26/11 reminds us of the carnage that brought Mumbai and India to a standstill for more than 60 hours. Gunshots and grenade blasts, fire blazing from the Taj and Oberoi hotels, bodies slicked in blood on the floors of the CST station and Leopold cafe, a 2-year old’s parents lying dead in Nariman house, and the shrieks of helpless people trapped in the terror strike … these are the memories that haunt us even after a year since those terrorizing hours.

For most of us the tryst with this carnage was through news channels unfolding the terror hours in our living rooms. Yet, we all felt shaken and horrified at the cold- blooded massacre carried out by the terrorists. But for those innocent lives trapped there and the brave policemen and commandos fighting, it was death playing hide n seek in front of their eyes.

Innocent lives lost and brave men sacrificed. 174 lives lost, 12 policemen, and 2 NSG commandos. Kamte, Salaskar, Karkare, Sandeep Unnikrishnan are a few names who lay down their lives in this battle of good n evil. There are unsung heroes who despite losing their all, bravely saved others lives. One such person is Kang, the GM of Taj hotels, who lost his wife and 2 children in the attack, yet with tears in his eyes saved the lives of many others. The 26 year old Salvi, working with Italian Tourism, rushed into Trident amidst the firing to save the 12 Italian delegates. The brave hotel staff who did their duty till the end, giving up their lives trying to save their guests.

Those terrifying hours and the courage of these people brought tears to the eyes of all Indians; it led to a lot of anger in every Indian; candlelight vigils, sms and email campaigns followed.

But has anything really changed? One year on, the blame game has started again. Some politicians are trying to cash on unwarranted comments from some other politicians. But does the government has answer to that one question in every Indian’s eyes today — are we prepared to combat such attacks?? I guess not!!

How many of us have really remembered this incident in the last one year? It always takes an anniversary, or another similar incident to remind us of the terror attacks. Bomb blasts across India, IC-814 hijacking, akshardham incident — it always took another terror attack to remind us of these.

We have learnt to ‘move on’ in life and we just get ‘used to’ everything.

Today, while remembering those lost lives and saluting their bravery, let’s pledge to take a step forward in our fight against terrorism. One small step each from a billion Indians can create a revolution. The first easiest step we can take is not to move on and not to forget how India bled on this day, and not to get ‘used to‘ it.

Let’s not erase the scars from our hearts and minds.

Jai Hind!!