COURAGE COMPASSION: STORIES OF GOAN MILITARY VALOUR
VALMIKI FALEIRO, in this concluding part on the Goan contribution to officer
ranks
of India's defence services, traces the virtues and valour displayed by Goans in
India's armed forces
If, going by the numbers that joined the armed forces, you thought Goans were a
trigger-happy bunch of battle mongers, think again. Many of them, on hanging
their
uniform for the last time, did - and some are still doing - good works of
compassion.
Let's check three noble instances.
Brig Terence Barreto retired and began charity at home. He came to Goa, helped
his
three younger brothers - Wg Cdr Cecil, Brig Noel and Lt Gen Bobby Barreto - buy
plots at Porvorim's Defence Colony and build houses, to ensure they returned to
their
roots. He then went to the city he was born, Nagpur. Elders were being forsaken.
Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity were already active in a large campus.
Brig Terence made the nuns an offer. He would build a house within their campus
that could be integrated into their complex with minimum changes. He would use
the
house in his lifetime and the place would be theirs on his death. The nuns
agreed.
His mission among Nagpur's poor and destitute, sick and homeless, forsaken and
forgotten, continues.
Gp Capt Emanuel Fernandes (Fighter Fernandes) was more than an exceptional
fighter pilot. At Kalaikunda (Eastern Air Command), he was injured in the legs
after
ejecting from a Gnat at low height. After a year in hospital, he flew light
aircraft. On
retiring, he settled on the outskirts of Pune, started a poultry farm that
created some
40 jobs and founded a school for poor children of the area. Gp Capt Fernandes
passed away 23 Dec 2006 at age 84, just the way he always wanted - suddenly, in
apparent good health, mental faculties intact. The poor of Pune wept.
Wg Cdr VB Sawardekar died in a flying accident 1972. His widow, Asha, returned
to
Panjim with two toddler daughters. Under the Central Government's Development of
Women Children in Rural Areas programme, she pioneered women empowerment
groups, setting up over 500 such 15-member groups within a period of 5/6 years,
across Goa.
She then quietly began assisting fellow-humans, primarily slum women and
children,
with medical care and supplementary nourishment. In 1979, she launched a Trust,
funded entirely on private donations. She conducted 6-month courses in
tailoring,
cooking, home nursing, etc. and, brick by another patient brick, built a twin
institution:
a medical recovery home and a home for the elderly, both for women. Sanjeevan
(better life) at Nageshi-Ponda is the soft-spoken widow's ensign to an IAF hero.
Compassion and courage went hand-in-hand with Goans. In the line of duty, the
word fear did not exist in their lexicon. Here's a sampling. I'll begin with my
personally
most poignant story of cool courage and end with one that has elements of
gallantry,
humour, and a tinge of sadness. What lies between are tales of sheer heroism of
men who, in the face of death, stood for their country's honour...
Maj Gen Ian AJ Cardozo, VrC, SM, AVSM was both a gold and silver medalist cadet
at Pune's NDA. Decorated early with a Sena Medal for gallantry in NEFA in 1960,
fate had more in store for him. He was a Major (with the 1st Battalion of the
5th
Gorkha Rifles Regiment) when, in a heli-borne operation behind enemy lines at
Sylhet in the 1971 war, his left leg was severely injured on a mine. Without
medical
aid, 34-year-old Maj Cardozo asked a subordinate to cut off his lifeless leg.
When
the subordinate declined, the intrepid Major took a Gorkha 'Khukri' (sheated
dagger)
and himself did the unthinkable. Later, a captured Pakistani army doctor
performed
corrective surgery - under a tamarind tree. Maj Cardozo wrote a one-liner to
his wife
Priscilla, I am alive and kicking, even if with one leg. (Priscilla still
reminds him he
has property burried in Bangladesh.) Loss of a leg spelled end of an army
career.
Not so in this case. Undaunted, Maj Cardozo got himself an artificial limb and
heroically - over seven years - rehabilitated his way back to normal life. He
resumed
duties. He was nicknamed the one-legged General. Not the fairytale type that
sits
on a mantelpiece, he surmounted physical drawbacks with the prosthetic leg, did
his
job often better than able-bodied officers (he topped a seven-officer group in a
Battle
Physical Efficiency Test), and earned his way up. His case made the Government
of
India change the policy towards war-disabled officers. He was cleared for
command
of a Battalion, then a Brigade and finally, an entire Division.
When serving at Thiruvanantapuram, he saved a 12-year boy drowning in the sea,
clumsily (his word) swimming with one leg. Maj Gen Cardozo retired in 1993 as
Chief of Staff of a Corps and founded the War Wounded Foundation, a NGO for the
interests of disabled soldiers, is associated with the
