In short
Survivor Sujo John recounts September 11, 2001 from inside the World Trade Center—his escape from the North Tower after American Airlines Flight 11, his wife Mary’s survival in the South Tower after United Airlines Flight 175, and their reunion at the Javits Center/Weehawken ferry. He also describes decontamination, later purpose, and founding You Can Free Us to fight human trafficking.
Guest backgrounds
Sujo John grew up in Calcutta, India; his sister died of leukemia when he was about nine. He moved to New York in February 2001, worked as a marketing executive for Network Plus on the 81st floor. Mary John worked on the 71st floor in the South Tower.
Key claims
Both survived despite being in opposite towers and Mary being pregnant. Sujo credits help from responders and an FBI agent who pulled him from debris. He says 9/11 inspired his anti-trafficking work.
Notable examples
Hearing Flight 11 at 8:46; trying to call Mary via landline; South Tower collapse at ~9:59; crawling toward an ambulance’s red light; Mary’s tie-identification while watching people jump; Sujo’s later visit to Delhi’s red light district and founding You Can Free Us.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOA Survivor's Introduction
0:20 to 1:45
Sujo John introduces himself and sets the scene for September 11, 2001.
“On September 11, 2001, Sujo John went to his job as a marketing executive for a telecommunications company in New York City, on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower.”
Early Life and Moving to America
1:45 to 6:10
Sujo shares his childhood in India and his journey to New York City with his wife.
“Sujo John grew up in Calcutta, India, a bustling city of millions, with many living in poverty.”
Life Before 9/11
6:10 to 10:44
Describing the couple's life in New York City leading up to the events of 9/11.
“They made trips to Babies Are Us to buy supplies and prepare for the baby's arrival.”
The Morning of September 11
10:44 to 12:21
Sujo recounts his routine and last moments with his wife before the attack.
“my pregnant wife, who had actually called me by then before the plane crashed in.”
The Attack and Immediate Aftermath
12:21 to 14:00
Sujo describes the impact of the plane crash and the chaos that ensued.
“Then Sujo realized that he could only reach local area codes from the landlines, like 718 or 212.”
The Descent and the Heroic Efforts
14:00 to 16:48
Survivor recounts selfless acts while escaping the North Tower.
“you know, those that wear high heels, and I remember some of them having to take off their high heels, and there was glass on certain floors.”
The Collapse of the South Tower
16:48 to 19:46
Witnessing the chaos during the collapse and the struggle to escape.
“do not turn on your left, turn on your right.”
Aftermath and Reunion
19:46 to 24:21
Navigating the aftermath and the emotional reunion with his wife.
“Sujo and the man crawled out of the wreckage of the concourse up the street level and walked towards the ambulance.”
The Call Home
24:21 to 28:00
The emotional call to his parents and the relief of survival.
“And so I make my way by Javits Center and I see my wife and that was the most incredible moment as we hugged and cried.”
Surviving September 11: A Personal Journey
28:00 to 30:24
Listen to Sujo recount his harrowing experience during the September 11 attacks and the immediate aftermath.
“And pulls my wife and says, Your husband's going to be okay.”
Show all 12 chapters
Finding Purpose in Tragedy
30:24 to 33:04
Explore how Sujo transformed his trauma into a mission to help others, leading to the founding of You Can Free Us.
“Because I often feel like, you know, we plan for life, which is good and great, but life could be short.”
Reflections on 9/11 and Legacy
33:04 to 34:28
Hear Sujo's reflections on September 11, his personal losses, and the legacy he wishes to leave in the world.
“an organization that works to save women and girls from human trafficking in India, Eastern Europe, and around the world.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Mary John:Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.
0:14Mary John:From Audible Originals, I'm Mike Corey and this is Against the Odds. In their own words.
0:29Mary John:On September 11, 2001, Sujo John went to his job as a marketing executive for a telecommunications company in New York City, on the 81st floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. At 8.46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building as the terrorist attack on America began.
0:52Sujo John:I hear this incredible explosion. And for a moment, I thought my eardrums would burst. And the building started shaking. This thought hits me. What if I don't make it out of this building?
1:04Mary John:As Sujo hurried to the stairwell to start the journey down from the 81st floor, all he could think about was his pregnant wife, who worked in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
1:16Sujo John:My name is Sujo John, and this is a story of how I survived the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
1:23Mary John:Today, Sujo John is here to tell his story. This is 9-11, A Survivor Remembers.
1:45Mary John:Sujo John grew up in Calcutta, India, a bustling city of millions, with many living in poverty. His family was middle class, and his dad worked as an engineer for a Canadian company. Despite his fortunate circumstances, Sujo says he had to face tragedy early in his childhood.
2:04Sujo John:When I was about nine years of age, I watched my only sister die to leukemia. And that's when I was first confronted with this reality that there is something called death, there is something called suffering, and that no one is always promised a good day or a good life. We all had to deal with the sudden loss of my sister.
2:24Mary John:When he was about 10 years old, Sujo remembers watching the 1984 Olympics on TV and seeing American track and field athlete Carl Lewis win four gold medals. And from that point on, he gravitated towards anything and everything American. Sujo earned business degrees in India. He married his wife, Mary. And in February 2001, the newlyweds moved to New York City, looking for opportunity.
2:51Sujo John:I came to this country thinking, wow, this is a country where dreams and dreamers collide.
2:58Mary John:Sujo was 26. His wife Mary was 25. The young couple landed at JFK in the middle of a blizzard. Sujo had never seen snow. He had$50 in his wallet and two credit cards. Their first task? Find jobs. Mary found work at Morgan Stanley as a mutual fund accountant. She worked on the 71st floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower. It took Sujo a little longer to find work. In the meantime, he accompanied Mary into the office.
3:28Sujo John:My starting point in my life in New York was the World Trade Center. We would take the bus from New Jersey into Port Authority, which is right in Midtown, Manhattan. And then from there, we'd take the train, always the E-train, that would take you to the basement of the World Trade Center. And so I would say goodbye to my wife and then walk around the city.
3:48Mary John:One day, Sujo happened upon a job fair in the World Trade Center complex. Network Plus, a broadband telecommunications company, invited him to do an interview with them at their office inside the World Trade Center.
4:01Sujo John:My friend now, who was our HR executive, her name was Heidi. I remember her taking me to a conference room and she pulled down the blinds. And as she's pulling down the blinds, she says, so how long have you been in America? And I said, it's just been a few weeks. And then she pulled down those blinds. And then lo and behold was this incredible view of the New York Harbor and the Stratul Liberty. And I remember just staring at that saying, wow, I could just work here just for that view.
4:30Mary John:Sujo started work as a marketing executive at Network Plus. Conveniently, both he and his wife Mary now worked at the World Trade Center so they could commute together and have lunch together. They would often sit outside in the plaza between the two towers. near a memorial to the six victims of the 1993 al-Qaeda terrorist attack. Sujo loved working at the World Trade Center. The complex consisted of seven buildings built across 16 acres of land, connected by an underground mall. Around 55 ,000 people worked there each day, and thousands more visited, a massive intersection of humanity. Sujo says, in a way, the World Trade Center reminded him of home.
5:13Sujo John:It felt like Calcutta almost to me. thousands of people would make their way in and through the World Trade Center in the morning hours. It was its own city. There were banks. The World Trade Center had its own zip code. There was so much of activity and energy there. And also the most amazing part of New York that I experienced at the World Trade Center was truly that the world came to do business there. There were people from all over the world speaking all kinds of languages.
5:39Mary John:Sujo and his wife Mary lived in Teaneck, New Jersey, a small town not far outside New York City. It was an easy commute away from the bustle of New York, and they rented a small one-bedroom apartment in a brickstone building.
5:53Sujo John:It had a beautiful garden, and it had an easy access to the bus stop that would take us into New York City. Life was good for Sujo and Mary. The most exciting thing beyond the fact that we both had jobs now was the fact that my wife was pregnant. And we were so looking forward to the birth of this child, our first child.
6:13Mary John:They made trips to Babies Are Us to buy supplies and prepare for the baby's arrival. They were nesting. Mary was about four months pregnant on September 10, 2001. Sujo had taken the day off to take a test to get his U.S. driver's license. He passed. And afterwards, he played a game of tennis with a friend. It was a good day. The next morning, September 11th, he hurried to get ready for work because he wanted to get into the office a little early and catch up.
6:45Sujo John:As I'm getting ready and then I leave the apartment to catch the bus, I remember my wife's last words to me. She says, let's catch up for lunch at the World Trade Center. I remember the number of the bus even to this day. It was a New Jersey transit bus, 168. I remember getting under that bus and then as the bus makes its way through Lincoln Tunnel and you're right in New York City in Midtown, I remember looking up to the sky and seeing a beautiful, clear, cloudless sky. The sky was as blue as it can get. It was a beautiful day in New York City.
7:19Mary John:He took the E-Train to the World Trade Center and got off in the basement of the building. He swiped his card and said a quick hello to the security guards. It was maybe a little past 7.30 a.m.
7:30Sujo John:I get off the elevator, make my way into the office, and our office on the 81st floor, surrounded by glass, had beautiful views of New York City from different directions. And I remember making my way to my cubicle, and a few people had already made their way in. And as I'm talking to my manager and a few other guys that had showed up, they all asked if I'd passed the driver's license test, and then they wanted to see my picture on my driver's license. And so everyone was asking people to pull out their driver's license. And we were looking at some of their pictures and people were laughing and, you know, kind of joking around about some people's pictures on their driver's license.
8:10Mary John:Then Sujo got to work. He needed to fax some documents to the company office in Philadelphia. At 8.46 a.m., he was standing by the fax machine near some windows.
8:22Sujo John:As I'm sending this paperwork over, I hear this incredible explosion. and for a moment I thought my eardrums would burst. For me and for others on my floor, we had this realization that it had to be a point. What else could hit you at that height? Because there was a sudden jolt and the building started shaking, started swaying to the left and the right. And then what followed was the cubicles and the walls that we had in our office, they all started collapsing, especially in a certain part of our office. There's a twisted steel and cable and kind of smoke in our office floor and sprinklers are on in some places.
8:59Sujo John:So suddenly there's just chaos and there's people in our floor screaming. And I remember one of the things we did as things were falling around us and the building is shaking. I remember hitting the ground, our faces flat on that carpet. And as I'm lying there, this thought hits me. What if I don't make it out of this building? I might never get to see my wife again. and I'm never going to see the child she's carrying. I'm never going to see my parents.
9:28Mary John:American Airlines Flight 11 had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, about a dozen floors above Sujo's office. But Sujo didn't see the impact. He could only guess what was happening.
9:40Sujo John:I remember a couple of guys rushing out, and someone screaming, is there anyone in the restrooms?
9:47Mary John:Some of Sujo's colleagues tried knocking on the women's bathroom door, but it wouldn't open because part of the wall had caved in. So they kicked down the door and helped a woman get out. There was smoke, and people knew the building was on fire.
10:01Sujo John:The elevator banks were right in the middle of the towers, but the jet fuel had come down the elevator shaft and balls of fire were literally shooting out of that place. And then our manager, who is one of my heroes, his name is Mike Banfante, he rallies us and he says, we've got to beat this fire. We've got to make our way towards the nearest stairwell. And so all of us, we left everything. We didn't even go get anything. We quickly rushed towards the exits.
10:32Mary John:Sujo and about 27 of his co-workers began heading down a stairwell. As Sujo ran down the stairs, all he could think about was Mary.
10:40Sujo John:There was this fear that gripped me because I'm thinking about my wife, my pregnant wife, who had actually called me by then before the plane crashed in. She had called me saying, I've left home. I'll see you at the World Trade Center.
10:54Mary John:Mary would always try to get to work by around 8.40 in the morning before the financial markets opened. As he walked down flights of stairs, Sujo began trying to call his wife.
11:05Sujo John:I tried to reach her through my cell phone. I borrowed the phones of all the people, especially my co-workers, trying to reach her. But cell phones would not work. My friends were trying to calm me. They all knew what was going through my mind. And so as they were trying to convince me that everything was going to be okay with her, I knew those words were just empty because no one really knew what was going on. And suddenly another explosion.
11:32Mary John:It was around 9.03 a.m. and United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center, where Mary worked. Sujo heard the impact. But he kept descending along with everyone else. and despite what was happening, Sujo says everyone was nice and orderly, with no pushing. He was having trouble reaching Mary by cell phone, and it occurred to him that maybe he could reach her on a landline.
11:58Sujo John:I said goodbye to my friends who were running down with me, and I entered an evacuated office on the 53rd floor. There was nobody there, but I remember it was some kind of a bank. I remember making my way there and grabbing a landline, So when I would try to reach my wife, it would just, there was nothing. There was no voicemail, no nothing.
12:21Mary John:The phone sounded dead. Then Sujo realized that he could only reach local area codes from the landlines, like 718 or 212. Mary's cell phone had a long-distance area code.
12:34Sujo John:I remember calling up my cousin, who also lived in New York, and his wife picked up, and then she was just casually talking to me. and I just remember telling her, I'm in a rush, I can't just chit-chat with you, turn on your television and then get my cousin on the phone. And I remember she passing the phone to him and then I could hear her screaming because she see visuals of what was going on in the building. And I remember telling her and then a couple of voicemails that I left for people saying, I'm trying to come down this building, I can't reach my wife, but I'm going to try to call you guys again so please try to figure out where my wife is because I'm still on the phone literally trying to make more calls I hear a firefighter and he's yelling and he's screaming and he's saying I think there's somebody on this floor get out, get out this building is on fire, get out
13:41Mary John:Sujo John was trying to reach his family on a landline, but a firefighter pushed him to evacuate. So he rejoined people heading down the stairs of the World Trade Center's North Tower.
13:52Sujo John:I get to the 43rd or the 44th floor now, and by then I'm also seeing some people that were hurt. And I remember some women were having a hard time, you know, those that wear high heels, and I remember some of them having to take off their high heels, and there was glass on certain floors. There was also water because the sprinklers were on. And at some levels, actually, there was smoke too. But we still had power. It was not dark in the stairwell. People helped each other in beautiful and selfless ways. My manager, Mike Benfonte, and another co-worker, John, they found this lady kind of abandoned on the 68th floor, and she was in a wheelchair.
Read the full transcript
14:36Sujo John:And she was just helpless, not knowing what she was to do. And these brave men grabbed her and carried away all the way down 68 flights.
14:46Mary John:On his way down, Sujo saw firemen and policemen heading up the stairs. He and his co-workers stepped aside to let the first responders by. As they passed, the office workers high-fived them.
14:59Sujo John:And as we watched these men making their way up, I remember thinking in my head, why are they going up? We had seen fire on several floors coming down. And I'm thinking, why are they going up? With all the gear that they were carrying, some of them were tired already. I remember a young guy actually sitting on a stairwell for a little bit and his other friends trying to encourage him.
15:23Mary John:As Sujo continued down the North Tower, firefighters and police sometimes redirected people to use other stairwells. So he found himself taking a maze-like route to get out. His adrenaline was pumping.
15:37Sujo John:As I continued my descent down, it was not chaotic. In fact, there was a sense of this hope that there had to be a way out of this building because these men had made their way into the building from the outside. There had to be a way we could get out. So there's this sense of relief that there's only so many more floors to go.
15:58Mary John:And then Sujo got to the floor just above street level and looked down.
16:04Sujo John:and that's where we see a sight and seeing that a lot of people around me start breaking down. As we turn on our left and we see this courtyard right in the middle of the towers which used to be a place where during lunch hour and after work people would hang out there. There used to be a memorial built to those that died in the first terrorist attacks which was in 1993 when the same Al-Qaeda terrorist group had tried to blow up the World Trade Center and that entire place had been turned now to this place of death. There were bodies and body parts. There was debris and also possibly the fuselage, a part of the fuselage, the plane lying there burning.
16:47Sujo John:I remember firemen and policemen tell us at that point, do not turn on your left, turn on your right. Go down this escalator. Then make your way out of these burning towers.
16:59Mary John:Sujo went down the escalator to the main concourse. which connected the Twin Towers just below street level. He saw one of the security guards he knew.
17:07Sujo John:And I kind of yelled out to him saying, Have you seen my wife? And he says, It's going to be okay. Just get out of this building.
17:14Mary John:Still on the concourse level, Sujo walked towards a sign for the South Tower, hoping he might run into his wife, hoping she might be looking for him too.
17:23Sujo John:So with that thought in mind, and walking towards the South Tower, I'm actually right in the middle of this revolving door that takes you closer to the South Tower. When again I hear this incredible explosion, and this was louder than what I'd heard while I was on the 81st floor of the North Tower. Because with this explosion, the ground shakes again, this incredible roar. The ground that I'm standing on is almost caving in. The glass is shattering. You feel this huge kind of vacuum being created. You feel like you've been sucked. Strangely, there was this wind, this incredible wind, and people shrieking and screaming.
18:03Mary John:It was about 9.59 a.m., and the South Tower was collapsing. Inside the concourse, not far from the tower's base, Sujo realized what was happening, and he prepared to die.
18:16Sujo John:I remember saying this prayer, saying, God, you gave me this opportunity to come down 81 floors, but death has finally got a hold of me. And there were 15, 20 people around me, and we huddled one on top of each other. There were men and women on top of me. I was on top of men and women. And we started praying, thinking that would be our last prayer. And then we scattered from that huddle. I'm being buried in debris as I felt soot, ash, bury me. And I'm thinking something big is going to hit me soon, and I'm going to die. And as I'm lying there thinking, I cannot breathe, I can't see anything, I won't make it.
18:57Sujo John:I feel someone grab me by my arm and pull me. And I began to pull him. And as we got close to each other, I remember him saying to me, he's with the FBI. And we both told each other we're going to die. The fact that we couldn't breathe. I was wearing a suit and a tie that day. I remember pulling that jacket over my face, but that was not helping. And just when we thought we were not going to be able to make it, I see a red light flashing through the suit and the smoke. And I turned to this man saying, that's the street level. And he says, are you sure? And I said, yes, I know for a fact. And we start crawling our way towards the light.
19:38Mary John:The flashing light came from an ambulance parked on the street. The vehicle was partly crushed, but the light still worked. Sujo and the man crawled out of the wreckage of the concourse up the street level and walked towards the ambulance.
19:51Sujo John:And he let go of my hand. and he runs back into the North Tower saying, I got to go back and get more people.
19:59Mary John:That was the last Sujo saw of the FBI agent. At the street level, the scene was surreal. The South Tower was gone, replaced by a suffocating cloud of dust and ash. As Sujo ran through the debris, something loomed out of the dust, one fragment of the tower still standing.
20:20Sujo John:One of the reasons why I survived the first collapse was, if you see visuals of how the first building collapsed, there was this steel facade of the building that stayed up for a while, and I was right in that area. He met a member of the press who asked him, What's going on in there? And I remember telling him, my wife is dead.
20:44Mary John:He walked with other people away from the debris, still struggling to breathe, looking for refuge.
20:50Sujo John:We found a bus, a New York City transit bus. It was parked there. I remember walking straight into the bus thinking, I can catch my breath here. There were a few people inside the bus. And all of them in a similar state, covered with soot and ash and struggling to breathe.
21:08Mary John:Sujo spent some time on the park bus, and then he walked back out into the chaos, into a cloud of soot and ash. Loud fighter jets buzzed in the skies over Manhattan. Sujo worried they were more attackers who would drop bombs. He didn't know they were American Air Force jets.
21:25Sujo John:So I experienced more fear on the street level than what I experienced in the building when the plane crashed in, to be honest with you.
21:34Mary John:About 30 minutes after the South Tower collapsed, the North Tower came down. All around Sujo, the streets were filled with dazed and frightened people. Even the police and firefighters looked stunned.
21:46Sujo John:That moment when you look at these first responders, even they have that look of just shock on their face. It was very scary considering the fact that none of us knew what was going on. I remember even some of us making our way to different buildings for a while to catch our breath, but also trying to escape what was going on. But then again, people felt very unsafe to be in a building.
22:08Mary John:Everything was covered in soot, and the air felt thick. Sujo worried there might be more explosions and more falling debris. He knew he had to get away from the World Trade Center.
22:20Sujo John:And so I started eventually walking towards Canal Street, again trying my phone. And when I got to Canal Street, a girl pulls me into the store and she shut the doors because even debris and soot and ash was also on Canal Street. And then in that store, she says, can I call your family for you? She gave me water to drink and she was actually pulling out glass from my hair. And I said, I have no family. My wife is gone. She took Sujo's Motorola flip phone and started going through the store numbers. And my cell phone begins to ring for the first time that day in her hands.
23:12Mary John:In the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, Sujo John stood in a shop on Canal Street, dazed and covered in soot and ash. A sales clerk held his phone as it rang. She handed it to him.
23:25Sujo John:I flip my phone, I see my wife's caller ID. And I'm thinking, this can't be her. It's someone else who has got a hold of her phone, is trying to reach me with the news that your wife is gone. So I picked up that call thinking that would be the worst news of my life. But when I said hello, I could hear my wife on the other side. She says, babe, are you alive? I didn't know at that moment if she was hurt or what she was going through, but I just knew she had survived.
23:53Mary John:He learned Mary had bad morning sickness that morning and was late getting to work. She and Sujo decided to meet each other at the Javits Center by the Hudson River. They'd heard it was a place where they could get a ferry out of New York. Many people were heading in that direction. Sujo left the store. As he began walking again, he had trouble breathing and leg cramps set in, maybe from dehydration, maybe from all the physical exertion. Sujo headed towards the river with the crowd.
24:22Sujo John:And so I make my way by Javits Center and I see my wife and that was the most incredible moment as we hugged and cried. And we truly believed each of our lives was spared, you know, nothing like seeing her. And I realized that she was not hurt and she was relieved that I was alive. But their joy was tempered. There were a lot of people that would see my state covered with sin and ash. they started drawing out their wallets and their purses and they started showing me pictures of their friends and spouses and their co-workers and they would say, did you see them? Did you see them? And I would look at those hopeless faces and I would just wonder, like, God, I wish I had an answer to give them.
25:09Mary John:All he could say was no, that he hadn't seen their loved ones. Because Sujo was covered in soot and ash He was taken to a place to be decontaminated A triage station with doctors and nurses
25:24Sujo John:They washed me, they hosed me down with water And they helped with some of the stuff that had gone into my mouth and into my lungs And then they gave us all jumpsuits to wear And told us to take off the clothes that we were wearing Because at that point, even in all that chaos There was that realization that what we had on our bodies and our clothes could be very toxic.
25:47Mary John:They laid him down for a while on a makeshift bed. He didn't have any wounds, just some small cuts to his head. Sujo didn't want to go to the hospital. He wanted to get across the Hudson to safety. Bridges and tunnels into Manhattan were closed, so people lined up to get on ferries out of New York City.
26:05Sujo John:And that was an incredible moment. Thousands of people gathered by the Hudson and these ferries. taking people out of New York City. And then we were taken to, I believe, V. Hawken. And what was so surreal was one of my very good friends who used to work with me at the towers, his name is Mike. And strangely, as we are in the ferry, of all the thousands of ferries that day, Mike and his girlfriend, they are in that ferry. And as the ferry left New York, and as we turned back, all we could see was this cloud, this pillar of smoke. and ash rising up and everyone on the ferry, there was stunned silence.
26:49Mary John:As they headed to New Jersey, Sujo had a chance to hear more about why Mary hadn't gone into work that morning, how she was delayed by morning sickness. When she felt up to it, she had commuted into New York City as usual, taking the same bus Sujo took, then the same train. But by the time she approached work, the North Tower had already been hit. The train stopped one stop before the World Trade Center, and everyone was told to get off.
27:14Sujo John:And as she gets out and comes up to the street level, she faces the World Trade Center literally in front of her. And she sees this horrible sight of my building, the North Tower, which was hit by then in flames. People jumping out of the building. She heard those noises as her body's landing down. The second plane literally crashed into her tower in front of her eyes. And she is seeing people jump out, and she didn't remember what I was wearing, but she remembered the tie that I had on that day.
27:49Mary John:Sujo had gone to work wearing a tie with shades of orange on it. So, in desperation, Mary kept looking at the ties of people jumping. And then...
27:58Sujo John:A girl comes out of nowhere and grabs her and says, You're pregnant. And pulls my wife and says, Your husband's going to be okay. Don't worry. Let me get you out of here. and takes my wife to her boss's apartment in New York and stays with my wife till she was able to get a hold of me.
28:17Mary John:The couple got off the ferry in Weehawke in New Jersey and went to a friend's apartment. Sujo worried very much about what his parents were going through, especially since they had already lost one child, his sister.
28:29Sujo John:I couldn't wait to get to a phone to call my parents. They were living in Kalkara, India at that time. And I called them. They had watched the second plane crash into the tower. The CNN was on, and they were convinced we were dead. I couldn't even make sense of what they were trying to say. They were crying because I was the only child, and so for them to think that I was also gone was very hard for them.
28:52Mary John:Sujo and Mary finally made it home to their one-bedroom apartment very late, maybe one or two in the morning.
28:58Sujo John:I don't even remember if I slept. I had severe cramps, I remember that, in my leg. But then around us was this fear for me about, did all my friends, co-workers, did they make it? That was something very heavy on my heart. I was thinking about the man who helped me get out, what happened to him.
29:17Mary John:Sujo felt an incredible surge of patriotism as the tragedy united the country and people came together.
29:24Sujo John:People were lining up to give blood. And where we lived, because we were so close to the city, what followed was church bells would ring, meaning there was a funeral of someone. Everyone in our community knew someone who died.
29:41Mary John:Sujo had left his laptop in the office, so he borrowed one and composed an email to let his friends know he and Mary were alive.
29:49Sujo John:And I wrote to them about what had happened to us, but also there was this little challenge about, do you have peace with God? What if death would have come knocking at your door today?
30:00Mary John:After he hit send, people began sharing and forwarding it, and the email went viral.
30:06Sujo John:I think what captivated people was the fact that we both survived how it was a couple, which was very unique. What are chances of both of us working there and that she was pregnant? And also how close had come to dying, and it was a story of survival and also faith.
30:23Mary John:And so Sujo began going to churches to talk with people and to share his story.
30:28Sujo John:Because I often feel like, you know, we plan for life, which is good and great, but life could be short. One day we could go to bed and not wake up. You know, as I'm speaking to you today, this could be my last day on Earth. Nobody's promised tomorrow.
30:44Mary John:Thankfully, Sujo's entire company survived the attack on the World Trade Center.
30:49Sujo John:We met each other in our office in New Jersey. It was an amazing moment for all of us. as we hugged and cried and shared each of our stories of how we had all come close to dying.
31:01Mary John:Sujo went back to work for a while.
31:04Sujo John:We were not really doing much. We were just trying to help each other be there. Our company was really nice to us. We wanted a sense of normalcy to come back, so we were trying to get back.
31:15Mary John:But something felt out of alignment in Sujo's life. Eventually, he quit his job to become a full-time public speaker. Soon after that, his son was born on March 2, 2002. Even though he was delighted to become a father, Sujo thought about why he and Mary had survived when nearly 3 ,000 other people had died on September 11. He had no answers, but he felt like he had to find some purpose. He needed to give back in some way.
31:44Sujo John:And so I was working with somebody who was working with slum children in India, and I would take repeated trips to see his work and to encourage him and then raise money and fund what he was doing. And in that journey, someone told me, you need to come and see the red light district.
32:00Mary John:Suja went with the group to see a red light district in New Delhi, where people prey on vulnerable girls and women.
32:07Sujo John:I get off this car and I was told we had to walk through these small lanes and by lanes. And I just sense this feeling of evil, which is so overwhelming. And as we make our way to these brothels, I see a side that I wasn't prepared for. We start seeing women and children, many of them kept in cages and cells. It shocked me to the core. One girl grabbed me by my arm and said, if you really want to help me, get me out of here.
32:36Mary John:Sujo felt angry at the men who frequent the brothels and sad for the girls and women in them. He wondered why he was there and felt disconnected at first.
32:46Sujo John:And right at that moment, I felt like, oh no, I actually have something common with them. I know what it is to be physically trapped, thinking I would never get out, that no one's ever going to know where I am. You know, the building was collapsing. That's exactly the thought that went to my mind.
33:03Mary John:That thought inspired Sujo to found You Can Free Us, an organization that works to save women and girls from human trafficking in India, Eastern Europe, and around the world. His group rehabilitates and retrains trafficked women with jobs so they can support themselves. He says all of this work is connected to 9-11. For him, Ground Zero is both a holy place and where he finds inspiration.
33:29Sujo John:For me, it is a place where it fires me up to do something bigger with my life. And it's probably the most special place in this world for me. On the anniversaries like this, September 11th, I will be at Ground Zero. I don't plan to be at any event or anything like that. I just want to go there alone and maybe have an opportunity to place some flowers and reflect.
33:53Mary John:Ultimately, he knows it's hard to make sense of the tragedy. But this is Sujo's takeaway.
33:59Sujo John:Find a need somewhere in this world and go be the hope where there's no hope. A light where there's just darkness. What if we all resolve to leave the world a better place than we found it? how beautiful this world would be.
34:19Mary John:Sujo and Mary went on to have two more children. The only person Sujo knows who died in the World Trade Center was the man who grabbed his hand when the South Tower was falling. He was later able to identify that man as FBI Special Agent Leonard Hatton, who died after running into the North Tower to help other victims. Sujo says not a day goes by when he doesn't think about September 11th. He still has his ID from the World Trade Center and the jacket he wore that day. And he still has that old Motorola flip phone. He sees the numbers 911 everywhere, on his watch, on his phone, on a building, and he pauses.
35:05Mary John:Thanks to Sujo John for sharing his story with us.
35:15Mary John:from audible originals this is 9 11 a survivor remembers for against the odds to hear more stories from survivors in their own words check out our other episodes including slipped off a glacier deep sea diving crisis and trapped after a car crash produced by audible i'm your host mike Corey. Polly Stryker wrote and produced this episode. Sound design by Joe Richardson. Engineered by Sergio Enriquez. Original theme music by Scott Velasquez and 2K for Freeze on Sync. Series produced by Emily Frost. Managing producer Desi Blaylock. Senior producers Andy Herman and Austin Rackless. Executive producer for Audible Jenny Lauer Beckman.
36:00Mary John:Head of creative development at Audible Kate Naven. Head of Audible Originals North America Marshall Louis. Chief Content Officer, Rachel Giazza. Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC.
36:36Thank you.
From the publisher
Sujo John and his wife Mary emigrated from India to the U.S. in February, 2001. Both found work at the World Trade Center – one in the North Tower, one in the South Tower. Life was good for the young couple; they had jobs, and they were expecting their first child. Then, they went to work on September 11th. Today, On this episode, Sujo John shares his story of how he survived the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and how it changed his life forever.
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