Having witnessed the 60-hour battle against terror in Mumbai unrelentingly on television, images of bullets whizzing around, bloodied streets, grenade blasts and courageous men -- scaling walls and dropping from helicopters -- have been etched in our minds.
What many of us did not see were images of some brave men, caught in the path of the devastation they were trying to curb -- images of their homes and lives rocked by a stray bullet or a carelessly chucked grenade.
One such braveheart, Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh of the National Security Guard, found himself alone at the Bombay Hospital on November 27, injured in the attack, and unable to get in touch with his family and fiance.
The captain and his team arrived in Mumbai on the morning of November 27 and were sent straight to the site of action: The Oberoi Hotel.
As they closed in on terrorists, shrapnel from a grenade hit Amitendra's eye. He was immediately evacuated and sent to Bombay Hospital.
Captain Singh was preparing himself for surgery the next morning even as he recounted the horrors of that fateful evening for rediff.com Doctors believe his vision will be impaired after the surgery; in fact, he might even lose complete vision in his left eye.
His fiance, Dr Madhu Singh, a dentist, was at home in Lucknow [ Images ] when she received the news -- two whole days after the incident. She was getting ready to go to work and her husband-to-be called her from a borrowed cell phone, informing her of his injury.
Her heart literally stopped at the news, and she got on the next flight to Mumbai, arriving even before his parents. The frail-looking lady has been a pillar of support for her fiancee, wiping his bad eye and repeatedly assuring him of how proud she was of him.
The captain hails from Lucknow and has been posted in Gurgaon, near Delhi. It is easy to forget how young this man is as he smiles and tells you his horror-laden yet heroic tale of the terrorist attacks. However, his emotions come pouring through in tears when he remembers details that are too painful to bear, and one realises that this hero is barely 25 years old.
Once the tears have been wiped and traces of his mischievous smile start playing at the corners of his mouth again, he jokes, saying, "Arre, don't take my photo today. Take it tomorrow when I have shaved."
Image: Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh with his fiance a day before surgery. Text, photograph: Insiyah Vahanvaty
Present status: The officer who lost an eye at The Oberoi.
Here is a heart-wrenching tale of Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh, a National Security Guard commando, who lost sight in his left eye while fighting the terrorists inside the Oberoi Hotel. While the apathy of the nation towards the war-heroes is an oft-repeated story, his angst-ridden bitterness towards the army is unusual, to say the least.
After shuttling back and forth between Lucknow’s Command Hospital, Chennai’s Sankara Netralaya Eye Hospital and Delhi’s R&R Hospital, Captain Singh was discharged a day before Holi and allowed to return to the NSG camp in Manesar, where he is posted.
“I was so sick of hospitals by then — they all said the same thing, that my eye was damaged beyond repair, and that I would have to get a glass eye, which I didn’t want to do.”
Once he was back at the NSG camp, Captain Singh realised that people have short memories, and if you are injured in the army, you are little more than a liability.
“People’s attitudes towards me have changed. Earlier, they had the utmost confidence in my abilities — I was given plum tasks to take care of. Now even though I can do everything, including driving, firing and physical tasks, all the meaty jobs go to others, and I am given things to do that are not in keeping with my rank. That makes me feel bad.”
“But what can I do? I have to serve here. Now I am doing a desk job — I take care of the administration and running of the camp. I’ll never be able to participate in operations again. It’s not like the US army where any capable person can serve. Serving in the army always been my dream, which is now shattered.”
He makes it clear that the Shaurya Chakra did not serve as salve to his wounds. “I don’t want the Shaurya Chakra. Take it back and return my eye to me. P V Manish (the other Shaurya Chakra awardee) and I were together at the Oberoi. I lost my eye and he was hit in the head by a grenade. The right side of his body was paralysed for some time, but is getting better now. In such operations, you should either die or come back safe and sound. If you come back injured, you don’t get any respect.”
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