A Visit To Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s House ~ I Found My Temple

After being one of the few 250 from the vast lakhs, crossing every hurdle and surviving till the very last round of my Army selection process; Rejection was too severe to even be sad. Half-hearted good byes’ and fabricated smiles were a little obvious scene and a regular one too, at SOUTH SELECTION CENTER Bengaluru.

However, I decided to keep my promise and visit ISRO Aakash layout, Yelahanka, Bengaluru. 2 hours from main Bengaluru city railway station lays a simple address, a confusing path and a much less amicable bus service to reach. Every person leaving for his Pilgrimage, gets every good wish and luck possible but I was rather riddled with questions, “what if you don’t get the address, what if they don’t attend you well, what If you miss them? “Yes, the aforementioned address was a humble abode, a blissful-should be made Heritage site, a point source of National Pride-Shaheed Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s parent’s house.

Being humanly positive, I dodged the asked questions, but even I was perplexed about what to tell them, talk to them, why am I even going there? After lots of hitchhiking, I finally reached that sacred row house. Standing at the door, after the bell rang… I saw a stern face asking, “Yes?” All I had to say was, “My name is Tejas.M.Vaidya, I’m a student from Mumbai”, and that swift transition from stern to a pleasant smile on Mr. K Unnikrishnan’s face was the cue, all’s got to be fine ahead. He knew why I had come, what for after-all his son has done such great deeds.

Just a few clicks on Youtube and old paper clippings very elegantly explain to you how rude and bitter Mr. Unnikrishnan is. Going with the same notion, yet determined to meet my heroes parents, as I cautiously entered that house and sitting on their couch, the first thing I saw was a chilled glass of a welcome juice and some snacks. Mr.Unnikrishnan was to hurry for work; he calmly sat down beside me and talked to me. He asked me all sorts of questions, about me, about my family, my Army exam, my education and carefully paying attention to every word is said. A bit betwixt, he reminisced his son and referred his instances, about his will to join the army, his simple being, humble attitude, love for stray dogs, his manners. He said, “Sandeep is still with us, not in physical being but my sub-conscious is drenched with him.” He went a step ahead to even prove it: he couldn’t find his Mumbai-Railway timetable and route guide for 3 months, but that day as per him, Major Shaheed in his subconscious propelled him to search it again, saying maybe this Mumbai boy may bring luck and he found it (Unbelievable or fabricated, seems so right? isn’t’. )

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I was fortunate to see every medal Major earned in his lifetime and so after; His photos, from childhood, all the poems, write-ups and eulogies sent to them from all over Bharat. My adrenaline peaked or catapulted when I first time in life saw an Ashoka Chakra. I’ll bluntly say, believe it or not… I did feel the presence of my Hero, Major Sahib in that house. That’s where I had one of the most honest of thoughts, “I FOUND MY TEMPLE.”

After more and more friendly talks with uncle and aunty, I had the most royal lunch… excellent daal kadhi, 2 delumptious vegetables, rice and more types of daals; all vegetables homespun!!!… Marring every news, highlight and false notion about Mr.Unnikrishnan, about his bitterness, I saw a very humble proud father, a caring uncle. To my luck, he gave me a surprise in the end…. He proudly said, come I will give you something, his mother added that I’am lucky and stroked my cheek and BAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

There was Unni uncle, withdrawing a cover from an old kinetic 4 stroke bike, “This is his bike, he bought it from his owns money, I’ll drop you on this to the bus stop.” Such a big man dropped me off at the bus station, after which he went for his owns work. As I was riding back to my room, I received a call from an unknown number, “Have your reached your room?, don’t astray, reach on time and in case you miss your bus to Mumbai, come stay with us, next time if you come for your army exam in Bengaluru come here, this is your house only.” That firm voice was Unni uncle, who had already stored my number I left in his visitor’s diary. We spoke last as I confirmed my safe arrival back home and he promised to visit my home when he visits Thane next.

For every defense aspirant, this is his true pilgrimage. I’ll go a step further and mention some other things, please do visit them, they feel proud and stronger every time. “Don’t come up, I will handle them”. Were his last words, “Life is for living not for regretting. Never bother another person in your life”, were Shaheed Major Unnikrishnan’s one of the first few words of wisdom.

A more shameful thing is, there are multiple roads and exam halls, chowks and structure is named after Shaheed Major but Unni uncle still stands in a queue to renew his pass, has to wait unnecessarily at senile government offices. They barely know who he is, or bluntly reply, “SO WHAT!!!”, when he mentions his son’s name. CM didn’t attend his sons funeral, went overboard and openly said, “if it were not for Major, not even a dog will visit that house.”

Not done eh boss, not done.

I found my temple and I have found my cause, what about you?

vande+mataram About Author: Tejas Vaidya: Tejas is a young defence aspirants and want to server our motherland like Shaheed Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.