The Star of Courage

The Star of Courage

 

The birth pangs of modern western Astronomy were indeed acute. Its founding fathers – Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler faced the wrath of the Church and suffered ignominy. Even today, the stars have more appeal as icons of fortune, rather than for their actual worth – massive heavenly bodies many million times of our earth moving in synchrony in a spectacular drama of colour, light, radio waves, birth, existence and collapse, all in strict consonance to laws of physics.

Sudhir Kumar Walia had a semi-serious exposure to the stars. He did not own a telescope but took advantage of his native village of Upper Banuri near Palampur in the State of Himachal Pradesh being ‘closer to the sky’.  His modest knowledge of Astronomy notwithstanding, he had his own favourite oft mentioned theory that the relative distance between the nucleus and the electrons in an atom is more than that between the sun and the earth.

Sudhir’s favourite star was Betelgeuse, the bright red star on Orion’s right shoulder in that constellation though it seemed he liked it more due its name, which he enjoyed repeatedly rolling over in his mouth – rhyming with juice.

In the full year we had opportunity to work in close proximity, Sudhir rapidly advanced his knowledge of Astrology.  This was because the young ladies he got to date spoke much about Sun-signs, Tarot and the like. The commando in him dictated that a man should ‘make his own road’ and not believe in mumbo jumbo but he realised that ‘making your own road’ as a conversationalist involves possessing such sundry knowledge.

When the Kargil War commenced, Sudhir was on a training assignment and was hugely saddened to be left out of operations. He made frequent calls, more than once a day sometimes to colleagues and seniors to be sent to the Battlezone and was able to achieve an immediate reversion to his Battalion. Once back with his troops, Sudhir lost no time to find his moorings and one morning we received a surprise call from him from atop Zulu peak.

There on the mountain top, he was even closer to the sky than at Banuri. He would no doubt have looked up to observe the stars that night.

Many months earlier, we had occasion to visit Sudhir’s home. The directions he gave us to reach there were exhaustive. “On the right would shortly come a flat square with the board ‘Upper Banuri’. A tyre repair shop with a kiosk named ‘A’ Store and one other shop are there on the square. Stop and go to ‘A’ Store, they will guide you to the house”. There are not too many crossroads in the hills to lose your way and we were there at Upper Banuri much sooner than expected.

At ‘A’ Store was Sudhir’s mother, who had been waiting for us. She coaxed everyone in the vehicle to alight and come home, a hundred yards down the road. When a child was cautioned to stay off the road, she asked us not to worry. ‘This is our road; nothing will happen to us here’.

The turn-off from the road was directly into traditional India. A cow-shed, a short flight of steps beside it and then a squarish raised courtyard with a small temple. We removed our shoes and entered neat and tidy sitting room with several chairs. It was evident that Sudhir had passed parallel directions on how many of us to expect. We settled to enjoy almost an hour of gracious hospitality, to learn about life in Banuri and about the activities of all in his family.

Sudhir’s mother herself was a member of the village council. There was a ‘Bhandara’ (a community feast) at the temple that morning and it was with much reluctance, she said that her husband, a retired serviceman and their younger son had gone there. This family clearly did not believe in taking rest. There was much to be done - the fruit orchards to be tended, the house being extended, animals to be cared for and ‘A’ Store being manned.

Sudhir was undoubtedly the ‘chirag’ of this family. ‘Pointing upwards towards a window on the first floor, she mentioned how he spends many hours sitting by it and keep thinking by himself. Was this the place he watched the night sky from?

There were further interesting revelations on Sudhir’s childhood.  Her own contributions to the rise of her son were obvious. It was she, who, in the absence of her husband had taken Sudhir to enrol him in a newly opened Sainik School a few miles away. She fondly recalled how smart and determined he looked in his new school uniform and touchingly spoke of her feelings at the time his little hand let go of hers at the gates of the school.  That was the moment when her son broke free to step into the school and out into a world of his own, away and unknown to her. Sudhir was destined to wander far and wide across the nation and even abroad, but at heart, he remained tethered to his mother and to Banuri - always his home.

A star becomes supernova at the peak of its brilliance. Explosions within it throw substances far into space, causing a huge and expanding spatial cloud, which moves outwards. When our own Sun reaches that stage a few million years from now, it will expand to an extent as to encompass the Earth. Most of the very bright stars of the night sky are in fact supernovae, as indeed is Sudhir’s favourite, Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse shone brightly that night sky when Sudhir set out with his selected squad. It had rained the whole of the previous afternoon, making the ground and everything on it damp. This was a bonus in a way, as there would be no sound of twigs cracking when they would make their silent crawls. The wet mud would however cling to their uniforms, stick to their hands, pals and finally to their brows as they wipe the sweat off.

To his heightened commando instincts, it appeared good on the balance. Sweat wiping after all, is a silent activity. They moved through the night. The Haphrude forest, but for the enemy within, is a bowl of pure nature to its brim in purity and calm. It is to forests like these that the Rishis of olden times retreated to seek peace and God. Such times have long passed by. Haphrude now was brimming instead with guns and knives, the thick green cover providing a safe haven and a conduit route instead of mere cool shade and mental calm.

Sudhir had been into this forest before, but not as far as they had travelled through that night. As daylight broke, he became concerned. The blanket of darkness had gone, and his defences now were only what the forest provided – green trees and red mud. He weighed his options. They were not far from the assigned target, but if a shooting match did take place, it would be an open one in broad daylight. He thought to himself first and then discussed with his boys. The enemy’s expectation of an attack they felt, would also have waned with the breaking of day. The element of surprise was on their side, and they decided to press forward.

The enemy came before them sooner than expected. His training had taught Sudhir to respect the enemy, who too were hardened professionals trained to take risks to life in a foreign land with little ground support.

 

Sudhir worked out a strategy for attack. He gauged the enemy numbers, their weapons, and the way they were scattered and their possible escape routes. He then assessed his own strengths - his men, their individual capabilities and state of fatigue and gave out his directions leaving to himself the most difficult role of leading the charge. Then, for a very brief moment, he shut his eyes to bring mind and body together, signalled his boys – and stepped out into the view of his enemy for what was to be his final encounter.

Hereafter, it was their respective instincts on which he, his boys -and the enemy - acted and reacted. Surprise gave him the advantage to neutralise some and engage others of their adversary. A volley of counter-fire resulted. Sudhir stood firm, in front of his boys and absorbed a burst of hits on his face and shoulder. Momentarily, his guard dropped, and another burst ripped through his abdomen. Even as it came on, Sudhir aimed in the direction of fire and silenced it. As he stood to wipe his blood-soaked face, another burst, this time aimed at his buddy, made him push the buddy and himself to the ground.

The leader’s mind in Sudhir quickly gauged the changes he needed to make to is attack plan and he snatched the radio set to convey rapid directions to others and picked up his weapon to continue fire and carried out leading his men until nearly all his blood had drained and pushed him to collapse. The enemy was neutralised.

Sudhir’s men quickly gathered round him. Messages were passed to the rear to requisition a helicopter lift for Sudhir. For this he had to be rushed on stretcher to a nearby plain ground by his boys taking quick turns to carry him and to quench his thirst.  At some point down that path, Sudhir slipped into unconsciousness.

It is on that helicopter flight, perhaps when at a point where the machine had reached its highest altitude and Sudhir was closest to the stars he loved to gaze, that he breathed his last.

In spirit however, Sudhir never died.

His pet theory on the structure of atoms did not factor in the immense quantum of an ethereal spirit that filled the intra-cellular spaces in the molecules of his being. As the pyre was lit for the last rites, this spirit left him to coagulate again high above in the sky and form a cloud-like supernova.

This is how is formed the Star of Courage, visible to anyone who had known Sudhir and his noble virtues - a star will always shine henceforth, for all time, in the night sky over Banuri.

The theories of the great Astronomers like Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler apart, this is also how Great Stars come to be.

Rest in Peace late Major Sudhir Kumar Walia – brave soldier, great human.