I am on my way to Jesus and Mary College once again. I am conducting a Breast Health Workshop there for about a hundred students of the non-collegiate education department.
This is my second trip to JMC and it brings back so many memories. My first health awareness talk was delivered ten years ago to the students of JMC on the 13th of December, 2001. I spoke on Menstrual Health.
How do I remember the date so well? Well, there is a story behind it. I was new in Delhi. Had heard that it was an unsafe city but life for me had been pretty safe till that day. After I was done with the talk, I was taken to the canteen for some refreshments but soon enough was asked to leave the college campus. There was panic everywhere...people were rushing home. I took an autorickshaw back home and there were police checking on almost all roads. Roads were clogged. How happy I was to be back home with my little daughter!
That fateful day, the Indian Parliament House was under terrorist attack. It was my first brush with the terror in Delhi and how things fell back to normal after a few hours of commotion. After that I have heard of many terror attacks in Delhi but I guess we have 'got used to it' by now. The fear has never been as great as that particular day in December.
