OK so I'm back. Was away in New York for a 3 day work trip. Got in at 3 pm NY time at JFK ( think it was around 11pm India-you do the math) and the phone didn't stop ringing. Slowly got a hold of what was happening. Did a body count for all who I knew. Family and close friends were home and safe.Checked in to hotel (right next to Ground Zero-some kind of cosmic joke) and stayed glued to CNN international all night.

What was NY like? Cold and very strange. There was a Thanksgiving parade on Thursday. I who had a city on fire chose to sit at Ground Zero. I didn't know what to be thankful for.

Because I’d checked out of hotel (bags at concierge) and didn't have an address till later that night-I went to the East Village to hang out. I wanted a gentler place to brood. Amongst angst ridden coffee drinking New Yorkers I sat and thought of Mumbai.

Three days passed this way. I had a fever. I drank too much coffee. I watched too much CNN at nights. I met a psychic Taxi driver. A Buddhist photo journalist. A Lebanese Republican. Random people. In their eyes I saw empathy. The kindness of strangers.

Now I'm back. Hours responding to emails and SMSes. Catching up on the newspapers. Every one tells me the city is angry.

I don't feel anger. Only sadness.

Sadness that there are misguided young men who have been driven to such degradation that the only way out of their hopelessness is thru the barrel of a gun. They ought to be in college. They ought to have jobs and enough love in their lives to have made them turn their backs on violence. Some kindness in their lives that would have redeemed those dark hearts consumed with hatred and revenge.

Sadness that there are those who think anger is the solution.

Sadness that innocent lives have been lost. And many more will be lost-if we don't realize that anger and hatred don't solve anything. Have got us into this mess in the first place.

You and I reading this have the luxury of our education opportunity and standard of living. We are the ones who have things to look forward to, music to listen to, art and books to appreciate. We have jobs and opportunities and love in our lives.

We do not resort to mindless violence.

In fact on the occasions when we have lost our tempers –or had to commit acts of hostility we are aware of how sick those emotions have made us feel. How against the universal and primeval need for peace and harmony hatred and violence runs.

Think of how far down the human chain the terrorists have fallen to have done what they did.

What will it take to bring them and others like them back? To a world in which beauty and peace and kindness and understanding and hopeprevails.

Which is why I am not angry. Not with the witless politicians-(we elected them) not with the inefficient State (do we ourselves live lives of efficiency and accountability? ) and not even with the people who’re angry.

What we need is compassion. What we want is healing. All we need is love.

To those men who have done what they did and those who may be still roaming our streetswith gunsI say: please! Remember your mother’s kindness, your child’s smile, and a piece of music that’s meaningful or your father’s relief when you get home.

Desist from this path. Go home. I do not hate you. I wish I could convince you that there is another life-a better life. For you and me.For all of us. If you give in to your better instincts your higher consciousness. Your gentler selves.

And for all those who are outraged that I have these sentiments, who’re going to call me names -the most polite of them being a bleeding heart liberal- and who are going to flood by box with hate mail I say :please! More hate is the last thing we need.

All we need is love.

Give peace a chance!