Just Saying | Desi heroes and anti-heroes from Ukraine: Two Indians hold their heads high, but thousands retreat with tail between legs

Thank God for Dr Girikumar Patil and Sainikesh Ravichandran, our heroes in Ukraine. If not for these two, our reputation would have been forever sullied by the other 20,000.

For those who don’t know, the lion-hearted doctor Patil is holed up in his basement along with his pet jaguar and panther. Known locally as Jaguar Kumar, the Andhra Pradesh native refuses to run from Severodonetsk (a town in the Russian-controlled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine) without his beloved pets. An orthopedician who came to Ukraine to study 15 years ago, Jaguar Kumar has been helping fellow Indians escape the war but he himself is staying put if his pets cannot move with him. Yasha, a jaguar he adopted from a zoo, and Sabrina, the black panther, are keeping him company.

Sainikesh Ravichandran, from Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu, is a newly-minted recruit in a Ukrainian militia that is battling the Russians. The 21-year-old, who went to Ukraine four years ago to study aerospace engineering, has evidently been swept up in all the nationalistic fervour around him and taken up arms. Whether his cause is right or wrong, good or bad is not the moot point. What is obvious, though, is that red blood flows in the young man’s veins.

Sainikesh Ravichandran. Image courtesy News18

What then courses through the veins of the other 20,000 Indians who have whined, whinged and thrown umpteen tantrums until they were tucked back safely in Indian cottonwool? For aspiring doctors, this is an astonishing level of aversion to the sight of blood. It is no one’s case that a war zone is a holiday destination, but it is quite clear that what we’ve seen is a returning parade made up mostly of sissies and ninnies. Mamma’s boys and papa’s girls abound, but not that much grace or gratefulness. The navy blue passport is assumed to be the ultimate bestower of entitlement.

Stories and visuals of the entitled behaviour of our returning heroes are everywhere. But one or two anecdotes that are not popularly known will serve to illustrate the point further. One of the bravehearts rescued from the war zone had a most important question for a foreign-service officer doing the rescuing:

“Sir, non-veg milega?” he wanted to know. After being assured that meat was on the menu, our student had this to say: “Sir, halal milega na?” Talk of priorities!

Some students were asking if they could take Thursday or Friday flights back home because they wanted to see Budapest, Hungary’s capital which is a popular sight-seeing destination. Others didn’t even bother to ask. They just went AWOL from the hotel and found their way to the streets of Budapest. What better way to heal the trauma of being in a war zone than gambolling about in a holiday destination with spring approaching.

Which is why Jaguar Kumar and Sainikesh Ravichandran are such a breath of fresh air. They are passionate and full of chutzpah; they believe in something. They are life’s characters, people who make things happen, unlike the sorry characters returning with their tails between their legs.

Dr Kumar Bandi is a native of Tanuku town in West Godavari district of Andha Pradesh. Image courtesy JAGUAR KUMAR TELUGU/Youtube

It has been a colossal effort by India to bring the stranded students back to safety. We have surmounted logistical and diplomatic challenges, and demonstrated to the world that the navy blue passport means something special. Of that we should be proud, but not of the surly and ungrateful lot who abuse the privilege of owning the document.

Like our country’s rescue operation, Jaguar Kumar and Sainikesh Ravichandran present a face of India that is undeterred and fearless. Flawed, perhaps, but endearing, the kind of stuff that superpowers are made of.

Don't take this too seriously. You might get offended.

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