Three years ago, my best friend and I convinced our husbands that we needed to spend 2 weeks in Mumbai. While there, we also got to make a side trip to the orphanage where our sons spent time before coming home. It was an awesome trip and one that I will remember forever.
But now those memories are haunting, as the hotel we stayed at was just blocks from the Taj Mahal Hotel. Almost everyday we would walk up to the Taj area. We walked through this hotel and visited all the stores. We said when we came back we would HAVE to stay at this hotel, due to the beauty of the decor and the private garden. Now when I think of us walking around the Gateway of India monument, I do not just think of the detailed architecture I seen, crowds of people trying to get close to see what details were inside the arch, or the boats leaving for a tour. I now think of the face of the terrorist, that was arrested, walking up to the area we walked around the monument. Did they bother to stop and see the beauty? Did they follow the same path we did to the Taj Mahal Hotel? Did they walk down the same street we did and cut across the street our hotel was on to reach their target away from the Taj? Were any people we seen/met among those killed? Are people visiting the monument today and looking at the steps I see in my mind? Is the area empty, like the beach in Chennai where the tsunami hit, due to fear? What about the women and children who sit around the monument selling flowers to help feed their family? More importantly, why all the hatred? Why did so many innocent lives have to be taken, due to a handful of men looking for individuals with passports from America and Great Britain or the lives taken at the Jewish center?
India is part of my children's heritage. They were born there and spent part of their life living there and I hope to take them back for a visit. Hopefully when my children are old enough, to deal with the poverty and emotions that come with returning to their birth land, that it will be safe for them to visit the unique and beautiful country they came from.
