The bravehearts and their citations

Soumya's teacher told the class about India's gallantry awards (awards for bravery):

• Param Vir Chakra (PVC): India's highest wartime gallantry medal; 21 bravehearts have received it
• Maha Vir Chakra (MVC)
• Kirti Chakra (KC)
• Vir Chakra (VrC)
• Shaurya Chakra (SC)

Major Somnath Sharma was posthumously (after his death) awarded India's first PVC, for the Battle of Badgam in 1947. Later PVCs were given for the conflicts of 1962 and 1965, and one for service in the UN Peacekeeping operations in Congo.

A citation is the official record of what a person actually did to earn an award. The teacher read the citation of PVC awardee Lance Naik Albert Ekka of 14 Guards. Soumya says it "touched my heart"; they were awestruck and humbled.

In 1971, at Gangasagar, his company attacked a strongly defended enemy position under heavy fire. Albert Ekka saw an enemy machine gun causing many casualties. With no thought for his own safety, he charged its bunker and silenced it.

Though badly wounded, he fought on with his comrades, clearing bunker after bunker with undaunted (fearless) courage. Then another machine gun opened fire from the second floor of a building and held up the attack. Wounded and under fire, he crawled forward and threw a grenade in; when the gun kept firing, he climbed a side wall, entered the bunker and silenced it, saving many of his company. He died of his wounds after the objective was won.

Soumya's own presentation was on Major Padmapani Acharya of 2 Rajputana Rifles, who fought in the 1999 Kargil War and received the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously. On 28 June 1999 he led his men up a steep rock face under heavy shelling. Badly injured and unable to move, he told his men to go on while he kept firing to cover them. The position was captured.

Before the battle he'd written to his father that he wasn't afraid of losing his life for the motherland, quoting the Bhagavad Gita: "...arise, O son of Kunti! Be determined to fight."