A Soldier’s Agony
For an unemployed boy from a poor family, it isn’t about ‘having a career’ or having a five year plan. It is about getting a job that pays well. The Indian Army provides such an opportunity to young men, who need not be highly qualified but should be physically fit.
No soldier was ever born a patriot. The training they go through completely changes their outlook. Those naive boys turn into stronger and focused men. This manhood exposes the fissure between philosophy and the truth. The cracks in this masonry of reality gets filled with the grout of love for the nation first, then the fellow men and lastly his own life.
A boy who was raised with love is now in a war. The tourniquet is dripping red and fatigue in every inch of his body. This deracinated being, is now emotionally detached from every pain in his body. He possesses the raw power to face the danger with grace, to follow every command and protect the motherland. He has to kill. He has to serve. And if at all he survives, has to feed his family back home. A soldier never kills a man, he eliminates a possible threat to his nation.
To honour these men, there are dedicated monuments, movies and many printed pages. Very often some candle marches are organised too. Then what? What next?
The soldier climbs down the mountains where he once sprawled from exhaustion, to the society we call our homes. He finds people of his country fighting and arguing over issues like, religion, language and caste.
My father adorned stars and our national emblem on his shoulders. I have not stayed in one place for more than 2 years. I have spent my childhood in more than 8 states with all different languages. My mother has collected handicrafts from all over the country and her recipe book has recipes for mutton rogan josh to vangi bhaat, from dhokla to rosogolla and fish tenge.In the process, it didn’t make sense to love just one state, speak just one language and embrace just one culture. I grew up appreciating every culture and loving my country for what it is known for.. Its diversity!!
But, today when I attend few parties where the polished educated lot, sit comfortably with their champagne glasses, I am judged more than often for not knowing the local language. I am also coined as an outsider because my eating habits are a little different or because I grew up in a different state. Am I an outsider in the country for which my father went to the battlefield?
I have an eight years old son. He knows about the Bhagwad Gita, the Holy Quran and a little about Jesus and Guru Nanak ji too. I wish he grows in society where he is not questioned about his caste or what language he speaks. I wish he is celebrated for his kindness and not his financial status. I don’t want him to go to a foreign university because I want to be sure that opportunities are present in my country. For freedom of opportunity is the foundation for all other freedoms.
Many warriors have bled to keep our country safe. But if our thoughts don’t change, every soldier who died ; died for nothing. Every sacrifices made are in vain. Mothers lost their sons for whom? For us, who are too busy vandalising the country’s property in the name of religion. A few who come onto the streets to Let’s make a nation where we are able to live happily and prosper together because we belong together. Let’s make the world of that limbless soldier and the war widow a better place.
