It was a Type 14 frigate of the Indian Navy. She sunk off the coast of Diu, Gujarat, India by the Pakistan Navy Daphne- class submarine Hangor on 9 December 1971, during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. It was the first warship sunk in action by a submarine since World War ll. It remains the only warship to be lost in the war till date.
Fifty years hence a daughter looks back on the legacy of her father & war hero Captain M.N.Mulla, who helmed the ship & the tumultuous period after the birth of Bangladesh. Ameeta Mulla Wattal only 14 then has memories of her father that one can envy.
Well read, well travelled & well informed he believed in the tenets of truth, duty & honour which have largely taken a backseat. The greatest teachers were those who opened eyes, ears,hearts with trust & love because he believed there was no place for exclusivism in the world. Has God stopped making men like him??
A torpedo struck & the ship began to sink. He spared no effort to save sailors & officers to the safety of the lifeboats & the sea. She assumes he must have seen himself as the master of the ship, nurtured by the tradition of the service that he had joined that trained him never to abandon his men. Standing alone what must have passed his mind??
His 11 year daughter expected him to return everytime the bell rang or the phone rang. She must have been in a shock for months to realise later that she had to accept the truth.
It was the innocence that was torn apart on the night of December 9, 1971. This real life battle had no exits. Five decades have rolled by & we have all been involved in the journey of growing up: our household was of women- my mother, my younger sister & I. Decorating Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla with the Mahavir Chakra posthumously would not help the family to survive. The country remembers but the family bears the brunt.
Ameeta is a chairperson & executive director, DLF Foundation schools & Scholarship programmes. How proud must her mother feel to have a daughter fight & come up a winner to help others!
She hasn’t written about her sister but she must have grown into a fine lady too. How I wish we look up to such daughters as inspiration & push aside our petty thoughts! Kudos to them.
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