Panel discussion on My Country, My Life: Lieutenant Colonel Sheela Dehal, Wing Commander SS Krishnamurthy, Colonel Vembu Shankar SC, and Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, in conversation with Armed Forces Commentator and our esteemed moderator Milind Wagle
Panel discussion on My Country, My Life: Lieutenant Colonel Sheela Dehal, Wing Commander SS Krishnamurthy, Colonel Vembu Shankar SC, and Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, in conversation with Armed Forces Commentator and our esteemed moderator Milind Wagle
Mr. Milind Wagle: My first question is to Wing Commander Krishnamurthy. Sir, the joy of being a helicopter pilot with the Indian Air Force.
Wg. Cdr. Krishnamurthy: A fresh good afternoon to ladies and gentlemen. Generally, when this question is asked, I ask the audience, if you have been asked to switch off the mobile, please switch it on. All of you, please take your mobile in your hand. And please type 1971 in Google, 1971. If you don’t get any photographs there, put 1971 war. So, he asked me, what is it like to be a helicopter pilot? The answer is in that. That is a photograph taken in Dhaka after the war. Our entire squadron had gone there by helicopter because we fought the war along with the infantry in the field, not bombing from the top and coming back.
We were privileged to carry these soldiers with their arms, ammunition and rations and put them across. Where it would take one day to cross a river, we did it in two minutes, which means we could carry 5,000 people just overnight. Believe me, everyone fought, but who brought the surrender a little earlier than expected? Please, yours truly, the helicopter pilot. I’m not saying that I’ve won the war, but we brought it a little closer. Because when they found Dhaka was besieged from the south, north, east, and west, and when they were told, we were ready to free you the Bangla people – they were fed up with the Pakistani army – they will come and butcher you. So, you want to do it? Surrender to us. We will look after you, as prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention, and now leave Dhaka.
He asked me, what did you achieve by being a helicopter pilot? There are 29 states in the country. I hope you are all aware of it. I have gone to each and every state. Certain states, I have done district wise visits 100%. Otherwise, I have done anything between 70% to 90%. With the great Lalu Prasad Yadav, I visited the undivided Bihar, each and every district. You may ask me, how? I flew with him for vacations. While coming in the taxi, I was repeating one of his bhashans. My wife said, enough, I heard.
Now, one more request I have before I go further. My wife and I put our memories in the form of a book, and a few copies I bought today. Please believe me, we have been able to send over Rs 2,000,000 to ALC, the Artificial Limb Centre. If anyone wants to pay more than Rs 250 for the book, he or she is most welcome. You will get a receipt from the ALC for having paid the donation. So kindly have a look. And if anyone is not lucky to get a book, please let me know. We will try and provide one.
Mr. Wagle: Wonderful. Well, perhaps a Sukhoi or a hunter or a jaguar, they weren’t there those days, but a hunter or a Canberra could have been his home, but he chose the hector or, as it’s known, the helicopter.
Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, perhaps if I can stand and look across out there, that is where, as a young lieutenant, perhaps he started his career. Admiral, if you can reminisce about your younger days as an officer.
Vice Admiral Luthra: Before I start, first let me thank the Rotary Club of Bombay for this invitation to spend some time with you this afternoon and also let me wish all of you a very happy Independence Day which is the day after tomorrow.
Now you talked about my younger days as a young officer in the Navy. Now Navy, of course, like the other two services, you realise very early in life that it is not a profession, it’s a way of life. It is how you structure yourself, look at yourself and your surroundings and that feeling starts seeping in very early. The Navy focusses a lot on grooming younger officers because they are actually in some very important roles. And I got posted to a number of ships. I served here, across the harbour, on an oil tanker, on missile boats, and on frigates as a young Sub Lieutenant and Lieutenant.
While a lot is going on around you, not as much as today because there was no social media at that time, but within that space you recognise that what you learned very early in life as a young officer was to take responsibility. And you need to take responsibility because for a very brief period you are working under supervision but within three to four months you are on your own and when you are on your own, you’re a duty officer whether at sea on watch or harbour, the entire ship and all the proceedings are under your charge. The responsibilities are on your young shoulders. So, taking responsibility comes in early at a very young age. Taking decisions and being decisive comes very early because you see a situation at sea, when you have an aircraft coming, and you need to decide quickly. Whether it is hostile or friendly, you have a few seconds to decide. Your decisions are right, sometimes they may not be right. But the Navy supports you even if you’ve made decisions in good faith. So, taking decisions, decision-making – this was a very good learning process. Leading small teams of people at a very young age was a wonderful experience and imbibing the values that the Navy stands for: duty, honour and courage.
So, duty, honour and courage are the three core values of the Indian Navy and these three are focussed primarily as the national cause. They are focussed mainly at India – Bharat. These are also applicable in civil life but here they are way of life: duty, honour and courage. And finally, if I look back at my younger days, the greatest learning for me was that it’s all in the mind. Many times, as a young officer, you may have thought that this is beyond yo, you cannot do this. You’re apprehensive, you have reservations that you can’t do ABCD – and I recall very early one of my captains told me, “Koshish toh kar (at least try).” And, when you put in that effort, and I’m sure it’s applicable, again, in all walks of life but when you put in that effort, you surprise yourself with what you can achieve and it’s only a matter of giving it a try.
That sentence has stuck in my head since then – koshish toh kar – once you put in your heart and soul, you can surprise yourself and everybody else. If you are deeply involved in an operation in a mission in an exercise, then you recognise that 36 hours, 48 hours, you can keep standing on the bridge of the ship without feeling fatigue. Fatigue disappears simply because your mind is so focussed, so deeply involved. So, I think that was my greatest takeaway as a young officer.
Mr. Wagle: Brilliant. Gosh, the next question.
The 90th course of the National Defence Academy, the 100th course of the Indian Military Academy, that course produced one Paramveer Chakra in Captain Manoj Pandey, a few Mahaveer chakras, a few Veer Chakras, down to the Seva medals. Colonel Vembu, your emotions of being a 90 NDA, a 100 IMA, and then of course the camaraderie, with these names, the 350 who passed out from NDA, 350 from the Indian Military Academy.
Col. Vembu: Yes, I was very, very fortunate to be part of this course. We passed out of the National Defence Academy, which is in Khadakwasla, not too far away from here, where they train the Army, Navy, and the Air Force cadets together. Then, I went to the Indian Military Academy because I was an Army cadet, and I was really fortunate. I came from a completely civilian background with no exposure to the military or the armed forces.
There I was, wet behind the ears as a 17-year-old. So, the people who took me across were my coursemates and the camaraderie was what he brought out. And, in fact, coincidentally, one of the quotes that was read out in the opening speech by Mr. Merchant was my coursemate, Captain Subramanyam Kirti Chakra posthumous, incidentally, whose birthday was yesterday. I had an opportunity to speak to his parents today. They live in Bombay. So, yes, this is what was the key thing in the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. We had, of course, the award winners, people who fought the Kargil War 25 years ago, sacrificed their lives, left behind families. We have lost 33 battles – I mean, coursemates who are battling physical casualties, the highest number in any course ever.
But, most importantly, at the National Defence Academy, what they teach you is to make sure that everybody moves together as a team. So we have an important competition called the Cross Country, where people have to run about 14 odd kilometres, they are divided into various hostels, which you call squadrons. It’s not how fast the first person finishes. It’s important that everybody finishes. So, you will see every three or four years one cadet carrying another cadet and running the last, you know, a kilometre or so, because that’s very important.
It’s very important that you perform as a team. And I think Rotary is a great example. It’s not about one individual who’s doing social service. It’s about a team who – I saw that in your handbag also – service above self, and in the National Defence Academy, service before self is our motto. That was what was instilled in me in the National Defence Academy, and I was really fortunate to come out from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy with this confidence that, yes, I’m part of a team, and the camaraderie is there still today that I can go into any of my coursemates and take up the conversation from where we left it last.
So that’s what was NDA and IMA were for me.
Mr. Wagle: Thanks, Colonel Vembu.
I wonder how many of you know where Jalna is? Well, one, two, three, four, five, six, quite a few hands. The lady on my left, Lt. Colonel Sheela Dehal, Jalna, to the olive greens.
Lt. Col. Dehal: Good afternoon, everybody. It’s such an honour to share the stage with all the baton-hardened soldiers here. I feel like a youngster amongst them. I would take a step back and tell you a woman’s perspective and my journey as a civilian to joining the olive greens. Thank you for giving me confidence that so many people know where Jalna is. My journey, from a small district of Jalna in Maharashtra to graduation, was contained within a glass ceiling of constructive mindsets. I worked hard within my bounds and secured admission in the prestigious Government College of Engineering which is in Pune.
I completed my degree in computer science and joined the research and development wing of a multinational company. A few months in the job and I realised this is not my calling. A parallel thought process was going on in my parents’ mind. They had a road map chalked out for me and the next milestone after graduation as per them was post-graduation, then getting married, then having kids and probably a job.
I was an NCC cadet from school and college days. This was my only exposure to the Army. I was drawn to the idea of challenging life along with the chance of service to the motherland. As I presented this idea to my parents, they had no reference except for the RD parades that they would have seen on the television or some few articles that would appear in regional newspapers. This was in 2006.
After due deliberation, my parents arrived at a conclusion. One shot is all you get and there was a logic behind this one shot. I was a female, I had to secure a match for myself within a permissible age, so it was one-shot. I am eternally grateful to my parents for their support. In spite of being shrouded by conservative thinking, the limited understanding of the job and the fact that it would shatter their road map and safe and popular choices for me, I got one chance.
I gave it my all. I thank the internet penetration was low in the country at that time. At times less is more. You got to be yourself.
That is how I cleared my SSB and got selected for training at the officers’ training academy in Chennai in my first go. I realised the meaning of the code that day. No power in the world can stop an idea whose time has come and my time had come. I set out to explore the skies beyond the ceiling as my life in olive green began. I have had an enriching experience over 16 years now with no regrets. I would do exactly the same thing I did 16 years back and I would take exactly the same decisions that I had taken.
Thank you.
Mr. Wagle: I’m sure that answer would perhaps inspire a lot of mothers and fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers to get their daughters to the officers’ training academy, the National Defence Academy. Also, yes, it is now open to young girls.
Yes, we’re now coming back to around two years with Wing Commander Krishnamurthy. There’s a photograph which very few have in their offices. One, I know, is in the Chief of Army Staff’s office, in the lounge. And the other is with the Army Commander, Eastern Command, in Kolkata. Wing Commander, this photograph will be etched for millions of years. Wing Commander Krishnamurthy, take us through.
Wg. Cdr. Krishnamurthy: There is a place called Kumbhirgram. In the Air Force, in the ’60s and ’70s, when somebody heard Kumbhirgram, we liked to run away from that name itself, because it was a remote Second World War runway. And there was nothing there. One fine day, they said, you are posted. We landed up. Some train at Guwahati, some other train at Lumding, some other train to Kumbir, Silcha, is a railway station. We landed up.
Somebody said, the mess has come. I looked around, but didn’t find anything. I’m sorry. I’m not making fun of it. But that was a fact. We had only thatched bamboo huts. And they said, this is your mess. And that’s supposed to be the symbolic of the Air Force. When you say an officer’s mess, that’s symbolic of the Air Force. Anyway, we started flying. And Silcha being Silcha, one among Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura, our hands were full, morning, evening, and sometime at night. And there was no weekend.
Fortunately, all the people who got posted, some 17 of the flying officers that were posted there, except one, all were bachelors. So we didn’t mind. We flew any time. We flew any kind of thing. Tomorrow, there is a sorting. Oh, instead of spending the Sunday in Kumbhirgram, we go somewhere else, meet people. That is how the actual service life started. There is a great man, no more, but you must have heard of him, General Sagat Singh.
General Sagat Singh was the corps commander nearby. Apart from the army division nearby, we were attached to him. And he started our Bangladesh flying, East Pakistan. His job was to irritate the border people and try and get people inside. So, we knew. That was in 1971, March, when Mujib had given a call for a free Bangladesh from the place where the surrender was signed, Ramana Racecourse. And from that time onwards, we were flying morning, evening, night for Sagat Singh.
So, when the war started, we didn’t find anything new. We just walked across the border. Then suddenly Sagat Singh had a fine idea. Instead of doing rat runs, why not do it in bulk? Why not carry the troops across the river? What I told you earlier, we carried the people across the river. And Sagat Singh, please, gentlemen, don’t mistake me. He was told not to cross the Meghana River. But he chose to do it, disobeying Army orders, disobeying his command. And we were happy to help him, dropping soldiers across Meghana. Before Meghana came, we tried it in Brahmanbaria. We tried it in Sillet. So we were successful. Mind you, my collar is up in spite of my tie, because none of us had an incident, not an accident, in the entire 15 days flying in the war.
The credit not only goes to the pilots who flew blindfolded, the maintenance people who travelled with us, stayed with the troops like us when we finished our flying, and maintained the aeroplane. The piston engine behaved and took all the people across. Now he asked me, what is so special about the war? It is this.
But if I tell you something more, you will realise, of course, it is in the book also. This surrender, everyone heard of the surrender. We saw the picture, we saw the thing. I told you how our squadron landed up there. General Sahab took out his pen. He tried it and gave it to Nyazi Sahib to sign. He didn’t sign. Then Nyazi himself took out his pen and tried to sign, it won’t sign. It was as if the pens were telling, don’t sign Nyazi, it is not correct. Don’t surrender. Later on, he was court martialed for having surrendered. But in his place, anyone would have surrendered because life was very, very important. On the battlefield, you kill or get killed. OK. Now, in the book, of course, I have written that it was my pen. Of course, it was not my pen. It was All India Radio. So Surjit Sen, his pen. He took out his pen. Ordinary writer pen. One and a half rupees cost. He gave the thing. And after A stopped, the Nyazi’s pen didn’t write. He put the second A. Then after that, he signed with that pen. So this is the most important thing which you want me to tell you.
Other than that is when we started the helicopter lift, we were flying in waves. One helicopter will take off. As soon as it crosses 30, 40 meters, we take off, like those waves. When our turn came, somebody said, please wait; one jawan is still coming.
So obviously, we were getting worried. Somebody said, he has left his rifle somewhere and he’s going to pick it up. Anyway, he landed up. And we dropped him. We followed the rest of the formation, came and landed. That very evening, we had one more person and I. We were detailed for communication sorting. One general was to go somewhere. Some safe place, they said, please go. The safe place means only the ground fire, no air fire, all the ground fire. So we were told, fly above 500 feet. So we did. And somewhere somebody said, there’s one casualty would you mind taking?
I said, oh, we’ll take it. We waited for the casualty to come. Very soon a stretcher came and the person was put and we took off and came back safely to Agartala. Our instructions were to carry serviceable cells in the torch.
Not the torch, serviceable cells in the torch. So the torch works. That’s the Army way of putting things. It is not a joke saying that my pen doesn’t write, no. You say, when we went down from the flight, saw the passenger, the casualty, you can guess who it was.
The gentleman who delayed our flight. So it is a kind of a thing which goes into your mind that destiny is the thing of everything. Today, if I’m sitting on the 27th year in Bombay, sitting here and talking, it’s a destiny which has taken me along. And meeting Milind also is a destiny.
Mr. Wagle: Thank you!
Can you imagine photographing Air Marshal Diwan, Vice-Admiral Krishnan, Major General Jacob who went on to become a Lieutenant General, Army Commander Jagjit Singh Arora, General Sagat Singh, and a Sagat flight Lieutenant in that photograph, a flying officer.
Oh, flying officer. That photograph, millions of years, will be remembered in India and Pakistan. Pakistan in particular, let me tell you that. Incidentally, they celebrate their independence day tomorrow as well. So my greetings to the nation out there.
We’re coming to Vice Admiral Luthra of three frontline ships. The dream of every youngster. Not many get to do that, the INS Virat, India’s aircraft carrier. So, two anecdotes on the three ships, if you can tell us, particularly your anecdote on the INS Virat.
Vice Admiral Luthra: Okay, I was fortunate, very privileged to command three ships, INS Khukri, INS Talwar, and INS Virat. All three are different in size, different in age. Talwar was a brand new ship. And, as you all know, Virat was a very old ship, a 50-year-old ship, and the second ship that we had acquired from the UK. And Khukri was a corvette. All three ships also were different in their weapons and sensors fit, and the machinery, because one was a ship with diesel engines, one was with steam engines, and one was with gas turbines.
The main propulsion system of each ship was also very different. But before I mention some anecdote, let me just say here that command of a ship in the Navy is, you know, every executive officer’s dream to be in command of a ship.
And after commanding all the ships, you still progress in life, in your career, and you become an admiral, rear admiral, vice admiral. You go on to do more senior jobs. But it is the command of the ship which is the business end of the Navy. The ships are the business end of the Navy, and that is what is more satisfying, because if you have joined the Navy, and if you don’t have salt in your veins, then you are in the wrong profession. So being on a ship, and then in command of a ship, is something unique.
And one more important thing is that despite all the growth with digitalisation, technology, AI, with all these developments that are taking place, on ships, the captain of the ship is still revered, and captain’s word is final. Sometimes there is a discussion on authoritarian structure, et cetera, I will not get into that, but on a ship, the captain is looked up to by the entire ship’s crew. And I’ll give you an example.
I was commanding Khukri, in May of 1999, when intrusions were detected, on May 3rd in Kargil, and very recently, we also celebrated the 50 years of Operation Vijay, which is celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas in July. Few days later, when it was decided to launch an operation, the Army launched Operation Vijay, which was the overall operation. The Air Force operation was called Safed Sagar, and the Navy’s operation was called Operation Talwar. These three operations were launched during Kargil.
I was commanding Khukri at that time, and we were in Visakhapatnam, on the east coast of India. And in the middle of the night, somewhere around 1:32 at night, I got a call from the fleet commander that you need to get ready and sail out as early as possible. You have to join on the west coast, so get ready, get your ship ready, and move out. You have to go for war deployment.
We have a system of recalling people at night. People are at home, people who are with family, they are living at home. We have a system to get them to the ship as early as possible, and the system is well-tuned to recall people in the residential areas, and people come back very quickly. But on that day, the way everybody returned, I was surprised because knowing that they were going for war, but the speed at which people returned to the ship, and we sailed out after loading missiles, all weapons, et cetera, and we came to the west coast, and we got deployed in the North Arabian Sea, just outside the exclusive economic zone, the waters of Pakistan. And we remained in that deployment, but at that time, the enthusiasm on the ship, the energy levels on the ship, the atmosphere was electric on the ship.
You’ve heard… You’ve seen movies where you’ve seen this, how’s the josh. These things have become popular after some movies. But to experience that, to see that josh on your ship, where people are willing to do almost anything and they want to go and strike, give a blow. But what was Ops Talwar and what the Navy and where my ship was part of that deployment, we bottled up the Pakistan Navy in their hovers. They did not have the courage to come out because we had such an aggressive offensive posture and deployment. We had a credible threat against their merchant trade for their crude oil, for their gas and for their essential supplies.
And Pakistan at that time had essential supplies for only six days. And Nawaz Sharif later on mentioned that the pressure at sea was such that it was not possible for them to think of doing any escalation. Escalation management and escalation controlled by this was kept with India. Pakistan’s nuclear bluff was called out because Pakistan had started doing some nuclear signalling. That was called out and they were not allowed to open.
So this was a silent operation done at sea by the Navy, which was very effective in the whole circumstances in which the Op Vijay, Ops Talwar and Op Safed Sagar were progressing. But yes, that experience showed to me that leading a team of people who are so committed, who are ready to lay down their lives and who just want to serve the country in that manner is a great privilege.
So therefore being in command of a ship…
Mr. Wagle: Incidentally, I think not many people, not only in this forum but the citizens of this country only feel it was the Army and the Air Force which was there in Abhijay and Safed Sagar in Kargil and the Navy was a silent spectator. There you are. I think the Navy deserves a big hand obviously for blocking off as they did in 1971.
Now, we have a 22-year-old, can you imagine, a 22-year-old fresh from the academy. I don’t think there was water behind his ears as what they say in an operation in the valley. The valley is the Kashmir Valley and that earned him a Shaurya Chakra for gallantry. I think five or six terrorists killed, he’ll tell you what that operation was all about. Goosebumps, 22 years old, he should have been actually at Marina Beach or at Shivaji Park, sitting at a Starbucks enjoying himself, wish, take us through with that operation.
Col. Vembu: I wish I was there, but I was in a much more lovelier place at 10,000 feet in a place called Bode Bongas in Kupwara district. There’s a lovely meadow at 10,000 feet, beautiful with horses running, and great tourists. I went there after 25 years last year, and tourists are now camping there, but when I was there, there were no tourists. Little play on the word, there were terrorists there. So I was young, like he said, one year of service.
This was on the 1st of July when we got some information that some anti national elements have crossed over the line of control, and we keep getting this information once in a while. The numbers are not known, where are they going, are not known, but we are given tasks that make sure that they don’t get into the hinterland, make sure that they either surrender or you eliminate them. So we got this information at about six o’clock in the evening, we said, okay, it’s one of those routine things, so we just took off. We were about 50 odd. We split us into five different places so that we could go to different places to block their ingress.
I chose one of the places called Gurmat Nargali, which was about 13,500 feet above sea level, and this was more difficult in the rest of the places, but since I was the officer, I was leading that company there. So there were about 11 of us. We went there in the night, and reached about one o’clock, torrential rain. Nothing happened, next morning, it was clear. So we said, oh, finished, let’s go back. So we radioed our headquarters. They said, no, no, no, stay put there. Still, there’s information that they could be around. So there’ll be a search party coming from the other side. If you both meet, if there’s nobody, then you can go back.
I said, great. So, the search party came, we met, said, oh, nobody, great, let’s go back. They said, no, let the search party go back to the base. And while they were going back to the base, they saw three such suspected militants and they had an encounter. They shot two and one escaped. We were all happy, the first operation of the season, but we were told to run behind that one person to escape. Again, going down the jungle, in the Army they say, never lose height.
So, we had to lose height, go back to 9,000 feet, nothing happened. We said, sir, can we go back? We have not eaten the whole evening, the whole day we have not eaten. They said, no, no, no, still information is there, especially that one person is there. So we went back to Gurmat Nargali, climbed again, again reached about 1.15 in the night. Everybody’s tired. No food. And then at about four o’clock, the sentry on duty woke me up and he said, sir, you saw something on the night-vision goggles, and I was sleeping, so he woke me up, and luckily at that time I never used to snore, otherwise that had been the last day of my life. You know, now I snore a lot. But he woke me up and I saw, using the night -vision goggles, and I saw some two, three people with haversacks. And this was at about four o ‘clock in the morning. It was dark.
So it was confirmed that yes, somebody is there. So we stopped them, and the typical teaching in the armed forces is, once you establish contact, you maintain contact, you know, immediately do it. But I knew my area very well. I said, darkness is not a good time to encounter them, or you know, get in a conflict with them. So we waited till it became daylight at about 6 – 6:30. We pursued them, and at about 8:38 – 8:45, they saw us and they started fighting at us, and in 45 minutes, there were 11 of us. In 45 minutes, we, you know, quickly organised yourself, and out of which two of the terrorists were right in front of me, and we eliminated them because in the first 10 seconds, maybe I would have poofed off some 15 rounds of bullets, and a young sepoy with just about five, six years of service said, this is not the way to fight a war, you know, fight a conflict, you have to go slow. And it was a young sepoy who taught me that, but we did something crazy. One of the terrorists started fleeing, ran behind, and fired, but at the end of 45 minutes, we eliminated six of them, and that was a successful operation, first day two, next day six, and then similarly, over the next one day, we eliminated 11 such terrorists.
Most of them were Afghan-based and Pakistan-based terrorists, and these 11 terrorists were killed in those two days, 10 years from first to third.
And the most important thing when people talk about Shaurya Chakra because I was the leader of the operation, it was my team which also participated, it’s not because of how many we eliminated, so many terrorists getting, but not a single scratch in any of my boys, not a single scratch in any of my boys. And I’m proud to say that in my 20 years of service that I was in the Army, I’ve served most of them in Northeast and the Valley, not a single scratch in any of my boys, because it’s not only the soldiers who get affected, but the families who get affected when you have casualties. And that was my operation, and the President awarded me the Shaurya Chakra for gallantry. It was a great moment to go to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and receive the award, the family was there. I mean, also I dedicated myself to my team, which was there that day, including that sepoy who told me, if you go like this, it’s not gonna be working out well.
So that was my operation in the Valley, not Marina Beach, but at 22 years, I was in a much, much better place in Kashmir.
Mr. Wagle: Wonderful, wonderful. We’re going to have one from Colonel Sheela Dehal now. And then, of course, I’m going to request Colonel Vembu also after that, because we are running out of time, on Project Sambandh, because that’s very relevant to us.
But I want all of you to stand up and clap for this boy out here, Colonel Amardeep Dehal. Five or six bullets, two of them in the brain. Two of them in the brain. Colonel, five minutes, if that’s OK with you, and then take us through South Kashmir to Mumbai.
Lt. Col. Dehal: I’ve timed my speech, so I got my cue cards. I won’t exceed the time, I promise. But the journey just now shared by Colonel Vembu. And what I’m going to give you is going to give you a different perspective.
And that, at the end of it, you’d realise is what we call destiny. I start my answer by a quote very relevant through our lives by Mr. Henry Ward Burcham. Gratitude is a fairest blossom that springs from the soul. Both Amar and myself are full of gratitude for our lives. Journey of Amardeep is that of grit and determination. Soldiering has been a tradition in his family. He’s a proud third-generation Army officer with no regrets.
Amardeep was posted to the terrorism-affected areas of south Kashmir since 2015. His daily routine included planning and execution of anti-terrorist operations. During one such operation, on 23 February 2017, he sustained gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen. Three soldiers were killed, four injured. All casualties were rushed to Srinagar Army Hospital. Amardeep was brought to the hospital with no BP, no pulse, no visible signs of life. It was some sort of a divine intervention that he gasped once, and he was put on complete life support immediately.
Six neurosurgeons were flown in for further treatment. I was posted to Nagaland at that time. Both of us were in operational areas.
We had our own code words fixed that we would share before leaving for operations, and that was a cue for us not to call. I got a call, but this time it was from his formation, confirming the news that he’d got injured. I could reach Srinagar only the next day. Meanwhile, Amardeep’s brother, who was also a serving officer, who was also posted in the same sector, reached.
Amadeep was air-evacuated to R&R Hospital in Delhi on February 25th with complete life support. On examination, the neurosurgeon in Delhi briefed me as follows. He said there is a scale called Glasgow Coma Scale, which is used to reliably measure a person’s level of consciousness after brain injury.
The range is from three to 15. For a dead man, it is two. For your husband, it is three. That is where we start. The doctors over the initial days said, assessment is difficult at this stage. We do what we have to do. We wait and watch and see how he responds. I knew one thing for sure. Amar won’t let go easy. He would put up a tough fight, and that belief in him gave me hope. And even till today, our thoughts resonate to the Sanskrit saying, we believe very firmly.
Yadaham jeevami ahammashanseh, which means, while I live, I hope.
We were guided each step of the way by the doctors, regarding how our conduct should be in front of Amar, who’s in coma. We were asked to stimulate his senses in different ways.
We would follow a daily schedule that would be followed in a normal Army unit. We would take him in his ICU bed to PT fields, game parade, mandir parade, to cook houses, dining areas. We would take our pet, a German shepherd, who’s very fond of him, to the hospital. We would keep him oriented in time and space. We would make his family, friends and colleagues narrate incidents to him. We were told by the doctor, keep speaking to him normally, don’t expect any replies, speak as if you’re speaking to a wall.
We would play his favourite movies and songs, news and such other things. Along with all this, he was given food through a feeding tube every two hours. We would have to change his position every two hours to avoid bed sores. We made schedules for everything and chose to participate and stay invested in his recovery gainfully. Amardeep underwent numerous surgeries while in hospital. In one such surgery, the bullets which were in his brain were removed after eight months and an artificial skull was placed on the right side of his brain.
With prayers and blessings from all across the nation, steadfast support of the organisation, doctor’s efforts, and Amardeep’s willpower, he started stabilising. Eighteen months down the line, he started talking, not coherent thought.
His eyesight was affected. He regained memory, started oral feeding, weaned off oxygen support, but he could not move. We were more surprised when Amardeep started inquiring about the things said around him and done to him while he was in coma.
A new tough routine with five to six hours of surgery started for him. It involved intense and painful therapy sessions for spasticity management, corrective surgeries were happening. It was a year full of emotional challenges as Amar now was fully aware and involved. But he showed immense resilience and put up a brave front. One year into therapy, his spasticity was managed to a great extent. He could sit in a chair for prolonged hours. He could use his right side of the body gainfully.
His eyesight improved. He could stand with support for some time. He was recovering really well. That is when the pandemic stuck and everything had to stop. Our progress rolled back.
We shifted places over the years and now we’ve landed in Mumbai. He’s catching up with his progress as he wants to contribute meaningfully to the organisation and the society. Amardeep’s journey ahead can be described in the words of Mr. Robert Frost, Woods are lovely, dark and deep. I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. Thank you.
Mr. Wagle: You know, I’m a tough anchor, but that’s moved me. I’m sure it’s moved everyone. Very quickly, he’s an anchor himself, Colonel Vembu. Very quickly, Project Sambandh, before we say, Jai Hind.
Col. Vembu: All right, so you would see that the officer went by his own will to serve the country. The sacrifice is five X times by the families. So Project Sambandh is about this. It’s about the families of the armed forces personnel who die while in service because of various non-operational reasons and operational reasons, mainly non-operation, accidents, suicides, medical condition. The soldier dies, but it’s the families who make the most sacrifice. They have to have the life ahead, the children’s education, they have financial issues, social issues, emotional issues, and this is the top of a widow in India, you know.
So that’s what Project Sambandh does, I try and connect these families back to the organisation, try and help them financially, socially, emotionally. And that’s my life mission. They say that’s two important times in your year, one is the day that you’re born. The second time is when you realise why you were born, you know. So I realise it much earlier in my life that why I was born, I think I was born to maybe help those people try and connect back and make sure that life goes ahead. So salute to families like this who have done so much, you know, I’m sure he will agree to it. So that’s Project Sambandh for you.
Thank you very much.