EPISODE 3 - Major Akshay Girish Kumar

Date of Birth: December 6, 1986

Birth Place: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Service: Army

Last Rank: MAJOR

Unit: 51 Engineers

Regiment: Corps of Engineers

Date of Martyrdom: November 29, 2016 -

Nagrota, J&K

Major Akshay was born along with his twin sister Neha, at 8.05 on 6th December 1985 to his parents Mrs. Meghna and Wg. Cdr. Girish Kumar (Retd). Even as a child, Akshay with his twinkling eyes, big smile and inherent warmth charmed one and all. After early education in different schools in Bidar, Wellington (Nilgiris), Gorakhpur and Chennai, in 1996, the twins joined Kumaran’s School (CBSE) in class six. Short for his age and skinny, Akshay would never hesitate to stand up to his principles from a very early age and he fought all odds to become a healthy, strong and determined boy with a passion to join the Defence Forces and serve his motherland. His inspiration may have come from his family since his grandfather Lt Col A. K. Moorthy(Retd) is a war veteran and apart from his father Wg Cdr. Girish Kumar who was a Fighter Pilot, maternal uncle Wg. Cdr. K Harisenani (Retd) is also a former Air Force Pilot.

He joined the Bangalore military school as a Boarder in 8th standard, worked hard and did well in school. After class 12th, he wrote the National Defence Academy (NDA) entrance exam (one of the toughest entrance examinations anywhere) and was selected among just 572 boys across the country. However, his dream of joining the Indian Air Force was cut short in the stringent medical examination because he wore glasses and the IAF pilots need perfect vision. His father suggested strongly that he do commercial flying and join an Airline. He just smiled and said my dream is to wear the uniform and serve our country -that is how his journey into the army began. Cadet Akshay Girish (111 NDA Course) was trained at the prestigious Tri-Services National Defence Academy from 2003-2006 after which he went to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun for one more year of specialized Army training.

A TRUE GENTLEMAN

On 10th December 2007, Lt Akshay Girish was commissioned as an officer in the 51 Engineers- a regiment of the Bengal Sappers. He wore the Olive Green uniform with great pride and did his work with utmost passion. By his 9th year of service, he had served in conflict zones of Kashmir and Nagaland and also in high altitudes of over 19000 feet in Sikkim. He led difficult tasks for his regiment like fencing the border in the Line of Control between Indo-Pak border in the mountains beyond Kupwara in Kashmir and building bunkers at the Indo-China border. He did very well in his Army Courses and earned an A grade in the Young Officers course and an Instructor’s grade in the Junior Command course. He also got his B Tech in Electrical Engineering from College of Military Engineering, Pune. Akshay married his friend Sangeeta Ravindran in 2011 and they were blessed with little Naina in October 2013.

Akshay had great regimental spirit and regard for his seniors and much concern for the welfare of men under his command. He often spoke about their tough life and wanted to help their children achieve their dreams. Many a time he called us up to ask about educational avenues and admission procedures for the children of soldiers in his unit.

Akshay was the ultimate jack of all trades: a good painter, tennis and basketball player, singer, dancer, writer, poet and cook! Above all, he was a very caring and motivated young officer, a wonderful son, loving husband and adoring father. Time was never a limiting factor for him to learn something, nor to connect with people. Family time was very important to him and he used to drag us to post-dinner midnight coffee for deep heartfelt conversations. He also openly showered family members and friends with compliments and he always genuinely meant them.

In 2009, Akshay was awarded the Chief of Army Staff Commendation (COAS Medal) for leading an exceptional rescue of injured civilians near Kupwara in Kashmir.

THE NAGROTA ATTACK - November 29, 2016

Major Akshay Girish had moved to Nagrota (J&K) with his unit in September 2016. On the fateful day of 29th November when terrorists attacked a neighboring Artillery unit at about 5.30am in Nagrota and killed four soldiers before entering two residential buildings, Akshay was chosen to lead his unit’s Quick Reaction Team(QRT) to fight the terrorists.

Three terrorists had taken vantage positions in two residential buildings that housed officers families and a Mess and the QRT vehicle came under heavy terrorist fire even as they entered the location. Akshay showed exemplary leadership in assessing the danger and moved in with his team to take counter-terrorist action. Their task was to prevent terrorists from killing women, children and unarmed men who were trapped within their homes. Along with his buddy Naik Chittaranjan Debbarma and Major Kunal Gosavi Mannadir (Artillery), Akshay and his team not only engaged the terrorists and prevented the evil designs of the terrorists to take hostages and massacre innocents, but they also ensured that the terrorists could not spread out in the cantonment area and destroy important assets.

After Major Kunal was martyred in the firefight, Major Akshay and his team continued to fight courageously and kept the terrorists pinned down. In doing so, Akshay was hit by 2 bullets and finally laid down his life after a grenade was launched at him. Naik Chittaranjan was also martyred. While the soldiers made the supreme sacrifice, they ensured that all 16 people who had been held hostage were saved. All the terrorists were also neutralized by additional forces within few hours.

The courage and valour showed by Major Akshay Girish who disregarded his own safety and thoughts of his beloved family while protecting fellow Indians inspired innumerable Indians who wrote touching messages in praise of their ‘Veer Yodha’.

Memoirs...

‘Akshay’ means ‘indestructible’ and ‘one who lives forever’.This poem written by Maj Akshay when he was in NDA in 2004, is very meaningful even today:

"If you feel like crying call me I don’t promise I can make you laugh

But I can cry with you If you feel alone

Think of me I don’t promise I will be in front of you

But when you close your eyes, you will see me

If you find times are getting tough Don’t quit,

keep moving Cause’ when you need a helping hand,

I’m there To support you all the way

But when you reach your destination Don’t think you did it because I supported you

But because you believed in yourself And this is what matters most."

Post by Smt. Sangeetha Akshay Girish, w/o Major Akshay Girish that touched hearts of many.

“If you feel alone, think of me. I don’t promise I will be in front of you, but when you close your eyes, you will see me.’ We never realised how true these words would be when Akshay wrote them out.

His father was broken and was finding it difficult to do the last rites and immerse his ashes. We decided it would all be about celebrating his life from now on. We never had a 13th day ceremony for him. Seven days after he attained martyrdom, we decided to come together on his birthday to speak about how he changed our lives in some way or the other. Akshay means immortal and he lived up to his name.

Today we are a little more emotionally stable because we feel like he is with us. We wonder how he would have reacted to Naina’s chatter, to Bingo’s appetite for chicken rice, to his father’s love of golf, his mother’s love for blogging about his life, his wife’s strength…I know wherever he is, he looks at us and is proud of how we are doing. We are just as he would have wanted us to be – missing him yet finding the strength to smile.

Not all days are easy though. Almost eleven months since he sacrificed his life saving others, all the Whatsapp groups he was in suddenly displayed ‘Akshay left’. We could not understand why this had to happen the morning of his daughter’s birthday. Did we really need the reminder of how he is never coming back?

Yet it is in Naina that Akshay is most alive. Every time she passes men in uniform, her hand quickly salutes and the minute the final notes of the national anthem play, she is quick to shout ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. Her initial demands for ‘mere papa’ made way for a deeper understanding. Today, she says ‘my papa fought with bad uncles and he got hurt, so he is in the sky now.’

Twelve months and we have lived without a single ‘real’ channel of communication with Akshay. We may learn to live without him, to heal and to rebuild, to laugh and to smile, but we will never truly be the same again. He is alive and kicking in our memories – all 30 years, 11 months and 21 days of them.

Major Akshay did not hesitate once to leave his bubble of safety to do what he could for his countrymen and we will always be proud of him. His legacy shall always be kept alive. -Meghana,Naina,Girish and Sangeetha

THE MEN IN OLIVE SALUTES THIS BRAVE HEART WHO SACRIFICED HIS LIFE FIGHTING FOR MOTHERLAND BHARAT.

JAI HIND