AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 114 of 237 14 FEAR – Is it Real or False Evidence Appearing Real Wg Cdr S Harshavardhan Genre: Reflections / Emotions he last five months has created havoc in the life of people all over the world and the reason for this, like anyone can guess. is COVID 19. This pandemic has universally brought out a natural, powerful and primitive human emotion called Fear. Fear is present in all individuals irrespective of cast, creed, place, country or religion. What is that most people fear about COVID 19? Could it be the Fear of death, Fear of getting infected, Fear of infecting others, Fear of being quarantined, Fear of being treated as a social outcast, Fear of losing one’s job? It could be anything. Every individual has a sense of fear in him and COVID 19 is just another thing that has been added to the list of fears. I will now narrate an experience of mine which got me thinking about fear for the first time. It was a cold wintry night in January 1977 in Bareilly. We were about ten officers (some of them with their wives) returning to our rooms in Air Force Officers Mess in our scooters and motor bikes after seeing a night show. It was past midnight and freezing cold on a moonless night. The stretch of road from Bareilly town to our unit, a distance of about 15 kms, is isolated and always deserted at night-time. Being a part of Bareilly – Pilibhit road it was known for its Dacoits but there was no history of them attacking Air Force people on this stretch. On this eventful night while we were traversing this road, we suddenly found a lot of sharp metal objects being thrown at us. All of us realized that we were under attack and without batting an eyelid we opened throttle and sped away and reached our rooms in one piece. What stands out most about this incident, even when I recall this today, is that our immediate reaction was survival but not to be forgotten is the secondary factor, FEAR which made us react. Are we born with fear? If no, then why and when do we get the sense of fear? When does an individual start realizing Fear. Fear is an attribute which everyone has. To me it is impossible to find an individual who has no fearful feeling of one kind or the T