Freedom does not come without a price!
I saw many war memorials, I saw many people and I have read many people and I have seen many people die for the nation!
-‘’We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment that is what the officers and men who are in the Indian Army say and trust me that they are tigers who are born free and they live for ultimate fulfillment of their countrymen whom they want to move about with all the freedom’
-‘ This wasn’t a strange place somewhere in the North East, it was a new one,’ said Krishna Bahadur (5/5 GR (FF) that afternoon at lunch time as we were moving with all the happiness towards Manipur. Splendid foot work in the boxing ring, always smiling and then came the halt in the evening. Till dinner he was fine but at midnight in a cold winter night a knock at the window of the forlorn hut meant that all was not well’ It was not because that was the night Krishna slept forever! He was cremated at Leimakhong Manipur’! This was not the first incident that happened that a man perished on duty for the Nation. It was death on the move to a new place of duty!’
-‘If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet! Trust me this is the mindset of a soldier whether an officer or a man and that is why he adds she now keeps fighting the enemies of the nation! If you (enemy) will hand over a single blow just take it a heavy barrage of booms and bangs is heading your way!’ By the way this has happened always and every time if it’s a game in fighting ring and bullets are fired by soldiers only at two places, one are the firing ranges for practicing or someone who challenges them for a wager!’
-‘These adventurers in olive green are not fortune seekers, the fight it out for the Nation. They know that the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. They always carry fresh ones because the arena is new and so is the ring! The know that freedom does not come without a price because for the freedom of the Nation many have paid a price, some were killed by British bullets, some were hung for no fault of theirs, some were sent into jails what was called as Kala Pani (Andaman and Nicobars), many have fought wars, insurgencies and you name it! But for whom? For the Nation and the people! Officers and men of the Indian Armed Forces and Paramilitary Forces do not stick around their homes and families but move about to fight so that their countrymen can stick around with their own!’
-‘It feels good to be lost in the right direction, she told me. I think that this is an appropriate way to think positive. I spoke to a young kid, now a sister of mine. Her husband is no more because he is in the elite list of martyrs for the country! The two, had a kid sorry two but the family were destined to remain three and it remained that way but Geetu never regretted that. She was an educated girl, got married and now is proud of the fact that she is a wife of a martyr and so do her children. But often on the days of brothers and sisters she does say that one’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. I think she was dead straight! Professor Geetu Singh believes in only one thing live life with no excuses because they are worthless and in any case how many can you give, and move on with no regret because you do not know what is going to happen next but move on freely! Perhaps all the ladies in the collage with the President (picture with the story) were trying to say that but without a word but eyes tell many stories and all the eyes, without blinking were telling the same tale! A tale of chivalry, a tale of life that has to be lived even if a sudden strike by boulders strike you bang on your fragile psyche and mind!’!
-‘This kid was a police officer’s wife, newly married but was destined not to see her husband after he she bid him goodbye since he was leaving for a duty to be done. She never knew that the last kiss would be the last forever. This story is of a Jammu lad, extremely brave but always wanted to have a face off but indecency and ugliness on part of the enemy is a norm in insurgencies this newly married kid girl never knew it and the man (her husband) never believed that this was a possibility! It was going to become that very afternoon! Though the avengers (SOG) struck back and the killers were shown the death hole but the price had been paid! I do not have to say for what any way I will repeat, ‘for the people so that they could live and smile’! I did get a chance to talk to her because she is my relative in fact a near distance maternal uncle and she said,‘ Mamu life is a wager and the most dangerous risk of all is the risk of spending your life not doing what you want! My husband wanted the people to live free and secure. I’m glad that they are doing now but sad he is not here but I’m there to carry on the legacy! What better words from a lady of a Police Martyr!
By: MS Nazki
Mendhar/Jammu
Some words remain etched in minds and these are few from the great officers who lead from the front their men so that the freedom of the people of the nation was not jeopardized
-‘Some goals are so worthy, it’s glorious even to fail….. Capt Manoj Kumar Pandey — PVC 1/11 Gorkha Rifles’!
-‘Either I will come back after hoisting the tricolor, or I will come back wrapped in it, but I will be back for sure….. Capt. Vikram Batra, PVC’!
-‘You have never lived until you have almost died, and for those who choose to fight, life has a special flavor, the protected will never know!…. Capt R Subramanium , Kirti Chakra (Posthumously)
-‘I won’t die in an accident or die of any disease I will go down in glory…. Major Sudhir Kumar Walia’
These words are immortal and so are and so are these these young men from the elite league of gentlemen who fought and died for the nation so that the people remained free of the fear of the invisible enemy. They were the ones who took the bullets of the enemy on their chests so that the nation could sleep in peace! They were not ordinary men, they were superbly and sublimely special in all respects!`
For a soldier life is not always perfect. There are several reasons for that I’m not saying that the others are not putting in their might, they are in a big way but what a soldier does is something huge as he crisscrosses the country, moves to mountains, jungles, deserts, seas and those highly dangerous and chilling glacial heights to safeguard the frontiers of the country not to mention fighting the enemy within the own country trying to destroy the fabric of peace, calm and tranquility of the country. Like a road, the life of a soldier has many bends, ups and down, but that’s its beauty! But hats off to the people back home wwho back him to the hilt, support him and acknowledge the fact from their hearts and minds that ‘yes our man is doing wonders for the country he was born’!
The sagas of bravery, courage under the ruthless fire of the enemy, hidden enemy and the men from deep and dark are many and one can keep going on and on with words but in all of them each man’s name on the war memorials has one thing in common. The all have a subtle message to convey, ‘freedom does not come without a cost’! The great Indian nation acknowledges this fact from the heart!
I had gone to meet the parents of one of my friends house, a friend who had died fighting the insurgents in North East. Sitting in the living room I was looking at the walls of the massive hall. They all were ordained with photographs and portraits of my friend right from his childhood to his becoming a soldier, marriage, the first baby girl and finally the ones where a martyr are given a ceremonial somber send off, I mean the final one. The father (he too had worn the coveted olive green) arrived along with my friend’s wife Jem (as my friend used to call him along with a smiling little girl Harman. We conversed all throughout the afternoon about Ronnie (as we used to call him) and it was on the dining table when some great lines were said by his mother, ‘he had a habit to re-set the clock everyday and often used to say that, our wins don’t matter, your failures don’t matter. Don’t stress on what was, fight for what could be, he did that with aplomb but probably he forgot to re-set the clock that day! Maybe the God had done it that day for him!’ The freedom in which we live and move about has not come without a cost. Someone has paid dearly for it and are still paying it and that too with their precious lives!
