03:02 : My untold story

So it was my honeymoon and I was enjoying the marital bliss with Naina before the world turned to hell. It was our second day in Goa, her destination after she had a taste of heavenly landscape in Andaman & Nicobar, the place I had chosen. Two honeymoon destinations in a marriage, you can say that the army people are bit crazy. Nothing matters more when you marry your girlfriend. I had met her, years back after college in a wedding and she looked stunning. Right through my college days I wanted to tell her that I love her but now when I got the chance, I didn’t let go. What followed was a period of proposing, romance and finally marriage. Here I was on my honeymoon and finally in Goa, her choice.

It was late in the night when we had slept talking to each other. The power had been out for more than an hour, the generators didn’t seem to work, none of the ones installed for power backup in hotels. Candlelight dinners are good, honeymoon passion in total dark even great but after an extent if the power doesn’t come back on, you freak out. I am used to no power being majority of times with my tank and crew but now I have Naina to think of and she can get really restless in long power outages. None of the so-called electronic gadgets seem to work, the cellphones went dead, the electronic watches were stuck at 03:02 hours. Looked like somebody had pressed the pause button in real life. Dressing up I went to check up at the reception and found some other guests too there wondering what was going on? Even the hotel staff was clueless. The telephones were dead, neither of the machines seem to work. There was visible panic in the air and the same with the other hotels too. What more could you do? We had our return tickets after 3 days, till then it was Goa. I went back to my room and saw Naina pacing the room worried. Telling her the situation, she tried to sleep embracing me like a teddy bear while I was awake worried.

In the morning, there was more panic as the tourists began to worry about their return. Some of them even had a round of the airport and came back with the news that the same situation was there too, nobody had a clue when things would start working. Till then everybody was stranded. As evening descended shit began to get serious as lodgers from other hotels who had run out of supply began rushing in , causing a further supply and room problem in our hotel. The management didn`t knew what to do with the situation getting tensed. Before it could get any worse we moved out to a small unknown hotel way back which I had reconed the previous day, away from prying eyes. It was deserted and it seemed that the owner had left off in a hurry leaving everything behind. It was away from the main road and thus hidden from public eyes. None of the transport was working so we left on foot trudging the luggage behind. 

The airport was still some 30 km away and I was not willing to take any chances in this situation with no means of transport available. Real life had now turned into a survival contest where everything I had learned during my training days in the exercises was coming to the fore. Although newly married, Naina`s composure to remain calm in this situation surprised me. Something really big had happened to get this sort of a blackout. The whole world was going nuts. One day I noticed some looters ransacking a hotel some distance away and some screams which went quiet later on. Me and Naina spent some 10 days in that "forgotten" hotel till one day when I was heading to the main road to see any activity, what resembled a bus seem to be coming from the direction of the airport. We could be stranded here forever if we didn’t do anything. I hid and watched it come near. The driver seemed to be wearing a Naval dress. When I was sure, I waved the bus and it stopped. I went inside the bus to see some 80+ people there (including women and children, army people, police, air force personnel probably all survivors or stranded people.) They were heading towards Mumbai after one of them intercepted a radio transmission about some people in Mumbai who were holding fort against some heavily armed insurgents and called themselves "The Azad Hind Fauj." The location was in Mumbai and a man named Aditya seemed to be in charge.  I asked them to wait and went into the hotel and asked Naina to put the maximum items in the backpacks we were carrying and discard the rest of the luggage. She got everything sorted in 10 minutes and said, “Let’s go”.

I was just overwhelmed by her demeanour and kissed her. In the bus it looked like I was the senior most person out there . The bus was an old piece, well into its final days of service so it was breaking down quite often, it took us another 2 days to reach Mumbai while avoiding possible ambush routes with looters, rioteers. Along the way we had picked up some weapons too . We heard some gunshots from a petrol pump and I ordered the bus to stop. To our right a huge tricolour bathed in white light. Maybe civilization but first it was important to see what was going on. I took some of the army comrades along and we each got hold of a weapon we were carrying in the bus. I saw two men hunkered behind a pillar from gunfire while being ambushed by a group of a dozen or more people in black fatigues with jeeps. I ordered the comrades to take ambush positions while I turned the safety off on my MP5, targeted through the iron sight and pressed the trigger . The bullets left the muzzle as the first person`s head was blown to pieces…..The fight had started……

Want more ?? 
Read 03:02 by Maink Dhar available at amazon :

http://www.amazon.in/03-02-Mainak-Dhar/dp/9385152963

and various bookstores.

Price- 192 /- online. 

Publisher- Westland books

Trivia- This story piece which you are reading is a fictional account of what happened in the book. Its my side of the story which is not there in the book. 

Like Major Shwetabh Mehra, many characters in 03:02 are named for or inspired by real people in Mainak Dhar`s life. The Major is based on me..

Every copy of the book sold across all formats contributes to the armed forces as a portion of the sale proceeds of every book is donated to the NATIONAL DEFENCE FUND. The current edition does not feature this disclaimer but the subsequent ones would. (Its there in the description at Amazon though)

I transferred the whole amount of the cost of the copy which was sent to me by Mainak himself. ( My way of pitching in, why should I be left behind).

So every copy read contributes… Happy reading..

दिल की कलम से.. सही किया या गलत ??

वाकया छोटा सा है मगर मुझे अभी अभी यह समझ नहीं आ रहा है कि मैंने गलत किया या सही ? ट्रेन से लखनऊ वापस आ रहा था कानपुर से . जिन्हें नहीं पता – कोई 75 किमी की दूरी है. जनरल डब्बे में सफ़र कर रहा था, ट्रेन एक्सप्रेस थी. 90 मिनट में लखनऊ खड़ा  कर देती. डब्बे में एक मूंगफली और मसाला बेचने वाला आया. वो देख नहीं सकता था . खैर प्लेटफार्म आने लगा तो मैं दरवाज़े की तरफ बढ़ा और देखा वो सारा सामान अपने झोले में रख कर दरवाज़े के पास खड़ा था और आगे खड़े लोगों से कह रहा था , “ भैया मुझे पुल पर चढ़ा देना “. ट्रेन प्लेटफार्म न. 3 पर आती है और बाहर जाने के लिए पुल चढ़ना पड़ता है. मैं उसके ठीक पीछे था. उस दिन ट्रेन में बहुत कम भीड़ थी इसलिए चढ़ने वालों का चलती ट्रेन में चढ़ कर सीट हथियाने का खतरा ज्यादा था.

उसके आगे खड़े लोगों ने तो हाँ हाँ कर दी तब मगर जब ट्रेन रुकी तो सबसे पहले वो ही भाग लिए. भीड़ को चढ़ने से रोकने के लिए मैंने 

चिल्लाना शुरू किया की , “ रुक जाओ बे, देख नहीं सकता ये, उतर जाने दे पहले उसके बाद अन्दर कूद लियो ”. अब वो जिनके सहारे बैठा था वो तो फूट लिए , मैं तो अकेला छोड़ नहीं सकता था तो उसका हाथ पकड़ कर मैं उसे बाहर तक ले आया. उसने बताया कि उसे आलमबाग जाना था जो की रेलवे स्टेशन से भी थोड़ी दूर तो था ही और आपको मैं रोड तक आने के लिए भी कम से कम 300 मीटर तो चलना ही है. टेम्पो उसको वहीँ से मिलता, स्टेशन पर तो प्रीपेड ऑटो ही खड़े रहते हैं. ट्रैफिक के डर से मैं उसे सड़क पार ले आया और जब मैंने उससे कहा की “ सड़क तक की रिक्शा कर ले “ तो वो कहने लगा की रिक्शा वाले बहुत पैसे माँगते हैं. सही बात है, एक गरीब कितना कमा ही पाता होता ? वो तो वैसे भी बगैर छड़ी के था. मुझसे कहने लगा की आप मुझे बस रास्ता बता दो, वो चला जाएगा..

मेरे इर्द गिर्द काफी रिक्शा वाले थे उस वक़्त. अब मैं यही सोच रहा हूँ कि क्या मुझे अपनी जेब से किराया दे कर उसको एक रिक्शा करवा देनी चाहिए थी ? स्टेशन की भीड़, आने जाने वाले वाहनों की आवाजाही में बिना छड़ी के , अपना झोला संभाले क्या वो ठीक होगा ? वो रिक्शा वाला हिसाब सोच सोच कर ही दिमाग खराब है ... जो किया क्या ठीक किया ??

आपको क्या लगता है ??

Joseph Sir : The teacher I wish to meet again, at least once.

All of us in our childhood come across various teachers whom we remember as we grow older. One such teacher whom I would like to meet once again would be my maths teacher in school – Joseph sir, if I get the chance again. Now something about him. He was from South India, Kerala be precise. We heard him speak only two languages - English and Hindi. He knew both but as with all the people from the south, his pronunciation in Hindi I would say was somewhere around 85%. He was damn knowledgeable in maths and could express it in English really well but as students we never took anything seriously. Although he was the most popular teacher among us in terms of laughing due to his pronunciation but the level of respect he commanded from all of us was at par with the other teachers.

Apart from science, maths was my weakness and I barely scraped through every exam just like a kabbadi player tries his hardest to touch the line. He was the very first teacher with whom my parents met at every parent teacher meeting. He taught me for two years because in class 11th and 12th I had different subjects to choose from and maths was one trap from which I was free now. My other classmates although took up maths so in reality some really did study from him for 4 years in total. If you ask me that how did he look I would say that he resembled the older version of Hollywood star Jamie Foxx with specs (Electro in the Amazing Spiderman 2 ). You could always find him either in the staff room checking tons of copies or going from one class to another with at least one or two books held in his hand. He was a lenient teacher when it came to our excuses about not bringing the copy and doing the homework but he never let it all slip away. We also tried our best as his method of explaining things was quite patient. Just to heckle him sometimes we people asked him a few variations of a question to see whether he could solve it or not but he had a really good grasp on the subject so he instantly knew whether the answer would be achievable or not.

Its always said that you respect your teachers after you leave the school because you go into the real world with the thought that whatever you are today, every teacher in a school life has had some part to play in it. Joseph sir is a prime example of teachers who command huge amount of respect after the students pass out. I passed out from school some 14 years back and over the years I would admit that I have been in regular touch with only my Hindi teacher. A few years back due to some work I had to go back to school and that day I met majority of teachers but somehow I felt that something was missing when the teachers met me. The only exception that day in the form of a surprise was who else? Joseph sir. Even after more than a decade, he recognised me, he still had that spectacled smile and was damn happy to see me, still remembering me and wishing me all the best for the future. That was one hell of a pleasant surprise for me. Who knew I would not see him the next time??

1.5 year back when I went again, I came to know that he had retired and settled permanently back in his hometown Kerala. I had forgotten the fact that teachers also retire. I always thought that they continue teaching and I would meet him whenever I would go back to school. As of now I can surely say that he commands utmost respect between me and my circle of friends who used to trouble him a lot. My efforts to trace him on social media are continuing just like everybody else but he eludes us uptill now. I still remember his flawless English with an accent while he explained the methods to us or going all Hindi with my mother in the meeting. He always wanted me to do much better in Maths than just being average. It must be heartbreaking for him to see a student getting the lowest marks in his subject while performing well in the others. Well consolation in the fact that I performed much worse in Chemistry ( don’t even ask by which crazy methods we were taught chemistry in 9th and 10th).

Joseph sir is one teacher I would love to meet him once again in my lifetime.. some teachers turn out to be such legends. 

Written for the Indinspire topic “The teacher you wish to meet again, at least once “.


Update as on 01.04.2020 - I finally talked to him for some 16 mins and he was soooo happy having recognised me in a jiffy. The enthusiasm he had in the voice was beyond I could ever say. He said " Thank you for remembering me, its so great to hear from you" some 6-7 times in the whole call. I was speechless. Its been some 20 yrs when he was talking in such detail. When he was ending the call, he again went, " Keep in touch". I had to say that he would be remembered and now that his former students had his no. , he wont be missing us as at all.

If he had made me speechless in the first, he had me dumbfounded by the time the talk was over. Its taken me some 4 years to find a closure to this blogpost and its also been the most cherished one.