Stunning, astounding and magical!
BY: M S Nazki
The Poonch Link Up Day celebrations were simply awesome! Now the grand finale is being awaited with interrogative anticipation as to what special would be up next!
-‘A Living Nightmare, the kids in Jammu and Kashmir on both sides of Pir Panjals have seen it. What is it exactly and what they think about it I will put it in a simplified way, ‘the thing about real life is, when you do something stupid, it normally costs you. In books the heroes can make as many mistakes as they like. It doesn’t matter what they do, because everything works out in the end. They’ll beat the bad guys and put things right and everything ends up cool. In real life, vacuum cleaners kill spiders. If you cross a busy road without looking, you get whacked by a car. If you fall from a tree, you break some bones. Real life’s nasty. It’s cruel. It doesn’t care about heroes and happy endings and the way things should be. In real life, bad things happen. People die. Fights are lost. Evil often wins. I just wanted to make that clear before I begin.’ That is what the Indian Army is teaching the kids, destroy the evil and become of your own in real life. Incidentally every family has a super hero and Jammu and Kashmir is one big family!’
-‘Trust me it has to be out of this world and it would be because the mega final day itself could be written over and over and over again with new twists and turns! Trust me this one had many as the show put by the people helped in all the ways by the one and the only one the Indian Army had a special flavor as many would be added in the years to come!’
-‘Positive engagement of youth by Indian Army has always been the aim and so far if we see the happenings which happened during the celebrations of the Poonch link up day one can conclusively say that the kids of Poonch are at an all time where suddenly sky has become just the starting poit to take off on a different high! On the other side of the Pir Panjals also the mood is the same!’
-‘Long back in fact, thirty eight years back I was listening to my grandmother. She was as great and obviously beautiful in her times as every grandmother is. She had a bagful of stories and she used to tell me a lot about events about yesteryears and I always since childhood as she started telling me stories, I always realized that her eyes got moist but never a drop of tear fell out of her eyes! Perhaps seeing what I read today I can well realize as to what had happened but she always fondly remembered the sports events, obviously the rustic ones for example Kabaddi and the runs over the hills! Both are still the two loved sports events in the districts closer to the borders and LOC. Another one she talked about was tug of war, ‘rassa khincho’ and yet another one was Shinj, wrestling on mud surface, the winner taking the biggest ‘Mali’. In village sports it is still fun but in those days it would have been mega fun!’
-‘A similar kind of sensation was created for the youth where color, exuberance, participation and enthusiasm were the passwords and none was allowed to put a long face in case he/she lost an event! This was a fun fair of a different kind where even the losers loved enjoying the game because the spirit matters! That has to be the spirit of the Poonch Link up day! I do not want to say it but it was the same!
-‘If you build the guts to do something, anything, then you can do anything and not worry about the consequences. Because this is an attribute of positivity! It Is essential to keep moving ahead anytime and every time and all the time. The kids in Rajouri and Poonch have come to know about this and they are doing precisely that!’
-‘We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us. When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. When you desire a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it. That is what makes you a winner kids!’
Poonch and Rajouri Marathons organized by the Indian Army taught that winning doesn’t always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself. That was what the kids put up as a massive show! It was all about enjoying the occasion and at the end of the day they would have definitely realized that the purpose was historic as they were running for those who gave everything of theirs to ensure that we ran as hares, scampering about and at times hopping about in free lands which remain ever so beautiful! The lands where the heroes spilled their blood to ensure that generations lived with pride! The two marathons were an epitome of that!
Then next up in the playfields was the hockey tournament. By the way it still is the National game of India. It is as delightful a game as soccer but special because five limbs are involved in this. The legs, the hands and the extended hockey stick as the ball rolls! It is artful and you need skill and strength to play it! In the tournament on the show everything was, strength, stamina and skill Add a fifth ‘S’ to the spirit of the youth!
We are free to choose our paths, roles and plans for a game on a pitch, but we can’t choose the consequences that come with them. We just may have reacted in the opposite way as our noem of playing the game is. Sports teaches us discipline and team spirit thereby enhancing unity among various sects of society. On a day someone may not may not be playing well, just off form but just a pat on the back gets the spirit back. It has happened on the playgrounds and who better than the Indian Army can teach you. That is what they were doing as part of celebrations of Poonch link up day!
Finally such events not only bring us together but also create an environment of trust , assurance and security . It defeats sinister designs of our enemy and assures everybody that *All is well. So be wise today so you don’t cry tomorrow. Take every opportunity that comes your way and it could be very much a possibility that it could be the golden one because it has happened in history and it will happen tomorrow also because that too would be an added chapter in history!
But before all this something fabulous was arranged at the Pritam stadium in Poonch! It was with resonating vibrance and razzmatazz as the folklore of the hills and the people of the hills is. I think older people sometimes talk about the good old days when life was better. In fact, they talk nostalgically about their own youth that was irretrievably gone. The past century has made enormous progress in all fields. The standard of living, work environment, health care quality and mobility, and the availability of cultural programs, recreational activities and information – all that clearly speaks in favor of nowadays. The kids were trying to elderly, ‘grand dads, grand ma’s, dad’s and mom’s we too are going to become like, so let us relive the excitement as your times too must have been exciting! We did not get to see yours but you can see ours! The presentation was simply scintillating! The cultural program to showcase the talent in singing and dancing of the youth of Poonch was organized at Pritam Stadium by the Poonch 93 Brigade as a prelude to Poonch Link up Day. The kids presented Gojri, Punjabi, Hindi Songs and Dance performances. The aim of the program was simple and that was to give a platform to youth and encourage them to be part of their rich culture and the history of Poonch.
People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. That was what this Poonch Link up Day was all about!
