When no one dared (A real life incident)

Reading stories of bravery and valour in our history books and hearing them from granny is a part of almost everyone growing up; but experiencing it live is an act which requires justice to be done to it by sharing so as to encourage these unsung heroes and ensure that their acts of bravery are well spread all over. One such incident occurred at Babina (Acronym for British Army Base in Native Asia); a small cantonment near Jhansi in central India on 19Dec13 at the construction site of Married Accommodation Project (MAP) where buildings were being constructed at full swing.

It was a sunny day as if stolen from the god’s kitchen himself in the early winters. The sky was clear with the birds flying in formation while their winged companions chirped sitting on the trees around. The labour had just started off with their work of carrying concrete, aggregate, bricks to various building blocks; while some were busy in painting and plastering the surfaces.  Vakil, a middle aged foreman who was in charge of brickwork was filling the rooftops (divided into various segments with the help of small bunds of mud made by his companion) with 3 inches deep water. This was being done to check the leakage/seepage of the roof.  He carried on with his work holding a flexible water pipe in the soft cool breeze standing on the rooftop of first floor humming his favourite tune thinking of his dear village where he was to go the next day after receiving his wages from the contractor. His companion, Ramji helped him repair the bunds to prevent water leakage from them. Vakil suddenly noticed his companion, Ramji slapping himself on his face and neck and shouting for help. While he looked at him with curiosity to find out the reason, Ramji rushed towards the ladder rung getting rid of some honey bees which had attacked him. There was no beehive nearby which Ramji could have tempered by mistake but when Vakil looked up towards the sky he noticed a swarm of bees passing over them.  Meanwhile Vakil also felt some bees hovering around his body and he immediately started thrashing his hands swiftly to get rid of them. Ramji somehow managed to get down from the rooftop and ran to a safe place on the terrace of the ground floor. No sooner did Vakil get rid of the two bees crushing them to death under his feet that a swarm of bees in thousands attacked him all at once making him topple down to the rooftop that too face down in 3 inches of deep water. Covering him all over and stinging on the exposed portions of his body: Face hands, neck and feet; the angry bees continued their horrendous vengeance for their 2 comrades crushed to death. The man under the siege yelled for help but nobody heard him. When the labourers working at the site came to know of the incident through Ramji who had escaped, they all left the site and ran for their own safety. There was not a single person in a radius of 200m from the place of incident. He continued yelling for help but no one dared to go near him for their own safety to face stings of a thousand bees. Never in his dreams must have Vakil thought of that all his colleagues who worked with him day and night would leave him in such a predicament to die. He kept on screaming with sheer agony but his voice fell on deaf ears.

Army, considered to be the last resort turned to be true to its name as one of the jawan working in a nearby officer’s mess heard the story from Ramji, the escapee and came forward for rendering help  along with  two of his colleagues. They took a couple of blankets from a nearby source and it was L/Nk BB Rao who was the first person to climb up the iron rungs covering his own self with a blanket while holding the other in his hand to reach the rooftop for the victim who lay nearly unconscious with his face submerged in water on the roof top. He immediately threw a blanket on him which made some bees fly away from over his body protecting him from further attack of the savage bees. He then applied all possible efforts to pull him towards the ladder rung but was himself attacked by hundreds of bees which managed to enter his own blanket for which he had to run for saving his own life. With great difficulty he somehow managed to return back to safety but singly leaving the victim there on his own again. He however did a good job by placing a blanket over Vakil to protect him from further stings.

 The yelling voice of help became dimmer with time with no one to save soon becoming unconscious Vakil who was also completely drenched with his head dipped in water. The spectators only watched the building from a distance looking helplessly at each other’s face expecting a miracle to happen. The message was however conveyed to the supervisory staff by the labourers who soon reached the place only to see the watching crowd watch Vakil  die in pain. The daring attempt to rescue him had failed making the situation more complex and discouraging than before.

‘Where there is a will there is a way’ is rightly said. Added to this ‘Where there are daring people army may not be the last resort’. Two heroes emerged from the crowd: Watan singh, a young  civil engineer who was the Supervisor of the area and  his Foreman, Misra. Without caring for their own safety and knowing the result of an earlier failed rescue attempt  they both took a second initiative and proceeded with blankets to the place where Vakil was moaning with pain. Controlling his emotions and fear of the stings of the savage bees Watan climbed up the rooftop and dared to approach the victim, Vakil while Misra stood at the topmost rung ready to receive Vakil at the edge of the roof. Watan clasped  Vakil in his arms alongwith his drenched blanket  and dragged him towards the ladder rung without caring for the bees who stung him all over his exposed body parts. It was a difficult task as the weight of the wet blanket of Vakil added tremendously to his body weight in addition to the weight of blanket Watan was carrying on him. He somehow managed to bring him to the edge of the roof top and hung Vakil’s legs down on the rung holding his upper torso where Misra received the complete weight from him and brought Vakil down safely on the terrace of the ground floor descending each rung spaced a feet apart step by step.  They finally managed to bring   swollen Vakil down with their combined efforts and daring will. Vakil was still shivering badly with his body which had become completely red and was shouting in a state of delirium. Meanwhile the message was sent to Military Hospital for help who reacted promptly in sending the medical help. He was administered first aid and emergency drugs at the hospital which saved his life just in time.

It was with the combined efforts of  L/Nk BB Rao who took the first daring  initiative   apart from the main heroes, Watan singh and Misra who do deserve a bravery award that the life of Vakil was saved. The efforts put in by the Army doctor, Maj S Kaur and her Assistant, who took out more than 100 stings from the body of Vakil with a forcep and administration of the life saving drugs into his body without wasting a moment which saved Vakil’s life also needs to be well appreciated. BRAVO! to the saviours; the  real heroes.

Moral of the story:

1              Never fiddle with a honey bee. If the swarm is passing over you just kneel down with your head in between your legs and make no movement till it passes away. They are very intelligent and attack within a fraction of second the moment they come to know that someone has harmed their companion.

2    2                         Spread the word of emergency at all the concerned places at the earliest so that time in getting help is not wasted. Tele/mob is the fighting machine which proves to be most effective at such times.