shocking news of terrorists attacks on two World Trade Center buildings.Life became still for some moments. The attack on Twin Towers in New York city, the city where statue of liberty stands, was clearly a symbol of an attack on whole civilized {?} world. And although the terrorists attacks were targeted at WTC New York and Pentagon, the shock waves were felt all over the world. Thousands of people died in the attacks. And real loss was much more than that. It could have been even worse But thanks to jesus , after all the number of investment bankers died in the unagreeable attacks is much less than number of innocent children in iraq war who died or were struck by a cool sophisticated landmine designed at cool places like the MIT or Cali - Tech. to become handicap for life !!! And as expected, USA did brilliantly to overcome the effects of shock. People standed firmly and together to show that they have the character needed to endure such times of emergency.
The consequences of 9/11 are not limited to that date only. The whole scene of the world has changed dramatically since then. A couple of tyrant regimes have overthrown from their offices. Countries have tighten their securities and have made new strict rules in order to tackle terrorism. Political equations between countries have changed in an unanticipated manner. Share markets have went through roller coaster rides. One or more airline companies suffered huge losses. Even order of social relations in some societies have changed radically, especially of those who consist of people of more than one religion and include one particular religion. 9/11 has brought attention of the world towards terrorism more than any other terrorist attack in the human history has. People are buying books over terrorism related issues in greater numbers than ever. To day terrorism is the major problem of the world. Most bilateral political meeting has talks-on-terrorism on its agenda. In almost every country leadership pledges to kill terrorism out of its society. Every country has sanctioned laws against terrorism in some or other ways. All the major terrorist groups are now banned all over the world.
So there is no deny the fact that the world is now more united than ever against terrorism. But here there is a very interesting point one could note that although the whole world is now unipolar against terrorism, the demon of terrorism itself is increasing and that with an unprecedented pace!! London, Madrid, Bombay…….the list is unfortunately continuing. We can see that there are troops in Afghanistan to check Taliban people to sprout again but they control only three four metro cities such as Kabul, Kandhar etc and in the rest ,i.e. the interior areas of Afghanistan are still under influence of Taliban . Similarly, in Iraq ,there are troops to get the hold of situation but every other day we hear of some incident claiming few precious innocent lives.
Then there is also other type of terrorism growing with an alarming rate. Recently we saw a country testing neuclear weapons in order to have better terms of trade. We should keep remember that religious affiliation of those testing such weapons of mass destructions might be different from those causing terror attacks all over the world, but both have their minds affiliated to same mentality of mass destruction.
Clearly, much more is to be done than what we were expecting. Terrorism is like a tree or plant which keeps on growing even after cutting a little part of its upper stem and not passing away until we finish it off from its roots .So perhaps what we have done so far against terrorism is only a midway house and need of the time is to go deep into the root cause of the terrorism and finish it from there.
For example, there are places in this world where people are living in miserable economic conditions and terror maniacs tend to exploit this. For someone who have nothing to eat for himself for several days and nothing to feed his kids is it a better choice to wait for some government help and keep watching his family and kids dying of hunger in front of him or to become a sharp shooter for a terror mafia in exchange of few bucks that can at least his kid’s and family’s life, if not his own, for much more days? But again, problem is also in the other end of the society. We have seen that most of the terrorists involved in few biggest terror attacks are well educated and came from a well to do economic background. Actually even in some highly literate societies people of a particular religion, not people who manipulate religious offerings to have their own mission accomplished, are indirectly blamed for all the terror in the world and no surprise that terror groups welcome this situation of social bias with both of their hands and tend to exploit people with their metaphoric literature and lectures.
But again, writing an essay is much more easier than real time work outs. but one thing is for sure that it will take more than “ARMY + MEDIA“ to solve this major threat for our civilization. Mr. Bush is, atleast in literal meaning if not in his practical strategies, correct in saying that the war against terror is going to be long.
It will be mission ENDURING JUSTICE !!!??

12:01 AM - Indian Standard Time, September 11th, 2001.

Mumbai, India.

5 people are standing around a dinner table singing Happy Birthday.

A man, somewhere in his late 50s, smiles while standing over a chocolate cake. The cake reads "Happy Birthday Dad!" He's surrounded by his wife, his son, his daughter and his son-in-law. He insists on everybody blowing the candle out together. They do. The cake is cut, and everyone eats to their heart's content. The man opens up his presents. A watch, a new pair of shoes and a framed picture of his family- that's more than anyone could wish for. He's happy. Happy that his family is with him and that he has his health. He would sleep content that night.

While he sleeps, down the hall, his son catches up on some writing. He's writing a letter to his dad. "Thanks for being there" he writes, "You've gone through a lot to get to where you are, and I hope I get to experience even half of what you have!" He signs off with "Your loving son, Nandan" He seals the envelope, and slides it under his parents' door. He falls asleep with a smile on his face. Letters are the best birthday gifts, and he knows it!

The next morning, it's back to the usual. Everyone wakes up at a different time, eats at a different time, and leaves at a different time. The dinner table, the scene of all that togetherness the night before, is now bare, occasionally visited by someone drinking a cup of coffee or a glass of juice. Like everyday, there will be no family breakfast. There's just too much to do.

Nandan arrives at college an hour late. He's missed his logistics submission and the professor doesn't seem to be in a good mood. "Nevermind, I'll deal with him tomorrow" he mutters to himself. The rest of his day is spent playing football and figuring out statistical formulae. He neither remembers his father's birthday, nor the letter he wrote. He's happy in his own little world. There is a marketing project to work on in the evening, after which he's free to head out with some friends and watch the cricket match over a few drinks. The afternoon slides into the evening, and Nandan finds himself at home once again.

"No, no, NO! The font alignment is all wrong! Just leave it aligned the way it was so we can print it and leave". Nandan nods in agreement with his friend's suggestion and proceeds with the print-outs. The project is almost over and the two friends are looking forward to a few cold beers.

"Nandan!! Come here, now. You have to see this!" a voice yells from down the hall.

The two men look at each other wondering what happened. They rush to the living room and watch in awe as the television shows a plane flying straight into a building. The next 10 minutes are spent silent. In disbelief. As the building collapses, people are seen jumping out of windows. The news reporter has tears rolling down her face as she tries to describe the situation as calmly as possible. News reports claim two planes have flown straight into the World Trade Center in New York. The scroller at the bottom suddenly flashes with news of another plane, seen to have crashed into the Pentagon. Suddenly, beer and cricket don't matter.

Two hours later, and every news channel in the world has reported the disaster. The family is once again together, frantically calling everyone they know in New York to make sure they're ok. Everyone is safe. They finish their dinner and eat their leftover cake. They all go to bed without saying a word to each other. Nandan, as well as his sister, find a thank you note on their beds.

"Thanks for the presents! Love you, Dad"

They fall asleep, numb.

The next morning, everyone is awake at 7am. They each find their way to the dining table. They speak, they smile. They talk about their day ahead. The morning newspapers have more details on the catastrophe. No one wants to talk about it, but everyone is thinking about it. And also thinking about each other. Their day begins, but this time, it begins together. There seems to be an unspoken pact between them now. The day WILL begin together.

---

I didn't have anything to do with America or American politics in 2001. I felt sad for the loss of lives and for the savage manner in which the 9/11 attacks were carried out. But I also somewhere felt very alone. And so did the rest of my family. The morning of September 12th, each of us realised how lucky we were to have each other, and how that could change in an instant. We just had to make the most of the time we had.

We've eaten breakfast together ever since.

---
The End.

hey widerebel congrats man!!!!

i wish u have same success in real mba admission essay

hey eric where is criticism for my essay man? : how m i gonna learn without knowing my mistakes? :roll:

Congratz Nandan... Keep it up!

Eric,

It woulda been better if you comment about every essay, I know that would be difficult too. Anyway this is a great one.

First of all congrats wildrebel.... what you said btw? cant let aim win one more scholarsip! huh!

beatthegmat wrote:
Overall, again, great work! You should be proud of your writing--I hope you can translate your excellent prose to your GMAT essays!

Eric,
He 's already done with his GMAT ( 710) & I think he might have submitted quite a few applications to the schools bynow.

@ajith, cooldude, wildrebel,

while writing on such sensetive issue, try to be as neutral as you can.
also in real life we meet people from diverse community. we should learn to respect their opinions and learn to understand their perspective of looking at (err) life.

aim-wsc wrote:@ajith, cooldude, wildrebel,

while writing on such sensetive issue, try to be as neutral as you can.
also in real life we meet people from diverse community. we should learn to respect their opinions and learn to understand their perspective of looking at (err) life.

Thank you for providing the suggestion, but I dont know how neutral one can be when he is opinionated strongly in one way ..

great work there ajith . GOOD MOD .

ajith wrote:
Thank you for providing the suggestion, but I dont know how neutral one can be when he is opinionated strongly in one way ..

dont worry, will start a new thread for opinions & opinionated ppl.

That would do ....