HYDERABAD: Later that evening, Sankara Velamuri was to celebrate his birthday with wife Vasantha. But it was not to be. It was September 11, 2001.
While 60-year-old Velamuri worked as a manager and auditor in the taxation department of the state of New York on the 86th floor of the Twin Towers, his wife Vasantha’s office at the New York State Insurance Fund was not far from it. Hailing from East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, Velamuri had moved to the US and worked from the Twin Towers for several years.
The two planes that crashed into the twin towers on that fateful day silenced many lives. Sankara Velamuri’s was one of them, leaving his shattered wife to soldier on alone. The couple had no kids and even after 20 years, Vasantha continues to live in the same house attached to fading memories.
But Velamuri could have saved his life had he turned his back on others.
“He was almost on his way out of the building when he went back to help a pregnant woman. He once again went in to help another colleague. Both of them survived, but my uncle could not make it,” recollected Kaladhar Bapu, a businessman in New Jersey.
“For anyone wanting to go to the US, he would be a guide, going out of his way to help. It was this nature of being helpful that took his life,” Bapu added.
Aged close to 80, Vasantha has been trekking down to the 9/11 memorial every year since, except last year due to the pandemic curbs. “September 11 was his birthday and it turned out to be tragic,” Bapu said.
While the 20th anniversary of 9/11 will be commemorated across the US, many who lost their loved ones have been conflicted by the loss, hoping the day passes without an emotional journey down a painful lane.
