This simple middle-aged man displayed tremendous presence of mind in beating those terror messiahs while they maniacally sprayed bullets around.
Hearing repeated gunshots around 9 pm , Vishnu Zende, peeked out of his cabin and saw injured people lying on the ground and some other panic stricken folks running helter- skelter.
A train was just chugging into VT station, with many more people. More potential victims of the mayhem that ensued.
Observing that the firing was focused near the front entrance, Vishnu announced that, people leave VT station from the rear exit. To avoid panic-stricken commuters, Vishnu firmly reiterated his instructions on exiting VT station from the back entrance, without revealing the seriousness of the situation. He repeated the announcement over and over again, for a full 20 minutes, until the terrorists started approaching the Announcements office.
Identifying the source of the announcements, the terrorists directed their attention to the cabin. Vishnu and his colleague, immediately switched off the electricity in the room and ducked down, just in time; a bullet whizzed into the cabin and exited through the back of the cabin.
The staff in the Announcements office lay low until the terrorists disappeared.
Yesterday he stood before the bullet scarred cabin talking to the NDTV crew. The mild mannered man, still visibly shaken by what he had seen quietly goes about his work even today. So do the staff in AH Wheeler, and the tiny Cafe Coffee Day Express kiosk in VT station. They say, ' kya karen, kaam toh karna hi padegaa na?', Uss din apna ek dost ko goli laga. '
Look, he is already bustling about his customers.
On that dark Wednesday, Vishnu did not realise how many lives he had saved with his public address system.
An instance of extraordinary courage from the common man. It doesn't take a uniform or a designation to step up, does it?
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/world/asia/02heroes.html?em
