By PTI
GUWAHATI: The very point out of the 1962 Sino-India conflict brings a spark to the eyes of 93-year-old Dr Kamakhya Chakravarty, and his reminiscences race again to his youth.
Although he faces difficulties in recalling occasions that had occurred a lot after the conflict, by his personal admission, he can narrate with ease his first-hand expertise of the armed battle between the 2 big neighbours 60 years in the past as if it had occurred solely yesterday.
In a dialog with PTI, Dr Chakravarty recounted his position, together with these of two different fellow docs who’ve died since, in making certain that the wounded Indian troopers had been safely ferried to hospitals from the frontline.
“I was posted as the Sub-divisional Medical and Health Officer at Tezpur in 1962. The Chinese had retreated and the Red Cross was scouting for volunteer doctors to help evacuate the wounded Indian soldiers who were taken Prisoners of War (POWs) from the upper reaches of present-day Arunachal Pradesh,” he recalled.
Always on the forefront to do his bit for the nation, whether or not boycotting lessons as a pupil throughout the Quit India Movement or volunteering at Lakhimpur after the devastating 1950 Assam earthquake, Dr Chakravarty jumped on the alternative.
“Three of us, Dr Ananda Sharma, Dr B Sen and I, volunteered to go with the Red Cross and Army team and bring back our injured soldiers to the defence hospital at Tezpur. Early next morning (December 18, 1962), we set off for Dirang Valley,” he mentioned.
The photos of the devastation of the just-concluded conflict had been throughout, with destroyed tanks and different navy automobiles on roadsides as their car crawled into Tenga Valley. Bodies of slain troopers, which had been but to be cleared, had been seen mendacity at a number of locations, Dr Chakravarty, then a person in his early thirties, recounted.
“Seeing the bodies of the soldiers, I thought I could have been in their place. It further steeled my resolve to bring the injured jawans back. We had dinner at Bomdila and spent the night there. Early next morning we left for Dirang Valley. Upon reaching there, we didn’t spare a moment to rest after a long and tiring journey and got down in our work to bring back our wounded soldiers,” he mentioned.
Chinese docs handed over the injured and the slain Indian jawans to the Tezpur group, and by nightfall, they began their return journey with round 460 wounded troopers and several other our bodies. “It was a long convoy, and though dinner was arranged at Bomdila, food was over by the time the last vehicle arrived. The Army informed its personnel in the lower reaches that some of us went without food, and sometime after leaving Bomdila, we saw jawans waiting on the roadside with food for us. It was such a touching gesture,” he mentioned.
“We reached Tezpur the next day and handed over the soldiers to the defence hospital. We managed to bring back all the wounded jawans alive. There was satisfaction that we could do something for people who had risked their lives to protect the country,” Dr Chakravarty mentioned.
2022 is the sixtieth anniversary of the conflict between India and China within the excessive Himalayas.
The identical ardour with which he had risen to the decision of responsibility as a health care provider had additionally pushed the younger boy from a really humble background in western Assam’s Dhubri to make sure his seat within the first batch of Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) at Dibrugarh on the jap finish of the state in November 1947.
AMCH was additionally the primary medical faculty in all the northeastern area. “I was determined to be a doctor. Once I got a seat at AMCH, I concentrated only on my studies, leaving activism as a school student behind. I knew I could continue serving the needy if I could become a doctor,” he mentioned.
Taking voluntary retirement from his job in 1980 in Dhubri, Dr Chakravarty continued his observe in Tezpur, his adopted house the place he spent a lot of his skilled life. “Medical training makes us tough but we are not immune to suffering and loss of our patients,” he added.
