26/11/2008 was one of the most horrifying night in the history, for India and its people when a handful of beasts entered our place and ruined it in a way which not only wounded our people’s body and mind but our heart and soul as well.
Out of all those heroes and martyrs who sacrificed their life for saving ours on the fatal night, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan was among those brave commandos who launched an assault operation in Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, one of the seized locations by terrorist. Major Sandeep bravely kissed the martyrdom, fighting bravely, saving the other commandos and the fellow civilians. This brave son of India was born on March 15th 1977, and his martyrdom raised a flame of anger against terrorism, the flame of hope to make India united and powerful, a flame to fulfill his dreams and do not let his and many brave soldiers martyrdom go in vain.
As the night snatched away country’s sleep and peace, some young Indians made an online community on Orkut in honor of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. The very community, started with a few and has now reached at a membership of around 1600 plus members, and is proud with the fact that, father of Major Sandeep, Mr.K.UnniKrishnan, is also a part of them now. This community of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan which is the biggest, official and most genuine community of its kind on orkut is all set and determined to reach its goal and accomplish its mission of making India once again a serene place to dwell where the citizens are all united, and strong despite of any caste, religion, color and belief.
On its way towards this mission, the very first and biggest event of this community has arrived, and it’s the Big Day for them, when it’s the 32nd Birthday of the Nation’s Hero, Shaheed Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan. This online community has members from all fields of life, of all ages and of different places in India as well as outside the country. The community has gone through tough phases as any of the successful communities go through and still heads at the top with all members full of fervor, and zeal to work and contribute in any little possible way they could, for their nation and the martyrs.
Graphic by: Devdeep Ahuja
There are a number of activities done by this community till date, but I am not talking about them here, as the event of Major Sandeep’s Birthday has so much in it to write about , that the other activities won’t find a place in this article. The preparations of celebrating Major Sandeep’s Birthday started weeks before. There have been several competitions held, like, MSU Birthday Poetry Contest, MSU Birthday Poster making competition. And the creations done by the members are awesome and lack words to appreciate. Many of them came up with beautiful and soulful posters and poetry with heart warming messages. Its been decided that the best poster will be framed and presented to Major’s parents in Bangalore by Anurag Chaturvedi, a member, on behalf of the community as a token of love and respect on their brave son’s birthday and convey to them , that their son is not forgotten and would never be.
The community showed the feeling of ecstasy and pride on his birthday by changing their official display picture, wishing Major Sandeep a happy birthday. There is another thread in the forum which says, “Plan on MSU Birthday- Changing DP” and it’s difficult to express in words how the community is looking when most of the members have picture of Major Sandeep as their display picture in his honor and wishing him on his birthday. Lined up in the forum are more threads, with one or the other way of celebrating the birthday like, “Wishes for our hero Major Sandeep”, “What’s your plan on MSU Birthday”, “[Birthday Special] Be with us on March 15th “Online” where all the members of the community will be getting online on yahoo messenger at a decided time, i.e. 11.00 a.m. (IST), making merry all together.
Apart from celebrations online, the community is also making best efforts for doing things offline. One of the members of the community, Rakesh Bhamare from Nashik, initiated the work and in true sense made the community feel proud. He celebrated in a grand manner with his friends at Niradhan Balsangopan orphan Home at Pune.
They followed the custom of cutting a huge birthday cake and then distributing food, ice creams and had fun playing with those lovely kids, painting, drawing and then dispensing small gifts like color pen, crayons and games etc, simply to bring a smile on those beautiful faces. The community members are waiting eagerly for the day to come, because there is another event lined up in the way to be organized, by Aditi Nandhu from Chennai, another active member of the community. She will also visit an orphanage, BABA Gurukulam, which has 105 children and 25 old age people, on behalf of the community on 15th March. The community has planned for at least managing a nice lunch for all of them. The members are all geared up and are praying for Aditi and wishing her luck to make this event a success. The community has planned to go for a newspaper article on the occasion, giving messages and wishes to Major Sandeep on his Birthday and letting the entire nation know about it. The charge of this activity is taken over by Vrinda Bajaj, a senior member of the community from Delhi.
Talking about all this may sound unusual to some people, but, the community is living this great elation each moment of their lives. For them, Birthday of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan is a matter of great pleasure, far more and above their own birthdays. Biju Krishnan, one of the most sincere members of the MSU community from UK, has been really enthusiastic about the upcoming birthday of MSU. He compiled a video of all the posters from the poster competition held in the community with songs that make us feel the warmth as if MSU is alive and smiling with us.
A birthday wish from Abhishek Tiwari, a keen young member of MSUOC, is, “hello sir, I know you are still with us in form of our inspiration because, I believe if you were not with us we would not have achieved what we have done little bit till now. It does all because of your blessings sir .I wanna wish you a very very HAPPY B’DAY! I promise you we will always continue on the path you showed us and always be ready to give 100% for my country and continue the good work for my motherland.”
Other active members like Kishore, Devdeep, Sneha, Saniya, Anil, and many more are all walking with hands together and heads high waiting for the good to happen as decided.
The MSU community is breathlessly waiting for the great day to come so that all of the members may pay their highest tribute to this Martyr, on his 31st Birthday.
We at Orkutheroes have always tried to bring in front the great deeds being done in the virtual space of Orkut through such online communities, so it was hard to resist writing about this great and praise worthy endeavor made by the member of MSU community.
Our only message to the departed soul of Major Sandeep on his Birthday is. “Long Live Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan!”
Post Updated( March 15th 2009) : The picture below is Mr & Mrs Unnikrishnan with two of the orkut community of Major Sandeep respresnetatives and active members Anurag Chaturvedi and Bikash Kumar presenting a graphic poster on behalf of the community created on occassion of Major Sandeep’s Birthday
Website of Sandeep Unnikrishnan created by MSU community : www.sandeepunnikrishnan.org
All photographs are the property of SandeepUnnikrishnan.org
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