Today I came late to the office so my friend asked me as to how Major is late to work today. How many times this major comes late to office when does he go every thing she knows. She even keeps the track as to with whom I am chatting and if it had been possible she would have kept other records of me also. She is the girl who sits next to me in my office. A chatterbox wants to know every thing that is going on in this world.
So I had to tell her as to why I came late to office today. She is from services background so I too don’t take her comments seriously. She is so young to me in age that she would not have dared to take my name if she hadn’t been in this office. Neways so I had to tell her as to why I came late to office.
How many times do we read about the heroic deeds about the Indian Army or for that matter any security agency. Today in news paper The Times of India edition dated 03 Sept 07 there was a article on a famous footballer Ronaldo having fun with 5 call girls in his house in England with his fellow club players. But this press of ours will never highlight the diminishing lights from our society who faded from this face of earth doing good deeds. Today morning when I was having my shower the maid banged the bathroom door, which is very rare. So I knew it has to be a very important call cause I don’t take any calls during my morning bathroom ritual. It was a call from Command hospital ward no 21 i.e the ward for Officers and at times cadets of NDA and OTA. So I came out on my bathing gown to find the unstable and breaking voice. It dint took me long to know who was on the line. It was cadet DK Jha of National Defense Academy, Khadakwasla. He called me up to tell that he was leaving Pune.
This cadet is being boarded out of Academy that means he will never become an officer. He will never march again on the drill square. He will never taste the sweat and blood on battlefield. That news hit me like any thing and I immediately finished my morning thing and was ready. Sheetal my wife was really surprised to see me ready so soon. But she knew about the phone call and knew I must be going to Command hospital. There in the hospital Cadet Jha was sitting on the chair in the garden waiting for me. The moment I saw him I was not able to believe my eyes. For the first time I saw him with his hair on his head. He is the case of a boxing accident. The josh and courage which makes the cadet into gentleman cadet and then the gentleman cadet into officer and then the officer into the think tank of the battle field. I first time met him some six months back when I was admitted in Command Hospital for my intestine operation. He then had a clean-shaven head and his skull was stitched and the blue stains of the dye still very prominent.
This cadet for his Sqn’s championship accepted the challenge of a 2nd termer cadet in boxing in the inter Sqn boxing championship and fought valiantly for his Sqn. The team spirit and the will to do more then the body can take for our team and our nation is instilled in the cadets. He received heavy blows on his head but was not ready to quit cause Sqn spirit and championship was at stake. Blow after blow he took but this young Mohd Ali of Oscar Sqn still was reining blows on the Alpha Sqn opponent.
In bloody state this valiant son of Bihar was brought to hospital and the future war hero was in a critical stage.
Today after 14 months of hospitalization in which this cadet must have lived and died a thousand times, with the hope that one day he will be able to wear the uniform, one day he will be back in the boxing ring, one day he will be running again on the NDA grounds again he will be in the greens of Khadakwasla. All the dreams came crashing when he was told that he will never be able to go back again to Academy.
The cadet who cleared the JEE for 2005 has now no place to go. He has to restart the career from scratch. His smiling face could not hide his pain from me. As I was about to leave he embraced me and cried like a baby. I too was not able to hide my tears but being a Sr officer to him I could not cry in front of him. He was standing on the porch and was there till we could see each other.
I never felt so helpless but then this is life. A soldier in making will no longer be remembered nor we pay any respect to them. Our press is more interested in as to who has slept with whom; the news has to be glamorous. They are ready to high light that a ex model who use to rein the ramp once is on roads giving the details of all the men she was with and also the details for the reason she was with them, but the press does not have space to report the young ignited souls of India diminishing in the dust of time.
It reminds me of a movie of 2nd world war in which the Russians were being crushed and some one had the bright idea that the nation requires heroes. So once one of the Russian army officer sees a soldier shooting few German Officers and there it strikes him the idea and then and there that soldier is portrayed as the hero and a hope for them and they portrays his heroic deeds every where so that the other soldiers too get motivated and are able to stop the Germans. We too require this before it becomes too late and some terrorist group in some bomb explosion kills us all.
Think India think and better wake the Kumbhakaran of today i.e. our Journalists and press and make them under stand their role and the importance of their involvement in building India.
Jha you will always be a hero and will be remembered always as the young bright spark of this nation, which will never die and will never go waste. May God bless you always and as they say “ May the Force be with you”.
