(From top)Lalremmawia (Mizoram),Zonumsanga (Mizoram),Thoi Thoi (Manipur),Dijekshon (Meghalaya),Prity Devi (Manipur)

These are extraordinary tales of courage, of death-defying acts of bravery and presence of mind. These are the tales of the five children from the Northeast who are among the 21 youngsters chosen for the National Bravery Awards, 2009.

Tomorrow, these five children — two each from Manipur and Mizoram and one from Meghalaya — will ride into the sunset like heroes, sitting atop chaperoned elephants during the Republic Day parade in the national capital.

As these bravehearts savour the spotlight and adulation, The Telegraph relives their daredevil acts and salutes their courage and grit.

Two brave girls

Maibam Prity Devi, 10, was assisting her mother in their grocery shop at Mayang in Imphal Bazar, a small marketplace in Imphal West on March 30 last year.

A student of Class V, Prity studies at a private English medium school in Mayang.

Suddenly, an “object” landed inside the shop and rolled to a stop near a LPG cylinder.

Her mother, Hemabati Devi, immediately knew what it was.

“Bomb, bomb, run,” she shouted.

But Prity knew that it was not the best idea. She remembered her father was sleeping in one corner of the shop.

In an instant, Prity dashed to pick up the “grenade” and threw it to out of the door where it landed and exploded.

Eight persons, including Prity, suffered minor injuries after being hit by splinters from the grenade.

Had it exploded inside the shop, the grenade would have killed her parents and three other shoppers.

As word of her courage spread, the Manipur Council for Child Welfare recommended her name for the bravery awards.

Last week, Prity received the prestigious Geeta Chopra award for bravery from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi.

The grocery shop was the sole source of income for Prity’s father, Sarat Singh, after he retired from the Central Reserve Police Force.

However, after the incident, he closed the grocery shop and now runs a taxi service between Mayang Imphal and Imphal city. With extortion demands from rebel groups a common feature — which had led to the grenade attack on his shop — Singh does not want to take any more chances.

“Prity is a very clever and courageous girl. Had it not been for her courage, many lives would have been lost,” K. Ranjan Singh, a resident of the locality said.

Another Manipuri girl, Thoi Thoi Khumanthem, is among recipients of the bravery award.

In fact, at eight, Thoi Thoi is the youngest of eight girls and 13 boys who have won the national bravery award, two of them posthumously.

On April 15 last year, Thoi Thoi was heading for the village shop to buy a packet of detergent powder for her mother, Sanahanbi, when she saw a pair of shoes floating in a pond near her Haoreibi Makha Leikai home in Imphal West.

She realised that something was wrong and jumped into the pond and discovered that a child was drowning,

She tried to drag him towards the bank, but was pulled into the depths of the water. Desperate, she cried for help. Hearing her shrieks, a group of villagers ran to their rescue and dragged the two out.

“Both the girls deserve the award and we are proud of them,” Yumnam Sarat, secretary of Manipur Council for Child Welfare, which recommended the names of the two girls for the award, said.

All fired up

Ten-year-old Dijekshon Syiem is far too young to play with fire. But he did and saved the life of another.

For Dijekshon, who comes from a West Khasi hills hamlet, it was sheer courage that prompted him to save another child from a burning house, risking his own life.

On January 21 last year, Syiem entered the blazing thatched house of his four-year-old cousin Kishandonald after he heard cries for help.

Kishandonald’s parents were away in the market when the fire broke out.

Syiem dragged the child from underneath a bed and ran out.

After he emerged from the house carrying the four-year-old, Syiem fell unconscious and had to remain under medication for a week.

A Class V student of Langtor Higher Secondary School in West Khasi Hills, Syiem still cannot forget the blaze and the child’s helplessness.

“I saw the fire and I ran quickly to see what happened. Suddenly, I heard a child’s cry. I could not think of anything except how I could save the child. I found him under a bed, frightened,” Syiem recalled.

A state functionary, Padmashree Theilin Phanbuh, who recommended the boy’s name to the Centre, said his act of bravery is for everyone to emulate.

Quiet courage

There were few in his neighbourhood who could imagine soft-spoken 12-year-old Lalremmawia fight with his classmates.

But fight he did, that too with a wild boar to save the life of his friend.

A resident of Champai district, Lalremmawia was returning from a trek in the forest with his friends in June last year when a wild boar crossed their path.

As the animal began mauling one of the boys, the gang ran away, leaving Lalremmawia to single-handedly fight the boar and save his friend.

Laldinthara, a resident of Champhai town, who was deeply moved by Lalremmawia’s show of courage, said: “I never thought that this quiet boy would be able to exhibit such courage to save others, but during a moment of crisis he proved his worth”.

Zonumsanga, on the other hand, spared no time to save a classmate who was drowning in a pool while on a school picnic.