1. Goonj Founder: Anshu Gupta's talk[Covered it in Goonjified]
2. Manoj: A wild-life photographer's talk n presentation of his work[Inspired me to get all adventurous n increased my wanting to travel n see new places]
3.Army Chief's talk on his involvement in the War[Am covering it in this post]
Something told me that it would be a session worth attending n wat was also not surprising was that the audience comprised of ppal I knew....not all that well...but knowing them....n knowing the context of the session...I knew they wud be there:)
After my audience survey...the session unfolded with our speaker giving us a talk on project management....using his experiences from the Army....
Prelude:
*I must admit that I get very senti when I watch war movies or read abt war heroes in magazines or the newspapers....
**Geography n Social Studies in School was my favourite subject...
So, when our speaker....will call him Sir henceforth....started with a slide with the map of India...showing the Valley.........It was like I connected with what was happening in the session instantly...
When he showed us pictures of the terrain...I kept remembering my treks....that were nowhere compared to the mountains...n abt how awfully frightful I was of even attempting the climb....come to think of it...they did all that rock-climbing n trekking in the night.....as the enemy was perched atop the hill....n daylight would lead them to be discovered by the enemy...
The temperatures were as high as 35 C in the daytime and as low as -5 C at night.....
Apparaently my knowledge of watever happens in a war is heavily influenced by namma Hindi Movies...n of admiring Hrithik Roshan do all that amazing rock climbing n charging on the enemy acts...
The infiltrators perched atop the Indian territory were no easy target.....I am told it took several combats with army teams leading from various directions....cutting across the enemy or getting hit....
Our chief spoke about unlikely heroes....a night blinded carpenter...who offered to carry ammunition..n when he was chided that he wud be more of a burden than a help...he replied telling that....dont worry abt me....Just dump d ammunition on me....n I will hold on to the coat of the person walking in front...n drop ammunition near the hill top....Our chief tells us that the spirit of this carpenter got the others motivated to get along...with many of them echoing that "Agar ye kar saktha hai...tho main kyo nahin"
He spoke abt the brave fights n sacrifices given by a batallion leader...who had to lead the attack from the top...doing a task that he described as "Somebody has to do it..".....He lost his life having made the 1st assault on the enemy!!
He spoke abt the doctor n his assistant who carried nearly 25kgs of medicines to set up a camp near the battle zone....n when he was asked y he didnt ask for assistance to carry the medicines...the doc told him that "All of u were carrying stuff urselves.....we didnt want to trouble u with our luggage...n quickly added that "Agar koyi mere paas zinda pachunchtha hai.....U will not go away dead...I have all of the world's best medicine out here:)"
He spoke of leaders who despite their leg injuries asked for pain-killers despite being advised rest to lead from the front....
He says he lives today to tell their untold story....All we did as a mute audience was to give him and his team a standing ovation....
2 comments:
very rightly, very often (you can say almost always) do is just stay numb and at max give a standing ovation. We may feel inspired and be proud of all the heroes of such untold stories but we do nothing more than that. I take an excerpt from your other blog saying "we end doing something that we never wanted to" and ensure that will do my duty in the way I have decided to and urge (or plead, whatever you can say) to do whatever you can rather than just stand and applaud.
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