In the chain of motivational lectures today it was War Veteran Capt. Satendra Sangwan recipient of the NATIONAL AWARD from President of India for being a ROLE MODEL FOR THE SOCIETY who addressed the students of IIT Kanpur live on 03 Apr 2021.

Col Ashok Mor, the Officer In charge NCC at IIT Kanpur introduced the War Veteran to the first-year students. Col Ashok Mor informed that Capt.Satendra Sangwan had got injured in the Kargil war in the line of duty while leading the Commando Platoon and had lost his right leg after being injured in a mine blast. Capt.Sangwan is an alumnus of Officers Training Academy, Chennai. He has served at various locations such as Pathankot, Leh, Drass Sector Kargil, and Jaipur. Capt Satendra Sangwan was commissioned in 16th Battalion THE GRENADIERS Regiment in Army in Mar 1996. Capt Sangwan was in leading the first platoon to go for KARGIL War in BATALIK sector. He actively participated in KARGIL WAR and Fought for 2 months.

Capt Satender Sangwan, while going for an attack on Pakistani post got Injured in an anti-personal mine and lost right leg below knee that has to be amputated during the course of medication.

When Capt. Sangwan was taken to the Hospital the nursing assistant while removing his bandage for his treatment asked this young Capt that “Sahaba ap Side mee dekh lo shayad aap ko achaa nahi lagega”.Capt. Sangwan very politely replied “Ustaad ye patti jo aap khool rahaa ha vo mane hi bandhi hai”. That is the kind of sons of soil that are serving in the army.

He said, the video of mine after the operation has been seen in circulation for the first time, I myself had not seen it and it was a different experience for my kids to see it for the first time. Their views changed about life and about their father.

Capt. Sangwan said that you have to be lucky in life and to be lucky you have to be opportunist, by opportunistic I mean that whatever opportunities that comes your way you should catch it. I would like to say that there are lot of things that you have to face in your life at times you are prepared at times you are not.

If we talk about Kargil war, as a part of commando platoon commander it took me time to understand as we were about 10 to 15 and about 120 Pak soldiers attacking us from 3 sides. It was really difficult to comprehend to attack, prepare for casualties and taking our position for the operation or attack. All these things are possible if you have been trained well, train yourself well. What ever you do today will train you for tomorrow and the kind of situations you will face in your life.

He said that that we were fighting at -50 degree temperatures and human body can take on -50 or +50 so train it like that. After some time, you will in a open world will face lot of challenges be in India or at the global level, be it personal or professional, so prepare for it.

The responsibility given to you will be different, you will have to take decisions, in Army the officer who puts on stars on his soldiers is responsible for his men, their family, their kids and the decision that you take affects lot of people. That is the real challenge and that decides the real man in you.

He made the students aware about the kind of mindset of terrorists in Kashmir. He said that if you at the border you know that the enemy is on opposite side put in places like Kashmir you don’t know where is your enemy. Youth is being brainwashed and given small sum of money to just throw a grenade on the moving vehicles. He said they did not get chance to go to good schools, good institutions like you all have got a chance, so please use it.

The first thing that came to my mind when I got injured and lost my leg, I thought … How will I play Basketball? As have been a sports person always take part in all sports activities in my battalion.

Capt. Sangwan told the students the way he made himself prepare mentally to achieve his target. Capt. Sangwan told that after leaving army he was taken by ONGC and his company decided to send their first Corporate sponsored team to the Mount Everest. Out of 33,000 employs, 1,000 stepped forward to be part of the team. Now the real test came when I had to prove myself to everyone that I can be in the first few.

He told how he prepared for his journey to the top. He said that first he had to pass the test of running 5 km in 25 min with his prosthetic leg. When he started training, first day he run 5km in 60 min but by the time he finished his training on the final day he clocked 5km in 25 min. A real difficult task but I did it.

Now the next phase of training and selection was to take place in the hills of Dehradun. A 20 km run was to conducted and that was to decide who will be in the final team that wold climb the Everest. As I had been a commando in Army, I was able to train my self and run 40km in 40 days , I was confident that though with prosthetic leg bit I would be able to do it.

100 people had taken part in the run, but I had trained and planned my things well as to when I would take rest, when to change my prosthesis, when to change my prosthesis socks and what not. I was really thrilled to come 11th out of 100. Now I knew that I am in the team. So it was all because of planning, practice and in spite of all the difficulties or shortcomings I knew I had to succeed and so I did.

In 2015 he was part of the 20-member ONGC team that touched the base camp. That is the time when he decided to scale the Mt Everest and to be at the top.

In 2017 became first war veteran, wearing artificial limb to lead the ONGC Team for Expedition to MOUNT EVEREST which created history to be the first independent corporate team to select, train and climb the summit within a short period of 15 months.

Capt Saterndra Participated in Athletics and Badminton in Paralympic Games and won various medals at National and International level at Belgium, Manchester, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Israel for India. Won Asian Games and World Games in 2009.

Received NATIONAL AWARD from President of India for being a ROLE MODEL FOR THE SOCIETY.

Presently posted at Corporate Office in HR Department in the Special HR Initiatives Group, at ONGC, Vasant Kunj, Delhi.

His message to the IIIT Kanpur students … Do good for the Nation Do good for yourself … Jai Hind.