The game of honor Ekta Negi the lady little girl from Gharwal gets into the rifles that were loyal to Assam!

By: M S Nazki

This is a story that gave me an idea that generations do salute to each other, one a young and one a bit older in age and not experienced! No guesswork here it has to be the Indian Army and it always would be!

‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by’ perhaps was the motive of Ekta Negi when she went to tread upon the pathways where only the olive trees grew!’

-‘This had to be a stunner, a little Negi girl standing up and saluting means that girls are flying the Indian national flag all over!’

-‘The little ladies from Garhwal hills can do wonders and Ekta decided to do it and she has done it!

-‘Traveling in life isn’t always pretty. This the girls have realized today in life but it’s great that they have because they had to! They also knew that it isn’t always comfortable to move on because a stoppage in today’ world means a full stop! In language punctuation or otherwise in life’s lingo it is the most dangerous sign! Girls of today have realized that and Ekta Negi the Captain now in Assam rifles has proved exactly that!

-‘Sometimes it hurts the girls, it even breaks their hearts. But they should consider that’s okay. The journey changes you, it should change you. In today’s world the kitchen sink is not the place where a girl should stand! She should be upfront with a rifle in hand and bullets in a magazine and why not!’

-‘Sometimes some bad experiences in life have ruined the girls because they leave marks on the memory, on the consciousness, on the heart, and on the body. But not giving up is the theorem that has to be remembered by heart because you take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind! This is no longer the men soldiers template anymore! Let us be practical, bravery now is not restricted only to men!’

-‘ The best part of the story of Ekta is that she has decided on one golden rule, take only memories, leave only footprints and collect moments, not things! She definitely would leave imprints behind in fact many of them to be treaded upon by the generations to follow!

-‘A message for women soldiers, though I’m an average man to tell you so, ‘ We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. Life is full of endurance tests and we have to pass them all!’

The news item said that It was a proud moment for the Assam Rifles Family on 20 Nov, the daughter of Havaldar KS Negi of 20 Assam Rifles was commissioned as an Officer into the Indian Army. But I as a father of daughters know that what a proud moment it would have been for Kay Ess Negi! Daughter and the father saluted each other, father full of pride and the daughters’ heart enlarged and thudding and saying, ‘Dad I did it for you, because I was born to do it’!

Lt Ekta Negi was commissioned in the Corps of Army Air Defence. The proud father in the picture is seen saluting the newly commissioned officer, his daughter, Lt Ekta Negi. I’m sure Kay Ess must have taught his daughter the art of manufacturing a bearing, slim, trim and spine straight. Add to it the repertoire of military drills with the salute being with the premier one! But perhaps out of exaltation he forgot that ‘kid do not smile while saluting’! But perhaps Ekta out of that youthful exuberance went for it because her dad was up front with a great salute and his brain impulses saying, ‘daughter you did it and I do not know how you grew up so fast’! Let us see many daughters doing so year after year!

Long time back I heard a story from my mom and she always said about my next door neighbor that, ‘he (the father’ sweeps her hair back from her ears, he swings her above his head. He says she is his emerveillement (wonder). He says he will never leave her, not in a million years. The little kid of yester years became a doctor and Sonia th doctor always says, ‘a father’s tears and fears are unseen, his love is unexpressed, but his care and protection remains as a pillar of strength throughout our lives. Definitely of mine he is’! It is always a family affair with me when daughters do well and climb the ladders to express themselves! Ekta surely is a great daughter for the fraternity of father’s although less acknowledged by wives (I’m saying so sheepishly, hope my wife does not read this story at all)!