It was Ladakh’s peak winter month of February in 1983. Near Khardungla at 5,600-metre altitude, the temperature was minus-40 degrees Celsius, not counting wind chill. That’s when I first saw Thangavelu, clearing snow with a bulldozer on the icy road so that Army vehicles could move.
He climbed down stiffly from his open bulldozer, removed his snow goggles and lifted his balaclava cap. His face was crusted with his frozen condensed breath, his facial muscles immobilised by extreme cold after hours of difficult and risky work clearing snow at high altitude.
It was only later, when I met him in more congenial surroundings minus heavy extreme climate clothing, that I noticed how he had aged prematurely, because he looked around 60, though aged 45.
Thangavelu had been a Sapper, an Army Corps of Engineers soldier, retired at age 34 after 15 years of “colour service”, with a paltry pension and no job. (It is hardly different today 37 years later). He was fortunate to get employment in the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) as a bulldozer operator to construct and maintain roads in inhospitable mountainous regions.
I met Thangavelu, or rather I should say I had the privilege of meeting him, only because I happened to assume command of the task force in which he was already posted. On my asking, he proudly told me that he had educated his two children, one of them as a medical doctor. Here was a simple soldier from the deep south of India, cheerfully operating a bulldozer in Ladakh in peak winter in hazardous conditions for a pittance, in the service of the nation.
GREF personnel work in areas varying from the rainy snake- and leech-infested jungles in the mountains of the northeastern States to the bitterly cold deserts of Ladakh. They undergo severe physical hardship and risk from rock falls and avalanches, and accident or sickness in inhospitable conditions, with long periods of separation from family.
Duty first
The GREF soldier’s dedication to duty matches that of the Army jawan, and Thangavelu was both. Every jawan or GREF soldier who performs his duty, and often dies in the line of duty, cannot be given awards that are reserved for exceptional acts of courage or service, but this does not in any manner reduce the value of their personal sacrifices made in the service of our country.
If we look around, we may notice thousands of “Thangavelus”. They are not only jawans or GREF soldiers but also farmers, factory workers, workers in civic services and many other vocations in the villages and towns all over the country. It is the Thangavelus, the “common man” and “common woman”, who sustain our country with their hard work, often facing personal risk, always undergoing hardship, courageously facing adversity.
When we feel low under the burden of our difficulties and self-inflicted problems, let us spare a thought for the common man and woman of India who toils daily, who has multiple problems far more severe than ours but still works cheerfully, so that we may live our privileged lives. Let us salute the common man and woman, the essence of our India.
sg9kere@live.com