9/11, TEN YEARS ON
Manoj and Sunita Jain with their youngest son Rishab
So, what do you tell your
children about 9/11?
ARTHUR J PAIS
For quite some time, Dr Manoj K Jain,
physician, writer and Gandhian, has been
discussing terrorism with his older children, who are 19 years old and 15 years old.
And as the 10th anniversary of 9/11
approached, he continued the discussion
with his 12-year-old son Rishab. Whenever
a terrorist activity takes place, Jain and his
physician wife Sunita engage Rishab in discussion.
Not all Indian-American parents have the
same attitude towards 9/11 and other acts
of terrorism including incidents in India. In
case they were bullied in school or jeered at
on the street, some parents bluntly told
their children to declare they were Hindus
or Christians or Jains and that people of
those faiths had nothing to do with 9/11.
Some parents kept their young ones —
especially those below age seven or eight —
off television. Others who could not stop
their children from watching the recap of
9/11 horror had to tell the young ones that
they were watching 10-year-old images.
