BEYOND BULLETS AND BLOOD

Strong Soldiers, Humane Hearts


The citizen moments shared by bank guards (who have been soldiers earlier) are amazing. Ms Harina Sharma immerses herself deeply into the tales of positive contribution shared by them in the programme and finds facilitating such programmes an immensely fulfilling experience. She shares three such experiences from today's class with our readers:




Shri L.S.Yadav, guard at our Indore City Branch, during his days in the army, also came across famine struck Ethiopians and saw how hunger makes monsters out of men.

Since his needs were taken care of by the army, he had ample canned food to eat. While having his food he would watch many children, just skin and bones hovering around him to collect morsels of food that may by chance be thrown away by the Indian soldiers after having their fill!

Shri Yadav saw people snatching food from one another to satisfy their hunger, leading to bitter fights also. He couldn’t bear to see their plight and many times offered his share of food to the hungry Ethiopian children, though he, for some reason, was instructed not to provide any food to them. He continued to feed them with whatever he had, doing his little bit to wade off hunger, but the horror of famine, starvation and death still stays in his memory.


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In 1988, Shri Ashfak Ahmed of Main Branch, Chhindwara, was an army man and was involved in the rescue operations at Latur, Maharashtra, when the place was struck by a violent earthquake. He was a witness to a mother’s love for her baby, as he pulled her out surprisingly without a scratch, straight from the rubbles! What caught his attention was the motherly act of the woman who had deliberately cut her little finger and had placed it in the mouth of her baby so that it sucks her blood and survives!

At Killari village, after the disaster he saw a little boy suddenly rushing to a bullock and hugging it wildly, both of them in tears. Suddenly it dawned upon him, that the boy and the bullock only had each other, as survivors! The tears rolling down their cheeks were of joy of seeing each other alive and also were mourning for the departed, near and dear ones.

Later on, in 1999, in poverty stricken Orissa, he saw men, women, children and even snakes, feeding on a bunch of bananas, all sharing the food, without harming each other, sensitive to the needs of each other!


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Shri Virendra Singh Ahlawat , guard at our Main Branch, Betul, was a part of IPKF sent to Srilanka in the year 1987. He was very close to the Kuchavelly jungle, when he observed Srilankans, in tattered clothes, hungry and fearful, hiding in the jungle. A closer look at them revealed that major part of their body which was not covered, was full of mosquito and other insect bites. The exposed parts of their body, also had a lot of wounds and bruises, due to scratching. They were afraid of their own countrymen! It was their own people who gave them the wretched life in the jungle with no food, clothing, shelter and medicines!

Shri Virendra immediately spoke to his seniors and arranged for two nursing assistants to attend to those poor people. They were encouraged to come out of the jungle and be medically treated by the IPKF. They were given medicines and their wounds were bandaged daily. Some relief indeed, given by our IPKF, to the poor Srilankans!

Shri Virendra’s contribution to the poor does not end there. In SBI as a guard, at Main Branch, Betul, an old man around 70 years approached him, to check the balance in his account. To the utter dismay of the old pensioner, the balance was negligible due to the charges levied by the Bank for not maintaining the stipulated minimum balance. The old man used to get Nirashrit Pension, i.e. pension for the hapless from the government which is a meagre Rs. 150/-p.m. Shri Virendra was moved by his plight and spoke to his BM, Mr. Sriniwas, that SBI gives so much in charity and also does a lot of community services, then should we deduct charges from these poor pensioners? His request was well received by the BM who immediately arranged for the credit of the amount of charges deducted of not only the poor old man but of all similar pensioners. A single thought of welfare, helped a large number of poor pensioners in the branch.

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The life of these soldiers has been in the midst of bullets and blood, with their life at stake, for the sake of our motherland, with hands that are tough enough to drive a bullet down the enemy’s throat but also gentle enough to soothe the pain of hunger, poverty, disease, warding off death of the innocent on one side and inflicting death on the guilty, on the other. Strong shoulders that handle tremendous responsibility with a humane heart, willing to do more for the country, wherever they are.

And yes, many died so that we can live. Can we acknowledge every soldier for the blood that he gave to our country, so that we are free, for those long years he stayed away from his family so that we have a family, for those bullets taken by his body, that left him crippled for life so that we stay whole-- can we express our gratitude to these great sons of the soil?

And, today they rest (or is it work?) on their laurels of inner fruits of having saved lives at the cost of their own, though not much can be said about their financial standing despite their selfless, unparalleled, contribution.


Contributed by: MS. HARINA SHARMA, FACULTY, SBLC, INDORE.