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IN THE LINE OF FIRE

[An interesting email I received]

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the
Shatabdi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled
to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought; he had tried to reason with the admin person,
it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do. He opened his case and
took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.


"Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.

Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and
importance as if it were an expensive car.


"You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."

"Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look.


He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman.
He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a
prep school.He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.


"You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and do something on a computer
and it does so many big things outside."


Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend.
It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it."
For a moment,he was tempted to explain the entire Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement.
"It is complex, very complex."


"It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable,
persuasive tone.

"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in.
Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned
office does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind
and believe me that is no less taxing."

He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point.


"Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized.
You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized
booking centers across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database,
at a time concurrency; data integrity, locking, data security.

Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"

The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big
and beyond his imagination. "You do such things."

"I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the Project Manager,"


"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now."

It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat.


"Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work.
Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me,
that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality.
To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user
wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."


Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said, was not merely
the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.
"My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was
with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.


"I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blankly as if no passenger,
no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was
firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom.
In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolour at the top only 4 of us were alive."


"You are a..."

"I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed
my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes
life easier. On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire
while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety."

"But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as
a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare
of the men he commanded."

"His own personal safety came last, always and every time. He was killed as he shielded that soldier into
the bunker. Every morning now, as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually
meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."


Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial,
even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valour and duty was a daily part of life;
a valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

"It was nice meeting you sir."

Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This hand had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolour.
Suddenly as if by impulse, he stood at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute. It was the
least he felt he could do for the country.


PS: The incident narrated happened during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war.
Capt. Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight.
For this and his various other acts of bravery he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra the nation's highest military award.

Live humbly, there are great people around us, let us learn!


Winners are too busy to be sad,

too positive to be doubtful,

too optimistic to be fearful and

too determined to be defeated!

Dengue Cure ??

Today I received a forwarded mail which claims a cure for the deadly dengue.
First read this email which is suppossed to be originated from
"Dr Sumedha Bajaj(Bombay Hospital)"

Read This ----------
I would like to share this interesting discovery from a classmate's son who
has just recovered from dengue fever. Apparently, his son was in the
critical stage at the SJMC ICU when his pallet counts drops to 15 after 15
litres of blood transfusion. His father was so worried that he seeks another
friend's recommendation and his son was saved. He confessed to me that he
give his son raw juice of the papaya leaves. >From a pallet count of 45
after 20 litres of blood transfusion, and after drinking the raw papaya leaf
juice, his pallet count jumps instantly to 135. Even the doctors and nurses
were surprised. After the second day he was discharged. So he ask me to pass
this good news around.
Accordingly it is raw papaya leaves, 2 pcs just cleaned and pound and
squeeze with filter cloth. You will only get one tablespoon per leaf. So two
tablespoon per serving once a day. Do not boil or cook or rinse with hot
water, it will loose its strength. Only the leafy part and no stem or sap.
It is very bitter and you have to swallow it like Won Low Kat. But it works.
Papaya Juice - Cure for Dengue
You may have heard this elsewhere but if not I am glad to inform you that
papaya juice is a natural cure for dengue fever. As dengue fever is rampant
now, I think it's good to share this with all. A friend of mine had dengue
last year. It was a very serious situation for her as her platelet count had
dropped to 28,000 after 3 days in hospital and water has started to fill up
her lung. She had difficulty in breathing. She was only 32-year old. Doctor
says there's no cure for dengue. We just have to wait for her body immune
system to build up resistance against dengue and fight its own battle. She
already had 2 blood transfusion and all of us were praying very hard as her
platelet continued to drop since the first day she was admitted.
Fortunately her mother-in-law heard that papaya juice would help to reduce
the fever and got some papaya leaves, pounded them and squeeze the juice out
for her. The next day, her platelet count started to increase, her fever
subside. We continued to feed her with papaya juice and she recovered after
3 days!!! Amazing but it's true. It's believed one's body would be
overheated when one is down with dengue and that also caused the patient to
have fever. Papaya juice has cooling effect. Thus, it helps to reduce the
heatiness in one's body, thus the fever will go away. I found that it's also
good when one is having sore throat or suffering from heatiness.
----Email ends here ------------


I searched for it on the net and found some blog with this info.
Papaya Leaves are used as follows:-

(source: http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/papaya.htm )

---------------------------------------------------------

Medicinal Properties: Uses

Papaya can be used as a diuretic (the roots and leaves), anthelmintic
(the Leave and seed) and to treat bilious conditions (the fruit). Parts
of the plant are also used to combat dyspepsia and other digestive
disorders (papaya contains a proteolytic enzyme which soothes the
stomach and aides in digestion) and a liquid potion has been used to
reduce enlarged tonsils. In addition, the juice is used for warts,
cancers, tumors, corns and skin defects while the root is said to help
tumors of the uterus. In African a root infusion is also used for
syphilis and the leaf is smoked to relieve asthma attacks. The Javanese
believes that eating papaya prevents rheumatism and in Cuba the latex
is used for psoriasis, ringworm and the removal of cancerous growth.