New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- On a bright, clear and cool Tuesday morning in New York City in 2001, two Boeing 767 jets whizzed low through the skies and barrelled into the World Trade Center. Around 50 minutes later, about 320km southwest, on a similarly crisp September morning in Virginia, a Boeing 757 plunged into the Pentagon. The cultural, financial and military nerve-centres of the United States were torn apart within an hour of each other.

The attacks by Al-Qaeda rattled the very institution of America, sent shockwaves rippling through the planet and reshaped every bit of the world's geopolitical fabric. The trouble is, about 25 years later, a growing number of Americans have no memory of 9/11 at all - not because they've forgotten, but ...