Neerja Bhanot : Youngest Recipient of Ashok Chakra award

Neerja, a name that stands for bravery and beauty and Yes, she received a fitting reward for showing such courage. She received the Ashok Chakra award, which is India's highest peacetime award that can be given to a person. She is the only "Ordinary" girl who received that extraordinary award. It is usually given to a military person or a Civilian when extreme courage or bravery is shown away from battle field. She didn't care about her life in the face of death which made her the heroine. She was given the name "Hijack Heroine" by the people.

Her Story before the fateful night

Neerja was loving called Lado(most loved one) by her family. She was the third child to Rama and Harish Bhanot after Akhil and Aneesh Bhanot. She was a "Woman of Principle". She never hesitated in standing up for truth and justice, even when she was in school she never hesitated to stand up for right even though she knows that her teachers are going to get angry on her. She studied in Bombay Scottish school. She was what we call a "Sorted girl". She was a model and with such pretty face it wasn't difficult to land upon the opportunity when a Photographer found her face attractive and asked her for her photograph to publish on magazine cover. Soon she went on a modelling spree.


The first courage she has ever shown was when she walked out of her marriage. She had an arranged marriage which is surprising in itself. Her husband used to torture her on not getting dowry from her father, for choosing modelling profession and being an independent woman. Thus, she took the decision of coming out of her marriage. She showed the same courage of not letting wrong things happen to her or in her surroundings.

Her Story on the flight PAN AM 73

Neerja was the head purser on PAN AM flight which was from Bombay-New york. It was to land in Frankfurt before taking off to New york but due to some issue it landed in Karachi for an hour. As soon as the plane landed the Terrorists tried to enter the flight cabin by terrifying the flight crew. Neerja immediately knew that the flight had been hijacked as she was well-trained in anti-hijack measures, so she alerted the pilots immediately. The pilots left the plane through the emergency hatch leaving Neerja as head of 379 passengers and the flight crew. The terrorists brought all the passengers to the centre of the plane and started communicating in Arabic about their demands and asking for pilots. The terrorists who hijacked the plane belonged to Libya which was recently bombed by Americans. Thus, they wanted to kill all the Americans first to terrorize the passengers. Neerja, knew that they wanted to kill the Americans as an NRI with American passport was killed while negotiating for pilots. Thus when the terrorists asked to collect passports Neerja cleverly hid the passports under the seats. There were soo many Americans on that flight. She also managed to pass the exit-door opening manual to the persons beside it.

Finally, when the lights of the flight failed due to lack power, the terrorists misread it as some commando operation by the military and started firing the passengers. She quickly sprang into action by opening the door and letting as many passengers as possible. She could have gotten out first if she wanted to but she didn't and let most of the passengers get out. At that moment, her gaze fell on the three American children who are at gun point, she made herself as a shield between the children and the bullets sacrificing her life and fighting till her last breath to save her passengers and fulfilling her duty. That incident made a very young(23 year old) girl a hero of the hijacked plane. The terrorists were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Neerja : Movie

Neerja movie is  the exact depiction of the sequence of events that had happened that fateful day and how an "Ordinary" girl became an "extraordinary" hero. Sonam Kappor did a good job in the role of Neerja Bhanot. The movie should have come long time back but anyways it has come. Her story should be published in the books of children and also in our curriculum's. If we can publish the atrocities and evil of the History why not about the Heroism.