Sky Warrior

Sep 07

Today, I have the honour to introduce the writer of our course blog who has been relentlessly writing and maintaining this blog, breaking pre-conceived notions and perceptions which challenged its survival beyond a few days. It is indeed remarkable and has set a benchmark for the future courses to look up to. Though it was meant to give a glimpse into the course, but its comprehensive coverage leaves no blind spot and gives a vicarious experience to the reader. These blogs, more or less editorials, have become a source of invaluable information for faculty, course officers and other officers of our fraternity who are yet to decide to hang their boots.

It re-imposes ones faith in the multi-faceted personality of this senior officer who can effortlessly yield not only a weapon but a pen too. Col M Ravindra, commissioned in ’84 in the Indian Army, belongs to the elite 6 PARA which is a special forces unit of the Indian Army’s Parachute regiment and is tasked with special operations, direct action, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, counter-proliferation, counter-insurgency, seek and destroy and personnel recovery. The pinnacle of athleticism in service is having both physical strength and mental tenacity/mental agility which undergirds it, for these specific qualities sets the paras apart.

He underwent his Para Basic course at PTS, Air Force, Agra, and was eventually absorbed in the Parachute Regiment. Later, he was deployed to flush out militants/terrorists from Punjab, famously known as Operation Blue Star. Subsequently, he moved to the Eastern interiors of India and was involved in the Counter-insurgency operations under Operation Orchid. From there on, he was instrumental in his role in Operation Vijay, Operation Parakaram and various other operations in dark and deadly valleys of J & K (since in ’90’s subversive activities in the valley increased multifold). An officer with such distinct service was rightly posted as an instructor in Nasik and Army Airborne Training School, Agra to mentor the later generations of troopers. This course has given him the much needed break to settle on family front. Ma’am is the Principal of Neeraj International School, daughter has recently finished her MBBS and his son has embarked on the arduous journey of Engineering from NIT, Agartala.

On a lighter note, he can jump from 10,000 ft without blinking his eye but, understandably, it is difficult for him to fight the goddess of sleep during afternoon classes. As once Prof. Vishwanath remarked, it is difficult to retain the attention of creative minds beyond few minutes unless the speaker is innovative in his/her approach. His observational prowess is three standard deviations from the mean of the population (0.15% of gifted people), who can listen, process, and speak intelligibly on any topic whilst being engrossed in mobile and preoccupied with some other thought. Aptly, rechristened as ‘Chanakya’ of this course by Prof. Swarnalatha.

            I, for once, think that Col Ravindra can write case studies for each of these management subjects to infuse a fresh lease of life into the theoretical knowledge that has evolved with time. The complex interplay of variables to have a desired certain outcome of establishing peace, done by the armed forces against asymmetric insurgents and militia, is indeed an advanced level of application of  these theories. A lecture by officer(s) with such vast and varied ‘first-hand’ experience to the other courses, as well, would definitely help them to learn from his (their) experiences as no one remembers theory in crisis.

He once shared with me in his deep baritone about his first experience of jumping, “At an altitude of 12,000-feet, the instructor asked us to get, set and take the leap, turn wise. Standing at the open door of the plane, I could feel the wind blowing past me. As I leapt out, I felt a strong jolt when my parachute opened. It was totally silent. I spun and when my gyro settled, I realized the enormity of life; I felt closest to the Creator in the huge void as I drifted down to land…..”.

-         Lt Cdr Himanshu Saxena