Indians.... Proud to us...

Neerja Bhanot: Neerja Bhanot was a flight attendant for Pan Am, based in Mumbai, India, who was murdered while saving passengers from terrorists on board the hijacked Pan Am Flight 73 on 5 September 1986. It was two days before her twenty-third birthday. Not only had she assured the failure of the hijacking by preventing the plane from getting off the ground, she also saved the lives of hostages in those long hours of incarceration. She hid the passports of American passengers from the Arabic speaking gunmen, giving them a chance to escape the homicidal wrath of the intruders.

For her bravery she was awarded with:
Ashok Chakra Award (India's highest gallantry award for bravery in the face of the enemy, during peace time), being its youngest recipient.
Flight Safety Foundation Heroism Award, U.S.A.
Tamgha-e-Insaaniyat (Awarded for showing incredibly human kindness), Pakistan
Justice for Crimes Award, United States Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia
Special Courage award, US Govt.
Indian Civil Aviation Ministry's Award.

In 2004 the Indian Postal Service released a stamp commemorating her.

Ashoke Sen: Physicist Ashoke Sen is one among the nine recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize, which is considered as one of the greatest honour in the field of Physics. He is currently a scientist at the Harish Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad, has received the $3-million prize for pioneering work on string theory, an attempt to unify the theories of gravity and quantum mechanics and an effort to complete a task that Einstein had begun. Sen might have won a Nobel Prize if string theorists were allowed to. In 1998, when he won the fellowship of the Royal Society, his name was nominated by none other than Stephen Hawking.

Narinder Singh Kapany: A physicist born in India, currently spending his retired life in the US, nearing 90. He pioneered in the field of Fiber Optics way back in 1960s. Actually the term 'Fiber Optics' itself was coined by him. He was included in the list of 'Seven unsung heroes' by the Fortune Magazine. In 2009 Charles K. Kao was awarded Nobel for his ground-breaking work in Fiber Optics (done in 1966). However, Dr. Kapany had demonstrated transmission of light in fiber optics more than a decade back. He only received a mention for his work by the committee.

We owe a lot to this man who paved way for high speed data transmission, internet, advanced surgeries and much more.

Annadurai: Annadurai owns an auto rickshaw in Chennai City. It isn't an ordinary auto rickshaw because this is what you'll find inside it.

Free mobile battery charger
Watch TV for free
Free WiFi
Free books to read
Bumper prize contest for customers
Refer a poor child for studies
Discount in fare for teachers and on special days
Mobile and DTH recharge

His main goal is to provide customer satisfaction. The vehicle is Wi-Fi enabled and, if you're not carrying a laptop or smartphone to connect to the internet, Annadurai will slip you a 10-inch tablet. He carries an internet dongle attached to a Wi-Fi router and offers free access to the internet.

"Most people who take my auto work for IT companies and I know access to the internet is important for them," Annadurai says. "It takes about half an hour to cover the distance between Thiruvanmiyur and Sholinganallur. "Why waste that time?" says Annadurai.
Annadurai spends Rs. 4,000 a month on subscriptions to 35 various news publications.

Rajesh Kumar Sharma: Rajesh Kumar Sharma, 40, offers a free education to New Delhi's slum children under a metro bridge. He started a makeshift school, where he teaches children from the city’s slums, too poor to attend regular schools. Founder of a free school for slum children Rajesh Kumar Sharma writes on black boards painted on a building wall, at a free school run under a metro bridge in New Delhi, India. At least 30 children living in the nearby slums have been receiving free education from this school for the last three years. He runs a general store in the city, but for two hours a day he rushes to his improvised outdoor school. If it wasn’t for Rajesh and the dozens of children who go here daily, you would never guess this is a place for education.

There are no walls or desks, just the bridge acting as a protecting roof in case of rain, and three squares painted black and used as blackboards.

The teacher doesn’t only provide his knowledge for free but also all the reading and writing materials. "I don't take attendance. They love coming here because there are no school-like boundaries. In fact, I want to keep it like that," he says.

Col Narendra Kumar: Col. Narendra Kumar or ‘Bull’ Kumar’s heroic deeds ensured that the Siachen Glacier became a part of India in Operation Meghdoot which was launched by the Indian Armed Forces to capture the Siachen Glacier to establish a critical wedge between PoK and area occupied illegally by China after 1962. The expedition to climb the glacier was lead by Narendra.

Narendra is an internationally known mountaineer. Out of 13 the highest peaks above 24,000 feet climbed by Indians, nine have been climbed under his leadership. Colonel Kumar is the only Indian to have commanded three premier mountaineering institutes of the country.

Colonel Kumar was the first man in the world to cross the Siachen Glacier from the snout to its source. Colonel Kumar's unique contribution towards the world of mountaineering was the ascent of Kanchenjunga from the North East spur., which is considered to be a greater feat than climbing Mt Everest.

Rukhsana Kausar: Rukhsana Kausar is known for shooting an LeT militant at her home, in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). A Class 10 dropout, she has been awarded the India National Bravery Award, for the killing of a Laskar-E-Taiba militant leader at her residence, using an axe and an AK47 rifle. On a Sunday night at around 9:30 pm, September 27, 2009, three militants broke in to Waqalat Hussain, Rukhsana's uncle. They forced him to lead them to his older brother Noor Hussain's adjoining house. When Noor Hussain did not open the door, the three allegedly broke open a window and entered the house. By then, he with his wife, Rashida Begum, had hidden Rukhsana beneath a cot. They demanded Rukhsana be handed over to them. When her parents and younger brother Aijaz tried to resist, the militants started hitting them with rifle butts. Rukhsana emerged from her hiding place with an axe and hit the LeT commander on his head. One of the militants opened fire, injuring Waqalat Hussain in his arm. Other family members joined Rukhsana in attacking the militants.

Rukhsana picked up the commander's AK47 rifle, retrieved another from the other militant, and threw it to her brother. Rukhsana shot the commander, killing him, and she and her brother fired on the other militants, forcing them to flee.

Dr. Ravindra Koelhe: Dr. Ravindra Koelhe, MD, lives and runs a clinic in Melghat, Maharashtra. His fee is Rs. 2 for the first consultation and Rs. 1 for the second. Apart from being a doctor, he is also a social worker. Dr. Koelhe was first recognized after he filed a case against government who failed its duty to protect the Korku tribals of the region. After completing his MBBS from Nagpur University, he decided to work in rural India. An ardent follower of Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave, he was also influenced by Ruskin Bond who wrote, 'If you want to serve mankind, go and work among the poorest and most neglected.'

Jankidas Mehra: Jankidas Mehra was a champion cyclist of world repute. He broke eight world cycling records between 1934-42. He represented India in the world Olympic Games in 1936 at Berlin. He was India’s sole representative at the empire games in 1938 in Sydney, Australia and at the eastern games in 1940, Tokyo.

Finally before the world sports congress meet in Zurich he met Mahatma Gandhi who put him in a moral dilemma. "Do you want to represent British India?" Gandhi asked him. At the meet Jankidas quietly untied the British flag and hoisted India’s national flag (pre independence) and he became the first Indian to have done this. With this act against British occupation, he was hailed a hero but the controversy forced this sports person plus freedom fighter’s sports career to end.

He became a well known writer, a director and a noted actor (from whose Mumbai estate Sanjana Kapoor’s Prithvi theatre now operates). Jankidas passed away in Mumbai on June 18, 2003.he was 93.

Bunker Roy: In 2010, Bunker Roy was among the 100 most influential people in the world according to the TIME magazine. He is the founder of the Barefoot College movement in India. He has empowered the people of a drought prone Tilonia and created a self sustained economy for the natives there. The amazing things happening in Tilonia would leave you spell bound. They produce their own electricity, via solar panels, manufacture their own lighting equipment, and even microchips!

The amazing fact is these awesome microchips and solar panels are developed by women who are either illiterate or have received very little education. A simple but powerful idea has stopped migration from villages and made them self sustainable.

Rameshwar Nath Kao: Rameshwar Nath Kao was a spymaster and the first chief of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from its founding in 1969 to 1977. Kao was one of India's foremost intelligence officers, and helped build R&AW. He held the position of Secretary (Research) in the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which has been held by all R&AW directors since. He had also, during the course of his long career, served as the personal security chief to Prime Minister Nehru and as security adviser to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He also founded the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) and the Joint Intelligence Committee. An intensely private man, Kao was rarely seen in public post-retirement, and was photographed only twice throughout his life.

Ravinder Kaushik: Ravinder Kaushik was born in Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan on April 11, 1952. He was a famous theater artist and displayed his talent at the national level dramatic meet in Lucknow, which was witnessed by some officials of the Indian Intelligence Agency RAW. He was contacted and offered a job for being an undercover agent of India in Pakistan. At the age of 23, he was sent to Pakistan on a mission.

Ravinder Kaushik was recruited by RAW and was given extensive training in Delhi for two years. In 1975 he was sent to Pakistan and given the name Nabi Ahmed Shakir. He was successful in getting admission in Karachi University and completed his LLB. He joined Pakistan Army and became a commissioned officer and later was promoted to the rank of a Major. He married a local girl Amanat.

From 1979 to 1983, while in military service, he passed on valuable information to RAW which was of great help to the Indian defense forces. He was given the title of 'Black Tiger' by India's then home minister S.B. Chavan. He spent 26 years of his life away from his home and family in Pakistan in very unfavorable conditions. On many occasions Pakistan prepared to wage war across the borders of Rajasthan in India, but they were foiled due to the timely advance warning, as he was a senior military officer in Pakistan by now and had access to top secret information.

In September 1983, Indian intelligence agencies had sent an agent, Inyat Masiha, to get in touch with Black Tiger. But the agent was caught by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and revealed Ravinder Kaushik's true identity. Kaushik was then captured, tortured for two years at an interrogation centre in Sialkot. Ravinder was awarded death sentence in the year 1985. His sentence was later commuted to a life term by the Pakistan Supreme court. Kaushik was kept in various jails, including Sialkot, Kot Lakhpat and in Mianwali jail for 16 years, where he contracted Asthma and TB. He managed to secretly send letters to his family in India, which revealed his poor health condition and the trauma faced by him in Pakistani jails.

On 21 November 2001, he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis and heart disease in New Central Jail Multan. He was buried behind that jail.

Dashrath Manjhi: Dashrath Manjhi, also known as Mountain Man, was born in a poor family in Gahlour village near Gaya in Bihar, India. Manjhi's wife, Falguni Devi was once very sick and she needed medical treatment urgently. But the nearest town with a doctor was 70 kilometers away from their village in Bihar, India. Unfortunately Manjhi could not help her get medical treatment in time due to the long distance and she died. Manjhi did not want anyone else to suffer the same fate as his wife, so he carved a path 360-foot-long (110 m), 25-foot-deep (7.6 m) in places and 30-foot-wide (9.1 m) to form a road through a mountain in the Gahlour hills, working day and night for 22 years from 1960 to 1982. His feat reduced the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj blocks of the Gaya district from 70 km to 1 km, bringing him national acclaim. He died on August 17, 2007 and was given a state funeral by the Government of Bihar.

Makhan Singh: Many would think, quite natural to think that way, that he too, like Milkha Singh, would have lead a very cosy life, enjoying constant fame and money, but the reality was quite the opposite. Life took a turn for the ugliest when he retired from the services and athletics.

"To make the bread of his life, he started his career as a Truck Driver along with his brothers in Nagpur. Just to avoid the shame of recognition, he went under a dummy name 'Rana'. He used to stay with his family in a rented house in Nagpur. Earlier he used to drive trucks on contract for someone. Then he got his own truck by getting a loan from the bank. But fate had something else for him in store and he met with an accident on October 28, 1990. He spent several days in the hospital but his wounds on the leg were getting worse. Ultimately his leg was amputated on November 28, 1990. In 1998, he asked a politician for a gas agency allotted to him but the man demanded a bribe from one of India’s finest athletes. In 1999 he went to meet the Railway Minister in New Delhi to get a complimentary pass that Arjuna Awardees are entitled too. However, he could not get beyond the security guards."

“I don’t know in which world my husband was living when he believed that a gold and a silver medal in the 1962 Asiad would make him a hero forever. He could have better finished college and got a decent job.”

There is a cupboard stacked with chipped medals, faded photographs, rusting trophies and frayed newspaper clippings. If you think this is a treasure, her wife remarks, “No, this is junk.”

Makhan Singh's last words to his kids were: "Don't become a sportsperson, if I couldn't get anything while in sports, then what will you get."

To protect the future of her kids, his wife finally gave up and offered to sell her husband's various medals and awards — including The Arjuna award.

By this time, the government was forced to wake up from its slumber by Sushma Swaraj, who took the cause of the plight of his family in the Parliament, through which some respite followed.

Radha Binod Pal: After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies in September 2, 1945. A Tokyo trial or the Tribunal was convened by the Allies to try the leaders of Empire of Japan for crimes of war. Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,700 Japanese nationals were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly entailing prisoner abuse. China held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions.

The only dissenting voice in the Tribunal was of Justice Radha Binod Pal. He was the only one who submitted a judgment which insisted all defendants were not guilty. He argued that the trial was simply an act of retribution by the Allies rather than an impartial judgement. He believed that the exclusion of Western colonialism and the use of the atomic bomb by the United States from the list of crimes signify failure of the Tribunal to provide anything other than the opportunity for the victors to retaliate.

His argument was ignored and his opposition was banned from publication. Only after the American Occupation of Japan ended in 1952, the ban was subsequently lifted.