Hats off to you Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan

"Woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep...and miles to go before I sleep..."

‘Brave heart of Mumbai’, a comic book with an iPhone application(one of its kind in India), that chronicles a real life hero, Major Sandeep Unni Krishnan is one among many attempts by the people of this country to keep Major Sandeep alive amongst us. He laid down his life for each one of us fighting terrorists in Mumbai’s 26/11 attack and we must not forget that it has been two years since then and Ajmal Kasab, the main accused is still alive. Mumbaikars can never forget that deadly November when the city was held to ransom by terrorists who created havoc and took as many as 173 lives and injured 308 people. The attacks began on November 26, 2008 and lasted till November 29, 2008. This was one of the ghastliest episodes of terrorism that India had ever seen. This is a tribute to the brave son of the soil, Major Sandeep Unni Krishnan.

Major Sandeep was born on March 15, 1977 in a place called Cerruvannur, a small village in Kozhikode District of Kerela , India. He was the only son of Mr. Unnikrishnan, a retired officer of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Mrs. Dhanalakshmi. It has been two years since his son’s martyrdom. Mr. K. Unnikrishnan, the proud father of Major Sandeep was on a month long cycle- rally commencing from Gateway of India on November 26, 2010, across the country reminding people of the sacrifice that Sandeep and the other soldiers had made for the country in that horrifying terror attack.
Sandeep did his schooling at Frank Anthony Public School (FAPS), Bangalore. He was not only an outstanding student but also a remarkable sports person. He dreamt to join the Army and he fulfilled this dream of his. After graduation, he joined the Nationl Defence Academy (NDA) and passed out with flying colors. He was commissioned as Lieutenant on 12/07/1999 in the 7th Battalion of Bihar Regiment of Infantry services. In the regiment he served in various locations like Jammu Kashmir and Rajasthan. He is described as an energetic, jovial and a very jolly person by the officers of his regiment. Needless to mention, he was popular with his juniors too.
The Ghatak course is one of the most difficult courses of the Commando wing of the Infantry. Sandeep topped this course and was graded as Instructor in the Commando wing. His performance and competency in the regiment was identified by his superiors and his name was recommended to the National Security Guards (NSG), the elite commandos of the nation. After the strenuous training he was assigned to the Special Action Group (SAG) of NSG.

November 26, 2008 was a black day in the annals of Indian history. The terrorists were armed to teeth, had weaponry and stamina enhancing doses to last for four days. The terrorists were trained to work in pairs. Two of them reached Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal (CST) and open fired at the passengers waiting to board trains. Atleast 52 people were killed and 109 others were injured in this awful mass butchery. The Leopold Café in South Mumbai was among the first sites to be attacked after CST. Again, two attackers open fired and killed 10 people. It was a well coordinated ‘shooting-bombing’ exercise by the perpetrators of violence. There were explosions at Mazagaon and a taxi stand at Vile Parle. Two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower and the Oberoi Trident, were amongst the four locations targeted. Six explosions were reported at the Taj hotel and one at the Oberoi Trident. At the Taj Mahal, firefighters rescued 200 hostages from windows using ladders during the first night. Meanwhile, 32 hostages were killed in the Oberoi. The NSG were flown to Mumbai to bring this situation under control. Hence, started the Operation Black Tornado. Major Sandeep was the team commander and led the 51 SAG deployed at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. He engaged the terrorists in fierce gun battle and died when a terrorist shot him from behind, while Sandeep was rescuing Commando Sunil Yadav who was hit in the leg by a bullet.

Sandeep stood by his friend and his countrymen when they needed him. He is an epitome of courage and a role model for the youth today. This is our pay-back time to the martyrs. We, as a nation cannot afford to be fragile anymore. Breeding insects like Ajmal Kasab will bring us nothing but guilt of denying justice to people like Major Sandeep, Vijay Salaskar, Hemant Karkare and hundreds of others who lost their lives for no fault of theirs. Security personnel in India are n times less equipped when compared to the terrorists who have the latest technology to bring a nation to its knees. Complacency and inertia has made us hollow from within. May be someday this will change. Maybe someday people like Sandeep will live heroic lives than die heroic deaths. Amen.

Bitch-on-high heels

"Wth!? Why doesn’t my inbox get auto-deleted just for a day...it’s bloody flooded with tasks! ", I was looking at the endless list of tasks that I had to do and was blabbering something…mmm to no one in particular… I do this sometimes, talking to myself and I don’t know why people find this strange. No m not crazy, but I often find people staring at me and sniggering for reason(s) that only they can tell you. I quickly made a mental note of the tasks that I was supposed to complete on that day. I dunno what mental notes I make but I end up forgetting everything so I stuck some post-it notes too. Shit. My workstation looked messy. I had to clean it up but I could do that later, I had to first finish my tasks. There were at least half a dozen things lined up and I did not know which one to complete first. Prioritize. I kept repeating it to myself . But it made no sense to me coz every mail had a ‘note’ at the end saying: urgent/ asap/ to be given by eod and scores of other ugly words that made me curse the person who had first used the word prioritize. Yeah and that’s because when you know that there is something called prioritize, your boss keeps repeating it to you again and again and you are unable to prioritize (coz for some reason you were not born as superman) and you don’t want to blame yourself for anything since you are working your ass off, you blame the person who came up with this word prioritize. Anyway, to avoid confusion and wastage of time (one of the favorite things that my boss loves saying), I did that inky-pinky-pinky-ponky thing and started working on the first task.
Generally, it so happens that once I start working I leave my seat only if I have to take a lunch or snack break or have to attend some boring meeting or go to the loo but this day was definitely different. “shh…Ca…” Did someone just speak to me? I turned around and looking at me was this woman from the other side of my cubicle. She was a disaster to look at. No, she was pretty but she wore a pink flowery dress (not the baby pink that one would like it to be, it was that bubble gum pink that hurts your eyes when you see a full grown woman wear it, instead of a four year old) and you don’t really expect people to wear such clothes to the office and Fridays are no exceptions. She spoke something again “shhh ( it sounded like the isssshhh that Ash makes in Devdas . No she had a strange way of saying that, she sucked all the air in and then made that sound)…how could you do this? I feel so bad. This isn’t right; I never thought that it would turn out to be like this”. I did not understand a single word that she said. Did she have a break-up recently? It sounded like those cheesy break up lines that she had picked up from somewhere and didn’t know where and whom to say to. I felt sorry for her, she had lost it. While I was mulling over the reasons as to why this random woman had chosen me to say something so random like this, she shoved a print-out of something on my table, the fake sweetness in her voice had all melted and she was constantly making an irritating noise with her heels. I looked at the paper, it was some stupid creative for their dept and she had some problem with it. I explained to her the concept and stuff (it wasn’t really necessary) but I stopped coz she was talking incoherently, didn’t know what she was asking me for and most importantly was wasting MY time. I resumed my work while she stomped away making that squeaky irritating noise with her heels again. Her heels… something was definitely wrong with the pencil heels that she was wearing. None of my business.

This woman, let’s name her Pinky, made her way to my boss’s office and naturally the next moment I got a call to go to the meeting room. There was Ms. Pinky sitting cross legged, playing with her permed hair and my boss, typing something very fast on her laptop (later when I got back to work I got to know that these were mails being typed to me… some more tasks lined up nothing new but for a change let’s blame this on Pinky). She looked menacingly at me and asked for an explanation. Ms Pinky had reported about my rough behavior with her, to my boss. Ridiculous, I hardly spoke. I might look hideous but I do I look like a ruffian? Before I could say anything Pinky got a call on her pink phone and rushed out of the room. Dunno what happened in a split second but we heard Pinky scream and we rushed out of the room. I had never seen anything more hilarious. Pinky was lying on the floor, her phone had fallen somewhere else and most importantly her half broken pencil heels were right in front of our eyes. LOL. Bitch! she deserved this. The meeting was obviously cancelled, my boss couldn’t help laughing and Ms. Delicate had to seek assistance to get up and go to her cubicle. Ha ha I was happy. I can’t help but call myself a bitch … sometime back I was cribbing about the mountain load of work that I had and now I had time to enjoy the scene and call my friends and make this into a week’s office gossip. No wonder I hate prioritizing stuff.