How to pay back our Martyrs

Yesterday was Kargil Vijay Diwas. Wish to pay tribute to Martyrs of Kargil war? Here is the way.

Major D P Singh
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Recently I celebrated my death and birthday, oops rebirth day. I am 43 year old but I have just completed my 16th year. Surprised? Well, anyone would, because who celebrates death? Everyone knows, as we have read it in our religious scriptures, that death is the ultimate and only truth but still everyone is afraid of it. To think about it, if someone is dead, he/she is not going to stay here to get bogged down with worries of life, then why are we afraid of it? Actually it is not the after effect of death we are afraid of, it is the fear of losing things. We are so much attached to things that the mere imagination of going away makes us tremble in fear. We are so much in love with our family, our house, our possessions, our friends, our lifestyle and most importantly, our comfort zone that mere thought of any disturbance in these things makes us perturbed, we feel anguished. Well, taking death as ultimate truth is too tough a challenge. Due to these fears, we can’t even imagine ourselves facing the daily life challenges. One set back from our routine and whole life goes topsy turvy.

It was on 15th July 1999, during Op Vijay ( Kargil War) I came under heavy enemy fire and got injured so badly that by the time I reached hospital, I had lost most of my blood and breath. Hospitals around war zone are no better than hospitals in our interior India. A young and only doctor who was manning that small hospital, 2 and half hours away from LOC, at Akhnoor, had hurriedly declared me dead on arrival. To my luck or as per wish of Almighty, that day, another senior doctor was on visit to this small hospital and his intervention brought me back to life. A new journey, a new life started from there. Since then every year I celebrate my death and rebirth day on 15th July.

These 16 years of my 2nd life were much more fulfilling than total life of 43 years. May be because I came back after tasting the death or may be because I know that what can be more difficult and challenging than coming out of state in which I had to start everything from scratch, learn everything like a toddler does. So much so that my weight in the beginning of this 2nd life was also just 20 kgs with every body part and organ, injured or amputated. The journey was not easy as unlike toddlers, no one was there to hold my hands and make me learn how to walk. It was learning by self, learning by falling again and again. It was learning the correct attitude towards life. Cherishing and respecting the life more, value it more.

I not only overtook my injuries but also went ahead to tread a new path by making history in India, when in 2009 I ran my first 21 km distance, half marathon on artificial leg. None had done so before me in our country. Due to my injuries in war I am 100 % disable, but that did not stop me from serving my motherland even in this condition. I did not just leave it at running marathon myself but went ahead to form a group of amputees, The Challenging Ones (TCO), in which I share the same mindset, attitude with many more. Today this group of mine have more than 1000 amputees connected from across India and most of them have overcome their sedentary life style and mental blockage of being a disable by participating in various marathons across India. This has not only empowered these amputees from within to take on any challenge of life but also changed the perception of masses towards people with disability. Now they are not looked down upon as not good for anything but as an inspiration for many abled bodied too.

One resolve which helped in attaining my 2nd life goals was my promise to self that compromising in standards of living my life will never be my choice. I will never choose ‘Easy’ way out over ‘Correct’ way. Life has to lived and to the fullest and I will live like that. Now, what exactly is life to the fullest. Well, we all know what is good or bad for us. We all know the right and wrong choices. But because of fear of losing or fear of breaking our comfort zone, we tend to choose the easy way out over the correct way out. We tend to choose finding fault with others but not mend ourselves for same mistake.

Be it throwing potato chips empty packet on road, be it spitting mouthful of pan supari saliva out of moving car, be it taking short cut by driving with kids on wrong side to make them catch school bus, be it letting our life overtaken by smoking or drinking, be it as a teacher, not leading by example to train students as they are the future of India but cribbing for prevailing lawlessness due to misbehaviour by college kids, be it cheating with your spouse or be it not going out for a jog to take care of your health but landing in hospital in age as young as 25 years for diabetics or heart ailment. We all know the difference between easy and correct way but how many of us actually use this awareness to our benefit? How many of us introspect? Correct path is always little difficult but then there are no free lunches in life. And if there are some available, they may land you up in Tihar to celebrate rest of the life.

A soldier is trained to save the country. He is not trained to die. But in the line of duty he chose his country over his death. And country is nothing but you all and this earth, the motherland, my bharat maa. While doing his duty, he is not bothered about any of his selfish needs. He is not bothered about his family, his friends, his possessions. He is not bothered about what will happen after him. He knows very well, that his personal responsibilities may suffer after his death. Forget about their dues for which his widow or mother may have to knock the doors of court of law, they may not even get the desired respect from the very own countrymen, protecting whom you are laying your life. No, he is worried about any such thing. Only worry he has in front of him is to stop the enemy from stepping over his motherland. In this pursuit of saving his maa, he even lays his life, smilingly.

So, during his training, was he given lecture, on Bhagwad Gita like it was given to Arjuna. No, nothing like that, Perhaps, you may have read the Gita more than him. Ofcourse, he celebrates and respect all religion alike at "sarv dharm" temple, which might be just one small room. But in his training he is taught how to earn the small virtues of life. He learns, how to save water during route marches as it is only one bottle which he gets for his survival. He learns, how to cherish the value of having as small a thing as cycle, because it is only after passing few tests, that he is allowed to ride it, till then he needs to run on his legs with cycle holding in his hand, like a gift received early but not to be unwrapped till the birthday. He learns, not to take short cuts in life, as he lives in area full of lush green carpets but he is not allowed to walk through the grass lawns but take the footpath made to walk. These small but very important and practically given lessons of life empowers him with values he carries, and that is how he chose correct over easy path and saves us, saves his motherland, the most precious possession of his life.

But I feel pain, when I see that neither the motherland nor the countrymen for whom these solider laid the lives, for whom, I lost half of my body, are being preserved in good state. Rather the same countrymen are exploiting their own precious lives and the silent motherland too. They are not getting killed by any external enemy but the enemy they are carrying inside, they themselves.

So, on this day of victory over enemy, Kargil Vijay diwas. Let us resolve to kill the enemy within, the enemy who stops us from choosing correct over easy.

Let us come to the terms, that with our fears, we cant save even our own life. It is the soldier on border who is giving us the real liberty, real democracy, real freedom, the choice of choosing easy over correct. If he is not there, we wont be able to even breath one day. He wont budge and will always live upto his duty, will you live upto your duty is the question to be asked.

Take care of yourself and take care of this mother earth. It is in your interest. It is in the interest of your kids. Chose ‘correct’ over ‘easy’ way out. That would be the best tribute to the soldier.

Think over it.

Jai Hind.

PS: This is one of the last pic before my injury while was on my post. Bunker was no less than 5 star comfort. Rodents use to step on to my bed to sleep with me or nibble my feet. They were tired of eating soaps and other things so were trying human flesh. ;) hehe.. AC use to work perfectly in tandem with weather or a bit more. The CGI ( Tin ) sheet on roof use to help in giving that, 'bit more' effect of June month. Lights out time was perfectly clocked with Sun light and electricity bill payment use to be in the form of body count. Refrigerated water was made to order, only thing the temp use to be towards higher side. And yes, WiFi was uninterrupted. Just fire a bullet and it use to start working.

Dont mind my dirty clothes as washing machine was under repair. To much of red color on clothes of many had choked its throat.