Susan introduces me:
We heard little
about our next speaker Mr. Chandra on his ice breaker speech. For those of you
who were not there on his first speech, He is environmental engineering
master’s degree holder, a runner, peace lover and he loves traveling. He is a reserved and shy guy but once you
break the ice, he is not only fun to talk to but his experiences are worth
listening. He is here to share an experience from his life.
Speech:
“That’s
why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t
cower in fear, “We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we
love.”
Mr. Barack Obama
said at the peak of his speech; during an interfaith service at the Cathedral
of the Holy Cross In the commemorative speech post Boston bombings.
There
is a reason for me to quote this. I was
one of the half million spectators for the Boston Marathon April 2013. My
cousin Ravi who is an elite runner, my inspiration ran that year. As an ardent
lover of the sport, I went to Boston to cheer for him. This is my experience.
My brother and his family, I and some of our family
friends gathered in one of our relatives place the day before and all of us
went for a good sightseeing. Boston! What a historic town. I loved the place.
On the race day morning I dropped my brother at the
pickup area where all the runners will be picked. I came back, got ready and
started again with my brother’s wife, his daughter and couple of other friends.
We had to park the car and take the train to downtown. There is no way you can
reach downtown on your car. We parked our car very far and walked to the
station. We got down at one of the stations in the middle
We
waited at the mile 16 of the marathon course to spot and cheer for my brother.
Waited for almost 45 minutes but spotted him. Identifying runners in
a pool of 26K people is quite tough. But we spotted him, cheered him and I took
a picture too.
We
moved forward and took another train station to reach to finish line. The train
was full and it did not have even space to squeeze in even one person. Nisha
took my phone and played Ninja fruit game and drained all the battery. I
got off one stop before the finish line to cheer for Annayya called Kenmore and
rest of the guys went to finish line. Looked for him but could not find him. He
passed already and finished the marathon. I might have missed him by minute or
so. I started walking towards the finish line to meet him at the finish. It was
a 25 minutes’ walk towards finish line. All of us met at the family meeting
area. We suddenly saw people running towards us. All of us stepped into this
restaurant by the road. Then we got a
call from another cousin from Sacramento to check if everybody is fine. Until then we do not know about the couple
bomb explosions near the finish line. I missed the explosions in less than 10
minutes.
We
could see the things live which are two blocks away in the TV. Phone signals
were okay for some time and later they got blocked. Sent messages to near and
dears saying we are fine. My phone was dead very shortly. I could charge my
phone a bit with the help of a waitress.
I have
asked the attendant of the restaurant the best way to go to airport. He gave
some direction to go to train station. I am not good in directions and of
course I am in panic mode. Gave good bye to everyone.
Boston downtown was like
a hassle. I could see fear in everybody’s face. Police and emergency Siren
everywhere. With the little charging I got from the restaurant I called you
walking towards the train station. People are talking like public
transportation is closed. Walking towards the train station which is like 6 or
7 blocks away. So much drama (police, siren and traffic) even during the
way to airport.
Somehow I made it to the
airport. Can you imagine a power
loss at the airport. I have gone through the security check and
finally made it to my plane. You must know that Boston airport is very complex
that there are at least 200 feet elevation escalators. Finally I took my plane
and made it to San Diego.
My thoughts are with my
brother and his family for their safe return.
Later, I came to know 3
people died and nearly 300 people got injured badly.
Like the rest of the world, I have been angry,
confused, and saddened. I wanted to do something. Anything!
All I could do is to run.
I ran harder for those who could not run. I
dedicate my 1000 miles to the deceased and the victims of this incident.
Incidents like this will show the world how
strong Americans are, how supportive the Bostonians were during the operation
to catch the people who did this attack. Twenty six thousand people ran the
race in 2013 and 36K people ran the race the following year. I could relate this with a quote from a
famous writer. “How do you
defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”
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