नेयं स्वर्णपुरी लङ्का रोचते मम लक्ष्मण ।
जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी ॥
After killing Ravana , Lakshmana asks Lord Rama to stay in Lanka and rule. But Rama replies saying “Lanka is a city of gold but it doesn’t seduce me, when it comes to mother and motherland even heaven is nothing”.
Thousands of years have passed since Rama told this but the meaning of the above statement made by him still echoes in our hearts. To make this motherland more than heaven for us there are “common people” guarding us day and night, through sun and rain, in desert and ice, in forests and barren lands, lying down their lives without second thought for the only reason so that “we the people of the great republic of India” live happily!
These “common people” are the brave men and women in uniform who leave their families behind so that we can have a nice dinner with our families and yet the irony is we remember them only when they die.
For a country which is 7th largest in the world by area and 2nd largest with population added to it a neighbour which is nuclear power and mentally unstable, it’s a very hectic job for our armed forces to safeguard the boundary and be on alert all the time. Around 24 lakh soldiers with active and reserve included, do this job very efficiently. Everyday there will attempts to infiltrate along the border. Every now and then terrorists from the other side are being neutralized by the army and some of the time our brave men get martyred and yet there won’t be anyone apart from the family to cry for them. That is the reason we don’t remember them. It has become routine.
Irony is when tragic strikes us big time, when something like Uri happens, when we need to iterate through all our fingers for the second time to count the dead bodies of our soldiers, the whole country suddenly turns patriotic for few days. To get along with the collective feelings of the nation, the Media will also hunt for TRPs sitting on our soldiers dead bodies! And every single person wants retaliation from the army! Every Tom Dick and Harry sitting on the couch and smoking cigars (including me) wants the revenge!
When the Army actually avenges by crossing the LOC, going inside POK which is still technically ours, and destroying terror launch pads, sending around 40 militant terrorists and around 10 Pakistani army terrorists to hell by our brave para commandos and Jawans from Dogra and Bihar regiments. With political will and free power to the Army combined, Uri was avenged and every Indian was happy. Surprisingly every political party were together and hailed the Army, and we all thought at last Indian politics is matured.
Let the few patriotically charged days pass and then comes the voice of intellectual mafia calling for peace talks with our “friendly” neighbor ! The TRP hungry media suddenly start talking about Aman ki Asha! The well cultured ambassadors of “art and literature” who earn hundreds of crores of rupees start defending the actors from our “peaceful” neighbor who can’t condemn terrorism in the country where they earn their bread but speak when an ant is killed by accident in faraway Syria!
The political vultures start worrying whether Narendra Modi and BJP will gain politically and start asking for proofs! Yes we are “proud” of ourselves. Our politicians making headlines in Pakistan for asking proofs from our army which they hailed earlier! And one gentleman from Congress Mr.Sanjay Nirupam even claiming it’s fake until he is provided with the proof by army! Yes it’s true!
When a soldier’s soul watches all these drama from the window of heaven, the soul dies 100 deaths again! But never the great soul regrets the martyrdom because every single second the jawan lives for, he lives for India! Every single second he misses his family he thinks it’s fine because he is missing them for the purpose of safeguarding the country.
Yes, when they are trained, they are taught to defend this country no matter what. And they do precisely the same. Many will debate saying they knew it’s their job and what’s so special about it? There are many who join Army by passion, by choice, but there are also some who join by chance. No matter how and why they join, we should not forget the fact that they had every right to lead a life just like us and to have families just like us, but they chose a path to serve the country leaving everything behind and for that we should be grateful.
The least we can do for them is to thank them every night when we sleep for one more day we spent safely! And one fine morning when every single Indian thinks that motherland is more than heaven just like what Lord Rama said to Lakshmana, that fine morning every single soldier from past, present and future will be happy!
Jai Hind!
