Soldier of Voiceless
I was born in a remote corner of the country. One of the poorest regions. We just got electricity poles after seven decades of lanterns and kerosene lamps. A tar road is being laid now,to finally connect our hamlet to the nearest bus station which is fifty kilometres across winding hilly regions overgrown with cactus and other wild bushes.
I was lucky to be sent to a distant relative who lived in a metro city & was working as a security guard. I cleared my school examinations and his supervisor at work,a retired orderly from the army,guided me to attend the selections and was chosen for training.
It’s now been few years since I became a proud soldier of the Army! A very strict regimen keeps me busy and the little vacation period I get away from duties of nation, I spend visiting my family members.
And, I scribble my thoughts in this little note book which my school teacher had encouraged us to . My own little diary. Of thoughts- random, solemn and personal.
I wonder if any other living soul would ever get to read through these writings. But, I derive great solace . Is this what is called -‘learning?’ : fruit of education!
Well, today I felt compelled to observe the everyday world around me . Not, the one away from my humdrum existence..
# Am i among the lucky majority in the armed forces who has never yet been posted to the borders with Pakistan?
# Are only those 10% who actually get ousted to border patrol duties including special terrain ,the truly fortunate ones in the Army?
# Are we all right in sticking to the ‘line system ‘ of management where we literally salute what moves and paint that which is static, as an orderly rule of ‘discipline’?
# Are our officers by and large more well treated by civil Society in being given preferential treatment, all across society- during service as well as post-retirement?
# Aren’t those officers’ clubs still live relics of the ‘Laat-Saheb’ era of those British Imperialists who had colonised almost all of the Planet?
# Are these self-styled ‘nationalists’ right in continuing to provide subsidised rum, whisky and a variety of alcoholic drinks at subsidised rates as ‘rations’ even as their ilk administering the various assemblies of States of India, are enforcing a policy of ‘total prohibition ‘ about sale of alcoholic drinks?
# Are we as members of the Armed Forces superior to all those surgeons who spend long nights and even medics who are on continuous duties for days together, to save lives?
# Are we the new ‘elite’ being cheered by corrupt politicians of the land?
# Are we soldiers doing right in bearing all those humiliating episodes of being spat upon,stones hurled at us by mobs, being told to not retaliate at those ‘civilians’ in Kashmir-valley?
# Are superiors having an axe to grind in not letting a decisive war with resultant PEACE happen in this beautiful piece of Earth? After all, it’s an open secret of vast sums of monies being kept at disposal to disperse unruly crowds , woo unwilling mobs and eradicate the valley State of terrorists.
# Is the farce of article-370 and a United Nations Force being perpetuated to let vested interests within & outside the country water their homes, beyond the graves?
# Is not that legal fiction redundant now with the application of principle of adverse possession, if nothing else?
# Is civil society the really disturbed portion of contemporary civilisation?
Me, as a mere Jawan, am enjoined to be dumb. Voiceless? Yes. But, brainless? No.
Are all soldiers voiceless?
Or, is the Army officer and the gentleman bureaucrat hand in glove with starched white kurta donning netas indeed rendered voiceless by a most vibrant Constitution?
Ask yourself, oh, voiceless citizens with a good conscience!
Ahh,yes..! !
I am tearing this page away and throwing it to the hot winds blowing across on this mid-summer’s afternoon.
Nothing stops anybody who is able to collect these pieces of thoughts and piecing them together,for a tangible solution to the state of anarchy prevailing in God’s own Country!
In God we trust. Satyameva Jayatey!
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Kya aruo ke jaise inkaar karu ?
Mukt ho jau us bandhan se,
Azaad ho jau us vachan se,
Jis pratigya ki laakho ne qurbaani di?
Bhool jau un nadiyon ko,
Jo balidaan ke rakt se laal hui;
Bhool jau un veero ki pratigya
Jis ke liye unhone apni jaan nichavar ki
Aaj Azaadi ka boj har kandhe par hain,
Jo Bharat Mata ka vansh kehlaate hain
Har ek ko fir se pratigya leni hogi
Tab Hindustan Azaad kehlayega.
Tab Bharat ek azaad ban payega.
~Manjiri
Sad story of pathetic state