Fwd: Re: [nrwa_ec_2014] Re: Plea to all Nirvanaites - support your soldiers

[D S Kataria]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Ashish Agarwal" <ashis...@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 10, 2015 17:12
Subject: Re: [nrwa_ec_2014] Re: Plea to all Nirvanaites - support your soldiers
To: "nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com" <nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "Archana Sindhu" <archana...@gmail.com>, "Poornima Savargaonkar" <poorni...@gmail.com>, "Ranjit Malik" <ranjit...@gmail.com>, "Mr. SK Gupta" <m...@imperialls.com>, "Sandeep Bhatia" <sandeepb...@gmail.com>, "Nirvana Deerwood Block Committee 2014" <NDC...@googlegroups.com>, "P. S. Kohli" <psk....@gmail.com>, "Nitin Singhal" <nitins...@gmail.com>

🙏🏼

On Sat, 10 Oct 2015 at 5:11 PM, Raja SV <raja...@gmail.com> wrote:

Wow Ashish. Touching 

On Saturday 10 October 2015, Ashish Agarwal <ashis...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sharing a forwarded incident, highlighting what our forces commit to, without actually worrying of the benefits!


"Airline Lunches -

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight from Delhi.
'I'm glad I have a good book to read Perhaps I will get a short sleep,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.
'Where are you guys headed?' I asked the Young man seated nearest to me. "Agra. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed for operations."

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that lunches were available on payment. It would be several hours before we reached Delhi , and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time..

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that cost a lot of money, probably wouldn't be worth it. I'll wait till we get to Delhi ...."
His buddy agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant enough money to cover for 10 lunches and told her 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers..'
She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My young brother was a soldier in Kargil , it's almost like you are doing it for him..'

Picking up ten lunchboxes, she headed up the aisle to where the boys were seated.
She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - Veg or chicken?'
'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked..

She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. "This is your thanks".

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. An old man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me a Rs 500/- note.
Soon after I returned to my seat,

I saw the Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he wasn't looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand.'
Quickly unfastening my seat-belt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was an Air Force pilot a long time back. Once someone bought me lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A kid who looked about 18 was sitting about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. I felt him stick a currency note in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to depart. Waiting just inside the aeroplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word.
Another currency note !

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their Trip up to their training area.. I walked over to them and handed them all the currency notes that was given to me on the flight and said. 'It will take you some time to reach your training area. It will be about time for a sandwich. May God Bless You.' and thank you for doing whatever you do.

Ten young men of honour left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow countrymen. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals.
It seemed so little...

A Serviceman is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank cheque made payable to ' India ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'

That is Honour, and there are way too many people in this country who don't understand it............."

God bless our soldiers and help us mature as a society to value their selfless contributions.

Ashish Agarwal

On Thu, 8 Oct 2015 at 7:48 PM, Archana Sindhu <archana...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Poornima,

Dear Col Kataria,

      Am so thankful that there are concerned members in society, who see what is happening right before there eyes and have decided to make a change; fence sitting will NOT help any longer, as the issues are of national & grave importance. Your observation is right on the mark about TOI having lost its mooring from being a responsible paper to one reveling in yellow journalism and producing trash.

      Col Kataria's anguish is understandable - is there some sort of apathy towards the subject of national security; the old belief of "woh sambhal lenge" - who the woh is, being nebulous - wont work for much longer. The writing is on the wall - the military stands demoralised because of apathy of Govt and 'couldn't care less attitude of the public'. In yesteryears one jawan accounted for 4-6 dead militants during an encounter. Do you know what it is today? - one militant is accounting for four dead jawans? If we keep going at this pace, it will not be long before the 'enemy will be at our gates' - we will have plenty to cry for then.

      They say the start of every journey begins with one small step, and that a drop at a time finally becomes an ocean. So my hope is, that since you have initiated this journey of jettisoning TOI, others of Nirvana will follow.

Best wishes.

Archana

On Thu, Oct 8, 2015 at 7:29 PM, Poornima Savargaonkar <poorni...@gmail.com> wrote:

I hv discontinued TOI since it  prioritised to glorify a terrorists last day of life over the  news of demise of a personality of national, international, social as well individual pride and role model, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

The other news paper I switched to is less like a tabloid ( which TOI has almost become with its aggressive sponsored journalism), gives few news and I can flip its pages while I'm sitting with my 80 year old father in law as well as my teenage sons!
I don't get that 'extra'wide angle of any news but I get the news as it is and I feel good about it because as a common citizen I don't feel the need of it.

Regards.
Poornima.

On 8 Oct 2015 18:53, "D S Kataria" <dska...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mrs Sindhu,
i totally agree with what you have written and not solely because i come from a fauzi family or that i too am a proud veteran.
What i really do not understand is - what does our country, civil society, newspaper owners, politicians or bureaucrats gain from insulting & downgrading our own Army ? The emphasis is on "our own Army".
Maybe kowtowing to foreign invaders & their Army is in our DNA & hence preferable!(we've done it for hundreds of years).
Sorry for being blunt or hurting any ones sentiments. But i'm employing my freedom to talk like this - this freedom is guaranteed/ ensured by our Indian Army.
with regards
kataria

 

Dear All,

    You are all intelligent intellectuals, and very well versed with what is happening around the country, especially with regards to the One Rank One Pension (OROP), neglect of sacrifices made daily by the Army (to date we have lost approx 22500 soldiers in anti-militancy operations) and lowering the morale & prestige of the Defence Forces. Who is to blame for this state is for you determine - but what is true is, that this is not good for the nation, and we may pay a heavy price for this progressive damage to this wonderful and dependable institution. These soldiers could be your father, brother or some relative - they are proud Indians doing a difficult job, despite the chaos around them & cannot be treated so shabbily.

     I am the proud wife of a Army officer, who faithfully served his nation for 40 long years, asking for nothing in return, except for "izzat". But all of us are pained by the recent canards spread by a few individuals, backed by the Min of I & B, and newspapers like Times of India. If we do not wake up to these dangers of suppression of free speech, we may head back to the 1975 era or what transpired in pre-World War 2 in Germany. This is a real & present danger.

Times of India Group news papers and magazines, in English and other languages, have been most negative about OROP, a legitimate demand of Indian Armed Forces Veterans.
In addition -

A.   The paper refused to accept a paid advertisement about OROP., whereas others did.

B.   It published a cartoon of a great nationalist, Netaji Subhash Bose, and made fun of him on OROP, a most disgusting act by ToI Group. Many of you may have seen this odious cartoon.

C.   Its Editor has allowed scurrilous articles to be printed, insulting these brave soldiers & martyrs, and calling Ex Servicemen as a "mob". Are these people a mob; people who are always the first to rush to help earthquake victims, floods, or any other emergency, without care for personal safety.

D.  To demonstrate their anger, and solidarity with their brethren, many of the Defence Forces community have already started boycotting the Times Group publications, in all languages.

Times of India needs to be shown its place. I have already boycotted the newspaper (both English & Hindi editions). We seek your support for the sake of our own future. Final decision is ultimately yours.

Best wishes.

Archana

--
All Messages requiring response must be answered within 12 Hours.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NRWA_EC_2014" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nrwa_ec_2014...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nrwa_ec_2014/CAA7yrs1FwWyasZx2N1HTVJD%3DXiFxwP%2BNEsUaCzdHf_Y0xp7KTg%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
All Messages requiring response must be answered within 12 Hours.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NRWA_EC_2014" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nrwa_ec_2014...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nrwa_ec_2014/CACi8iuL-GbBDRQX1vYOxF8g3NRN%2B5mH7NFC0nAaG3-%3DRhpWnYw%40mail.gmail.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
Regards - Raja
(S.Varadarajan)

--
All Messages requiring response must be answered within 12 Hours.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NRWA_EC_2014" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nrwa_ec_2014...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nrwa_ec_2014/CAFGvSZFMCgVUS032VdMM3USc7b9aFnGHXjojGnQgHr1naZJSBg%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
All Messages requiring response must be answered within 12 Hours.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NRWA_EC_2014" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nrwa_ec_2014...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to nrwa_e...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nrwa_ec_2014/CACi8iu%2BaFKy1FYKLk%3Db8OnY2rrnzUGAh93kkjzQJU9mhXLiLpg%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.