INTRODUCTION: On a wall of the Pithoragarh fort in Uttarakhand, there is a marble plaque that tells us that 1,005 men from one village went to fight in World War I (WWI) in Europe in 1914. Later in the decade, Honorary Lieutenant RudraBirSen from Pithoragarh would take part in the Third Anglo-Afghan War in Waziristan in 1919 and receive the Indian Order of Merit for bravery. Around 90,000 Indian soldiers died in these wars. Ninety years later, RudraBir’s grandson Lieutenant Colonel SundeepSen led the action against terrorists at Nariman House during the Mumbai attacks of 2008…
The final battle was under way when Sandy reached the hotel. The guests had been evacuated and the terrorists were being taken out. Half an hour later, Sheoran informed Sandy that all terrorists in the Taj attack were dead, barring one, who was missing.
‘Has he escaped into the city? . . .what if . . .?’ a worrying thought crossed Sandy’s mind. He, along with other commandos, began a search of the premises. The hotel had been set on fire earlier during the attack, and there were firefighters and commandos everywhere – walking under collapsing beams, broken furniture, ruptured ceilings and burnt interiors.
In the Harbour Bar, located in the north wing of the hotel, firefighters had been clearing the rubble when Sandy noticed a rifle barrel sticking out from the debris. He pushed it aside to discover a tiny fragment of a body buried in the rubble. ‘Two kilos of flesh – that’s how a monster is remembered at the end of a mission,’ Sandy thought.
The count was complete. The terrorists were all dead. Both hotels had been cleared. On 29 November, the city had been won back.
Outside the hotel, Sandy stared at a signboard – Ramchandani Road – named after Flying Officer P.R. Ramchandani, a gallant air force officer who died in the war against Pakistan in 1965. Many years later, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan laid down his life fighting terrorists from Pakistan on Ramchandani Road. Two individuals, separated by time and different conflicts, but linked by their sacrifices on the same road. A poignant coincidence, Sandy thought as he, Sheoran and others sat alongside each other in silence.
