On our latest episode of Sandese Aate Hain, our Editor-in-Chief, Kamiya Jani, met with Major (Retired) Gaurav Arya, who revealed all about his journey of joining the Indian Army, everything that his life in uniform taught him, why he retired from the Army, the current situation between India and Pakistan, and a lot more. While talking about his experiences as a soldier, he also spoke about the time when he was buried under the snow for four hours. Read on to learn all about it.
Major Gaurav Arya’s Deadly Fall During A Mission
During this conversation with Major Gaurav Arya, we learnt a lot about his background and his journey of serving in the Indian Armed Forces as part of the Kumaon Regiment from 1993 to 1999. But what led him to retire from the Indian Army so soon? Sharing the incident, he revealed that while he was on a mission, out of carelessness, he had a near-death fall, which thankfully didn’t result in something too fatal.
Unfortunately, he rolled down a cliff in the peak winter season and was buried under the snow for four hours. He doesn’t remember how severely cold it was. He recalled that while he was getting unconscious, he could hear his team yelling that if he lost consciousness, he might not make it out alive. It took his team a long time to come down and rescue him. After that incident, he developed bronchitis and an infection in his lungs. Once recovered, he went to Gulmarg for high-altitude warfare, where he again fell sick and was admitted to 92 Base Hospital.
Also Read: This Is What Makes Rajkummar Rao And Wamiqa Gabbi Feel Successful
Transitioning Into Life As A Civilian
In this episode, we also heard about Major Gaurav Arya’s life post-retirement. Life as a soldier is very different from life as a civilian. And for an army man to retire and adjust to the new way of life cannot be easy. Agreeing with the notion, Gaurav Arya added that it took him a long time to start living life the normal way. He added that while today there are means for soldiers to stay connected to the outside world—there are options to connect with your family via video calls—in the old days, they used to write letters and wait for their turns to call their families.
And then, when he finally retired, he had those army mannerisms embedded in him so strongly that when he went to work in a normal company, he was still pulling chairs and saying, “Good morning, sir,” “Good morning, ma’am.” He jokingly added that people used to really find him weird and question why he was doing all of this.
In this episode, Major Gaurav Arya also spoke about the spread of misinformation on social media and news channels. To learn all about his views, watch the full video on the Curly Tales YouTube channel.
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva