Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26 -- Seventeen years after the night that changed India forever, the memory of 26 November 2008 still stings like a fresh wound. The gunfire that ripped through Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the flames that engulfed the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the fear at Leopold Cafe, Nariman House, and Cama Hospital, all remain etched in the collective conscience of the nation.

More than 166 innocent lives were lost and over 300 were injured during the 72-hour siege carried out by ten Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who reached Mumbai by sea. Families still mourn. Survivors still speak through tears. Every year, candles lit along Mumbai's shoreline flicker like silent questions...How did this happen? Could we have been prepared?

In the a...