What do a Chartered Accountant from Mumbai, an abandoned girl from a destitute home and five MBAs have in common?
Mahfreen Irani
MUMBAI: What do a Chartered Accountant from Mumbai, an abandoned girl from a destitute home and five MBAs have in common? All seven were honoured at the 15th Godfrey Phillips Bravery Awards for their acts of spontaneous bravery, on Friday.
On March 22, 2006, Shailesh Mohite, (26) jumped into a 19-feet manhole to save Avanti Kamble, (4) at Ghatkopar. Recalling the incident, Shailesh said, “When I saw people panicking I realised that a little girl had fallen into an unattended manhole. It was dark, so I used my mobile-phone torch to have a look inside. The ambulance had not reached, so I decided to jump and rescue the girl before it was too late.” Shailesh had his feet in muck as he had to get down into 7-feet water. He used his hands to find Avanti who had lost her consciousness by then. “I climbed on a pipe and pumped the water out from her chest,” Shailesh recalls. He then put her in a bucket that was lowered by people and helped her to be taken out. The girl was then immediately rushed to the hospital. Shailesh, a Chartered Accountant, spent half-an-hour inside a dark manhole fighting sewage water and cockroaches to save a girl he didn’t know. This rightfully made him a recipient of the Godfrey Phillips Bravery Award.
Nine awards were given to people from Maharashtra, Goa and Chhattisgarh for bravery in the categories - Physical Bravery and Social Acts of Courage. The winners were awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals with cash awards of Rs50,000, Rs40,000 and Rs30,000 respectively.
Pankaj Nishad, (16) was just another boy from a small village in Baghbahra, Chhattisgarh, till that fateful day of 28 June, 2006, when he heard his mother screaming. He realised that she had got an electric shock and was still stuck to a live wire. He picked up a bamboo stick to separate his mother from the wire. “I really love my mother and couldn’t bear to see her cry so I rushed to rescue her. She had lost consciousness and her fingers were burnt. I took her to hospital after that.” Pankaj, a student does not know what fear is. Pankaj too was honoured with a special award for showing bravery at such a young age.
During the Mumbai deluge, 120 children got trapped in an orphanage and water was gushing into it. Aasma Khan, a 12-year-old resident started carrying the children on her back and shoulders. Battling the rising water, she managed to carry 40 children to safety. Aasma was also awarded a Special Award for showing physical bravery without hesitation.
Shaffi Mather, Naresh Jain, Manish Sacheti, Ravi Krishna and Karti P Chidambaram are all MBAs from US. “We realised that there weren’t sufficient ambulances in the city when we lost a dear one. So we pitched in money to start an ambulance service called Ambulance Access for All (AAA),” Mather said.
“We have left our respective jobs and now jointly manage the ambulances. You need to call up 1298 for the service. We have lessened the fee for the poor. Today we have a network of 24 ambulances which use the latest technology like satellite tracking. We are extending our services to Kerala and Rajasthan,” Mather added.
After the Mumbai floods, the AAA conducted medical camps with generous aid from various corporates and provided free medicines to the affected people.
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