My encounter with a Kargil War Hero

This week was a special week for me. After a long time, I ended taking a week off from work without any agenda/plan. My idea was to just take the days of the week as it comes without any notion of accomplishing anything. I must acknowledge that my colleagues in LSEG supported me very well by taking care of things at work during this time.

After a couple of days of doing nothing, I thought of going to my native place - Sirsi (a beautiful place in Karnataka) alone. Since it was all unplanned, I ended up taking a Tatkal train ticket to Sagar (another beautiful place in Karnataka) which is around 70 Km away from Sirsi. I must say that the trains from Bengaluru are a lot cleaner than it used to be a few years ago. A few years ago, I used to hate the trains and the primary reason for that used to be the lack of cleanliness starting from the railway stations. At least in Karnataka ( I don’t have exposure in trains beyond Karnataka for now), the cleanliness has come a long way and needless to say there is a still a lot of scope for improvement.

I have always believed that the journey is as important as the destination if not more. I have felt that the trains tend to capture the essence of the place/s very well. The cross section of people that we come across when we get into the train is just amazing. India being a vibrant country, the feeling comes out a lot more. Although I keep a book for my company during the journeys, I do not spend a whole lot reading the book. I like looking around both at the landscape as well as the people around since I believe both will provide rich experience. I remember my dad telling me about a chance meeting up with Dr Shivaram Karanth ( One of the Gynanapeeta award winner in Kannada literature) long time back in the train and my dad remembers Dr Karanth telling my dad about the experience that train journey provides life lessons and it would be such a waste to doze off in trains.

The train was chugging along quite well with quite a few hawkers selling water, coffee, tea, Tatte idli, Vada - Uddin vada, Maddur Vada, Daal vada, Bhel puri, Pulav/tomato rice, peanut Chikki,? biscuits and chips. I do try out things on the train and this time was no exception. I usually have a habit of introducing myself to the person sitting next to me and striking a conversation with them. This time was no different. Somewhere between Kadur and Birur a gentleman who seemed to be in some sort of a uniform came and sat next to me. He was travelling very light, with just a small backpack. He seemed a man in his 40s. His phone seemed to be running out of power so no sooner did he sit, he took the charger and got his phone hooked up to the charger.

After a few minutes I started the conversation. Having seen him in some uniform, I asked him if he was a railway employee. The gentleman said that he was and the pride in being a railway employee was so evident in his reply. He elaborated that he was in the squad. I later understood that they are a bunch of people who are responsible for some random ticket checking and also ensure that some non compliant people pay the fine etc. Essentially part of the team that enforces the set rules in the railway. Discipline seemed to be written all over him. He was sitting upright, he always had a smile on his face and whenever he spoke he was very courteous. After he explained what he does in Railways, he said that he was ex serviceman. He said that he was part of Indian army for 17 years. What struck me the most was when he said that he had the “honour” of being part of the Kargil war first hand. The pride with which he talked about his part in Kargil war was simply unmissable. He went on to say that he along with two others from Shivamogga district were honoured by the Member of Parliament from Shivamogga ( B Y Raghavendra) in a big event for having taken part in Kargil war. He proudly showed the pictures that were taken at that big event. We chatted about our families, what our kids do and so on like any other common people would possibly do. After having chatted for so long, I asked his name and he first apologised for not telling before and said that his name was “Mohan”.? Mohan got down in Shivamogga stop while I had to go further. For the rest of my journey, I thought of Mohan, his mannerism, his courteous ways and above all his pride in the work he has done and what he is doing in Indian Railways currently. In our “Corporate” world, we end up using work satisfaction, work life balance etc but Pride is not used often.

After having spent a couple more days meeting some of my friends and relatives in Sirsi/Sagar, it was time for me to get back to Bengaluru. Again I ended up getting a Tatkal ticket back to Bengaluru in the train. Since the train starts at 5:30 am in Sagar, I ended up dozing off for the first hour. In fact I was woken up because of some commotion that seemed to have been happening in between the train bogies. I saw that there was some animated arguments going on with the Ticket collector and one of the passengers. This went on for quite a while but I did not pay much attention to it. When the train reached Bhadravati (steel town of Karnataka), the “squad” quickly came towards our train bogie. I saw that one of the squad members was Mohan. It looks like the Ticket Collector had communicated to the squad and the they were ready to deal with the situation. Mohan seemed very focused, he was not smiling, he was not frowning either. He was speaking politely but firmly to the passenger who seemed to be travelling ticketless. I could now clearly see how Mohan goes about doing his duty. I just left them do what they were doing and quietly came back to my seat.

While the journey continued, the commotion was clearly over and the journey was back to its normal best. Mohan and other squad members had done their duty and were looking around for any available vacant seats to settle down. Mohan first made sure that some of his colleagues got some seats to settle down. Mohan happened to notice me, he came to me with the same smile, same courteous look and humbly greeted me. He just said that there was a situation which he had to deal with. It has been dealt with amicably, so there was no issue anymore. He said that he would get down at the next station. He bid me good bye and went ahead to look for any vacant seat that he could get to settle down while I sat in my seat thinking about Mohan - the Kargil War hero and also Railway hero - which may not be as dramatic as Kargil war though. Either way, I was fortunate to having met Mohan both as a common family man as well as a person who was proudly in duty, be it in Indian Army or Indian Railways. My time off was very well spent.