Man can be destroyed,
But not defeated
-From `Old man and the sea’
By Ernest Hemingway
A war casualty and paralysed from below the chest, this retired Brigadier hailing from the city is yet to accept defeat.
Severe physical disability he suffered while commanding an infantry brigade on the Kashmir border in 2000, was no impediment for 61-year-old P.T.Gangadharan to open a Hero Honda Showroom at Puthiyara on the Bypass Junction two years back. ``I want to keep myself engaged, so that I could overcome this physical inconvenience,’’ he asserts.
He, in fact is a beneficiary of the project `Healing Touch’ launched by a Delhi-based NGO `War wounded foundation’ for victims of Kargil war. He badly wanted to keep himself busy and the proposal to open a showroom came from his friend and foundation’s executive director Mukesh Anand. ``I am not sitting idle at home simply depending on others’’.
He had sent his application in 2005 which got sanctioned immediately. The showroom, however, got delayed owing to lack of a suitable place. Help including financial aid came from his kith.
``I expect empathy from people and not sympathy. But it’s always a real challenged for person like me who need someone’s support even to move around,’’ Gangadharan says.
He had begun his eventful military career in 1971, fought many wars and adorned top positions in the Indian Army. An experienced instructor who served at various army training institutions, he took his MSc (Defense Studies) degree from Madras University.
He had led many operations to combat insurgency in high altitude and uncongenial areas and at peace stations. His miraculous survival is dated back to March 28, 2000, when he decided to carry out a reconnaissance at the forward defended locality held by a mixed troop of BSF and Army which was only 25 metres away from the enemy. His troops waited for the sun to set to proceed.
``The movement was through a tough terrain and it was a bad day for us,’’ he recalls. ``It was 11.30 p.m and we were about to reach at close quarters of the enemy. We had resorted to a speculative fire forcing the enemies to retaliate and in the process I slipped and fell over the steep and rocky slope some 200-meters down.’’
The fall caused multiple injuries on his ribs, head and spinal cord. He was taken to Military Hospital at Delhi and then got shifted to Pune based Kirki Military Rehabilitation Centre, where he spent a year. He returned to his hometown in 2004.
His wife Padmaja, resigned her job as a teacher to support him. `` She is my source of inspiration and strength without which I could not have survived,’’ Brigadier Says.
