A MESSAGE FROM THE BORDER
A student of School of Law, Lovely Professional University, Aman Chauhan has written this Article.
“You have never lived until you have almost died, and for those who chose to fight, life has a special flavor, the protected will never know” –
Capt R Subramanian Kirti Chakra
Interestingly, when people make the acquaintance of that I have been brought up in an army background, the first question that comes to their mind is, “How is the life of a soldier”?
In my reply to this, I often come up with a phrase, ‘Life is great’.
Is it enough? No!! but, I normally don’t prefer to explain further, for some feelings are hard to express
Today, I feel I can jot my expressions into words. Apart from ‘life is great’ there are a million tales that are hard to explain while sitting and gossiping around. When I ask my dad about his life, when he was posted in Assam Rifles in Manipur, he tells me his several stories with not a single emotion on his face. But deep inside, it haunts him. The amount of bloodshed he has seen. It disturbs him even today. Life for an army man has never been so comfortable, unlike our comfortable lives.
He tells, in one of the operations, they were sent to the Loktak lake, Manipur. They had set an ambush in the lake at 3:00 a.m in the month of December. Yes!! During the time when the body usually gets numb because of chilling winters. They were not supposed to stand up but were supposed to be in the prone position on the floating grass in water until the local terrorist group arrived. But somehow their cover was compromised. The group fired heavily upon them. My dad’s team retaliated at the same time. But a man from the team was shot on his leg during firing, he was shrieking and screaming “sahab ji bacha lo, goli lagi hai” (save me sir, I’m hit). Dad carried him on his back and kept retaliating with his team until the terrorists were eliminated. Unfortunately, due to excessive bleeding, the man lost his life and our country lost a soldier.
But it’s no big deal, right? One day or another a soldier is supposed to die, isn’t it? One day or another a soldier is dead, right!
But, these people, they never die. They are martyred. They sacrifice their life for the people who are unknown to them. An ounce of salary each month is nowhere comparable to a worthy life. They don’t get any enormous profit for sacrificing their lives for the protection of people, neither the land nor the money. They just get medals on republic day and independence day for their bravery at the cost of their lives. Some of them make it alive to the gallantry award distribution, while some of them receive the medals on their body wrapped in the tricolor. This is why we call them soldiers.
Just like you, they have a family too. A mother, a father, a spouse, and maybe children, waiting for them to come home. But sometimes, unfortunately, some people only get to see their son or daughter, wrapped in the tricolor. My dad always tells me that he feels blessed, for he made it home alive. Many of them couldn’t make it home alive.
I once asked my dad “don’t you have pity on the terrorists when you shoot them?”. He guffawed and replied, “It’s a do or die situation. The moment you have mercy on a terrorist, the very next minute you won’t be alive enough to have mercy on him i.e, you will be shot dead by the same person.” He was even threatened by the terrorists, either to stop all the operations against them or join their group and become a millionaire. Otherwise, he will be shot dead before he leaves the place. I am sure there are many other soldiers who are threatened to join their groups but risking their lives they prefer to be a patriot, not a traitor, only for the motherland. Just like martyred Lt Umar Fayas from Kashmir who was abducted and shot dead by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen when he was on leave in Kashmir.
Remember Ravindra Kaushik from RAW? There are several other soldiers like him who live as undercover agents risking their lives in other countries. In case if their identity is divulged, their own country disowns them. But even if the nation disowns them, they never disown their nation. Despite all the humiliation and remorseless torture they stand still for their nation and do not utter a piece of single confidential information at any cost. They live and are martyred just for their nation without even thinking about themselves.
Blessed are those people who get to live with their family and get to live a comfortable life. In reality, the actual meaning of the word ‘comfortable’ is totally different for these soldiers. Living a life away from home, away from family, staying in bunkers, and living at places where life is at stake all the time. This is ‘comfortable’ for them. In glaciers where there is no living environment, all the food items and water turn into nothing but a brick. The body gets so numb that even holding a rifle becomes a tough job. While aiming and shooting is completely another task. But they never complain about it. Because they are soldiers? Not humans right? And yes of course, apart from all these little things ‘life is always great’.
In today’s world, some people are so great that after being in a comfortable and luxurious life, sitting in front of their televisions they have complaints and they rant about what soldiers should do and what they should not do. They suggest what’s good for them. Celebrating achievements of Indian forces is fine , but telling them things like, “India should do a strike” or “India should go for war” or “Indian soldiers should retaliate” or “Soldiers are meant to die” is literally an absurd and disgraceful act especially when you are not in the field. My questions are to those people who have such complaints. Have you ever faced a man, literally aiming a loaded gun at you? Not in shooting games but in real life. Trust me it’s petrifying. Neither a politician nor anyone who has complaints, has ever faced it. That’s why it’s so easy to throw words like these while living a comfortable and luxurious life. Soldier’s duty is to protect you and they know how to do it. Believe me, they’re best at it. They don’t require suggestions from any of the politicians, media or any of the people sitting just in front of their television.
I have come across some people who still doubt the service of a soldier. They say “Soldiers do nothing for civilians”. However, I just want to remind you of the recent Handwara counter-terrorist operation. The terrorist group held civilians hostage and took shelter in their homes. They used eleven civilians as human shields including women and children. Forces did the counter-terrorist operation in order to evacuate the civilians. In the thirteen-hour operation, fortunately, all civilians were extricated and two terrorists were shot down. But unfortunately, Col Ashutosh Sharma(sena medal*), Maj Anuj Sood, Naik Rakesh Kumar, Lance naik Dinesh Singh and Sub-inspector Shakeel Qazi were martyred.
These five valorous men were martyred doing their job and saving the civilians. They had families who were waiting for them to come home.You still think, “They don’t do anything for civilians
My question to all of you is, Are we doing enough for these valiant servicemen?
On a personal note, we can never do enough for them. And literally, they don’t want anything from us. But, if someone can’t praise them, he should at least pray for them and support them. They live an uncomfortable life so that each and every person in the nation can live a comfortable life. Salute to these daredevils. Jai Hind. Jai Bharat.
“YE DIL MAANGE MORE” –
PVC, Capt. Vikram Batra
A MESSAGE FROM THE BORDER A MESSAGE FROM THE BORDER A MESSAGE FROM THE BORDER A MESSAGE FROM THE BORDER
Leave feedback about this