When a cool gentle breeze turned into a Tornado

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas
Again it is an Agra tale.I really wonder. I left Agra in 1979 completing my MSc. It is 31 long years now. But I still "live" there. There is not a day in my life when I dont think about St: John's college, my Alma mater. This is no exaggeration and I speak with all my honesty. In the year 2000, I was there in Agra with my son Renjan and my colleague Prof C.O. Philip (COP), affectionately called Pochen, another St: John's college fanatic. I went there to attend the MSc(Physics) old student's meet. (Dr J.K Sharma was gracious enough to inform me of the function). COP had done his MA in English literature there long long back! When I told him that I was going to Agra, he jumped the band wagon without inquiring the purpose of the visit. See, for us so crazy of St: John's, being there itself was the purpose. During the function which was a very emotional reunion, I was asked to speak a few words. I was not prepared and I had not spoken in public before. Yet I walked to the dais and these words came spontaneously from from the bottom of my heart: "St: John's college to me is like an old Kishore Kumar song. PAL PAL DIL KE PAAS".

The Mother
Oh God! I had started off to tell another story.
1978. That year's Agra University convocation was held in St: John's college. A huge shamiana was erected on the lush green hockey court in front of the main building built in red stone with unmatched architectural splendour. The chief guest of the day was Mother Theresa. But I decided to stay back in my hostel theHaileybury House. I was down with severe viral fever. I thought I would complete the book I was reading, "Ninety minutes at Entebbe" by William Stevenson. The book depicted the unbelievable rescue operation by Israeli commandos nick named "Operation Thunderbolt".

On July 4, 1976 an Air France plane with 248 passengers was hijacked by PLO terrorists and was forcibly landed in Entebbe airport in Idi Amin's Uganda. At Entebbe all non-Jew passengers were freed. One French nun refused to leave saying she remain a hostage in return for a Jew who shall be freed. But she was thrown out. I have heard a similar story from Hitler's Germany. When the Nazi soldiers were stuffing a gas chamber with Jews, a Jesuit priest offered to go in, in return for a Jew.

The "Operation Thunderbolt" was carried out by 100 Israeli commandos flown in from Tel Aviv. During the 90 minute operation all the hijackers, 45 Ugandan soldiers and three hostages were killed. The commander Lt. Col Yonathan Netanyahu also was killed. (His brother Benjamin Netanyahu later became the Prime Minister of Israel). 103 hostages were rescued. Till date "Operation Thunderbolt' remains the greatest commando operation executed anywhere in the world.

Even as I was lying sick in my hostel and reading the book, I felt an inner voice urging me to go to the function to be addressed by Mother Theresa. When I reached there (some 50 meters from Haileybury House) , what I saw was an ocean of humans. I reached there just in time. The Mother was to start her speech. She spoke of love, care for others, universal brotherhood and a host of such things. She spoke of destitutes and the depressed. She spoke in a cool low tone. No high sounding words. No jugglery with words. No histrionics. It was plain simple language understood by all. People assembled there felt a cool gentle breeze of love and compassion flowing over them. People sat mesmerized by the divinity of her words. Believe me,at the end of the speech the audience forgot to clap. Rather, they couldn't. I saw many people wiping their eyes. A day I will never forget. The function came to a close.

You will not believe what I tell you now. This really happened. I am honest. I am not trying to mystify anything.

The mother had just left. All of us came out of the shamiyana. Suddenly a tornado came roaring and the shamiyana was tossed up in the air like a toy and it came down crashing. We all wondered, what would have happened if the tornado had occurred 15 minutes earlier. It is with horror I still remember this incident. Elders told us that a tornado or a strong wind never occurred during that time of the year. People remained perplexed. I am still clue-less.