T'PURAM: Kerala is synonymous for remembering its war heroes and instilling patriotic sentiments. However, there is an unsung hero, Captain Dr S I Padmanabhan, who was killed in action at 27 years of age in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war frontline.
Now almost 50 years later, his widow, Girija Padmanabhan, recalls that his body was never recovered which would not have happened in this era.
A Thiruvananthapuram Chalai native, Padmanabhan belonged to the 1963 MBBS batch of the city Medical College.
After working in ESIC Medical College, Kollam, and W&C Hospital, Thycaud, Dr Padmanabhan was asked to execute a bond to serve the Indian Army under Short Service Commission. He was posted in Military Headquarters of War (MHOW), Indore, in Madhya Pradesh and later in Jammu border under 5/8 Gorkha Regiment.
A young Dr Padmanabhan was killed in action on December 16, 1971, while on duty and his family has been told by the authorities that he was the only doctor who was killed in action.
His wife was 21 then and three months pregnant when he laid down his life for the country.
A grief stricken Girija's father, H Neelakanta Iyer, a former chief engineer with the KSEB convinced her to pursue MSc in Physics from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam.
"My husband had gone to the bunker to treat an injured soldier when the casualty happened. If he had remained in the hospital, the situation would have been different. We never received his body and stethoscope as it was not recovered from the war front. The Army officials gave us his watch and spectacles though", Girija, who had retired as HOD, Physics, from College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram, told The New Indian Express.
Life has not been so easy for Girija who was married to Dr Padmanabhan for a mere 15 months. Even though there were existing rules in favour for a widow professor to work in home station, the authorities never gave her the due consideration.
But 72-year-old Girija doesn't like to blame anyone as she says it is fate that she had to overcome the hardships and remain strong for her only daughter, Dr Manjusha, professor in gynaecology at Gokulam Medical College.
Recently, Dr Manjusha and her husband, Dr K V Viswanathan, S3 Unit Chief, Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, went all the way to Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir when they accidentally came to know that the Indian Army had in fact erected a memorial in honour of Dr Padmanabhan.
"I had never seen my father and it was a solemn moment when I stood before the memorial. He would have been 77 if he was alive now. On reaching there, we were told that former IPKF chief Lt. Gen. A S Kalkat's nephew, a Major too had succumbed along with my father. These days when I see the mortal remains of the soldiers being brought to Kerala, I feel the pangs for my father", Dr Manjusha told The New Indian Express with emotions writ large on her face.
Over the last 49 years, the family of Dr Padmanabhan had never held a pooja or a memorial meeting. Now during the golden anniversary year also it is going to be a solemn day at 'Sreemanjari' at Thycaud where Girija has been living alone, since her parents' death, with her memories.