Cry out Loud - Indian Army short of 15000 officers and counting

Yes, Indian Army is short of 15000 officers and yes, we are worried. Slowly and steadily our step brothers are building forces and friendship between them to ensure our end, scary isn’t it?

China wants the whole of N.E. and Pakistan will not bow down until it takes control on the up-north and I am sure they will not mind missing the opportunity of taking control on the entire country.

Often I have heard and have also participated in the mindset that the government should increase the benefits that are offered to the Armed forces, like salary. However, to be honest, I think the Armed forces are being looked after well when it comes to salary and other incentives like medical facilities and so on.

So, what factors contribute in building scarcity in the Indian Army? More than money, I guess the answer is being away from their families for a longer duration of time and frequent postings. Moreover, a son may want to join the forces, but a father may not be willing to see him there. Indian Army is not corruption free and definitely not political free either. In the corporate world, yes butt lickers are everywhere, but the numbers are way too smaller as compared to those who go up by merit. In Army, no matter what, you are promoted and you go up the ladder in a zippy.

Every year more and more officers leave the army to join the corporate bandwagon. Sometimes, it is word of mouth that appears to be appealing, that is, if I am working in company A and my colleague joined company B and gets carried away by the facilities and benefits available and continues to talk about it every time we meet, it will obviously add to my eagerness or frustration to taste this freedom in the whole new world.

Moreover, there are so many compulsions for the women to join the Indian Army. If the men are leaving like cats and dogs then why not give opportunity to the women to stay back and be in command. This ‘breaking the ceiling’ topic is very argumentative. On one hand, women are not welcomed in the three core regiments of the Indian Army fearing that they are not as strong as their male counterparts and on the other hand we face the acute shortage. I am not stating here that women can do better, but I guess it’s just an option we can opt for, if nothing else works.

By the way, do you know the problem and do you have a cure for it? If yes, please do add your comments.

Perception..it is all about Perception!!

See I told you this before and see how true I am, we have made our lives control us and we have indulged ourselves so much that none of us have time to manage this blog anymore, my apologies on this one.

Did anyone watch the Republic Day parade this year? The Indian media left me frustrated as they focused more on the Prez than the parade. The spokeswoman was carried away by the delightful faces of kids who had come to see the parade LIVE, well did someone care to know about my delight that I lost every minute?

That night was dedicated to the movies dedicated to the defence services and I watched all over again Border, Lakshya, and Top Gun. Why do we remember our forces only on a special occasion and leave them in slumber for the rest of the year? I find it phony when our leaders pay homage to the soldiers at India Gate. For the whole year, India Gate is a tourist place, people go there to spend their evenings and make room for garbage everywhere and then every year on 26th January that very place is a token of respect. Why such a discrimination, if I may ask?

The Hollow Tributes!!

Lt. Kalia, Capt. Batra, Capt. Chaudhary, Major Unnikrishnan, and more. Do you know these names? Yup, you should be. We know them by their deeds, heard their names a billion times when they sacrificed their lives at their respective time period. We called them heroes. We constructed roads after their names and villages, and streets. We signed petitions so that the government can demand justifications from Pakistan about the soldiers who were inhumanly treated before they were killed. Many of us, created communities in their names to pay our tributes and 1000s joined in. We pledged never to forget them, debated and cursed everyone around us. A few months later, these communities appear deserted. Once in a blue moon we see a new thread that is yet another tribute to a hero.

I am back from a community that is dedicated to a hero of 26/11. As per one of the threads, today is the day when Bhagat Singh and his friends were hanged. To be honest, I never knew about the importance of today’s date. The thread starter invited members to pay their tributes to these heroes. Tragic isn’t it? Some news channel may cover a news item stating “the country paid their tributes to the heroes.” Yeah right!!

Four soldiers died during the fierce gun battle in J&K and somebody just started a thread “pay your tributes here” as if “park your car here.” After a day when the thread starter revisited his thread he was astonished to see that no one cared to pay their tributes. He tried to wake up the community but alas the thread has not grown much since yesterday. Since last year, we have lost countless soldiers that we are now habitual about it. Losing a soldier is unlike to winning the Oscars.

Just in case you are not aware, in Pune there is a ‘Rishi Dhar Chowk’ that connects Bermen chowk, Parhiar chowk, and Aundh Gaon. The ‘Rishi Dhar Chowk’ is dedicated to late Second Lieutenant Rishi Malhotra who died during an anti-militancy operation in May 1994 in Doda, Jammu and Kashmir. Strange!! I have been crossing that chowk for donkey years now. Incidentally, the shuttle that I take to reach my office, stopped at the signal and I read about the officer.

Ever seen the extreme side of blind faith and respect? How this soldier becomes GOD? Blind respect/love or just carried away emotions? Till now, you did not he existed, then something happened and he died. You started a community in his name. His going away impacts you in some small way and you vow to change the world. Now that he is your hero, you refuse to hear anything negative about him or his family.

Think about this, how many chowks in your city are named after martyr soldiers? You must have passed thousand times over that chowk, but did you ever care to notice the plaque? I believe, real tribute is just not about creating communities or vowing to remember the departed soul or debating, accusing, and abusing the other countries. Think about it!!

Bringing the Past Alive

Today I met an old girl friend whom I had been supposed to marry before I met the lady who became my wife and fell madly in love. It was in an ancient rickety lift in the High court. This is what I wrote:-

To old loves, like still born suns
Like the stale night on my window sill
Like the stale love on the crumpled sheets
All the waves that broke before
They reached the broken shore
The born, the unborn, the never born
The words we spoke,
The hands we held
The paths we walked,
And now you are gone.
They told me that they
Had made a day for you
And posted it on teeming inter net
Hoardings hoarded on teeming streets
Monuments made of stone and blood
In forgotten parks existing by curial writ
They told me this day came before the spring
Before the you and before the me and
Before the race of man was made,
Before the night and before the day
Before the deep was parted
Before there was any living thing;
Seems like the spring came before the fall
There was no summer at all.
And like old loves, we dance a measure
And like old loves we drift apart
Our lives mingle like hot breath in winter
Our loves they stay, they leave,
Not near, not far
Beneath the skin, behind memories
They lie, they lie like bed time stories.
Just like the time I met you
Going up on an ancient lift
We talked we smiled,
Like continental drift.


BY PROTIK PROKASH BANERJI

The Beggar's Paradise

I was stuck in a traffic jam for a few minutes, while waiting for the red light to turn green a boy around the age of four approached us. He had a medium size ring in his hand and by using it he did a few gymnastic tricks for us. We all watched him and when he approached us for money, we all shooed him away. Looking at his miserable face and broken spirit, for a second I thought, I should have given him a rupee but the red light turned green and the traffic started to move.

I saw this boy for the last time standing at the road side looking blankly at the vehicles that passed by. He may not have eaten for days or may have been beaten for not bringing enough money back. I have heard and often followed the thought that we should not give money to child beggars however do we care to think about their survival.

I have heard many politicians and common men taking the pledge that they will eradicate poverty. Over the years politicians and political parties have changed but poverty has not even aged by a day. Every city in India is beggar populated.

How does one remove poverty? Is it as easy as removing makeup from your face? If we could not help them manage their lives in sixty years where is the guarantee that we will be able to help them in the next ten years? Even hope has its limitations and we have been hoping against all odds for a very long time now.

The child beggars have no future. Those lucky few who will grow up will either end up being seasoned beggars or criminals and the vicious circle will continue.

I no longer believe in the system that discusses about ways of removing poverty and uplift of the poverty stricken people. Hopes and believes look good in fiction when it comes to real life then only action matters. We are known by our deeds and not by our thought patterns. I haven't forgotten that face yet and I wish I could have at least given a heed to his condition.

I don't know about you but I will give money to the kids if I do not have food items in hand. Did they choose to become beggars or did circumstances make them one? After years of being like one do you think they want to change? May be the life they feel comfortable in the life they have led so far. Of course, they face lot of problems from the society but then whose life is smooth anyways. Why do we always leave it to the government to take decisions about the society that we live in? Why an incident like women beaten by goons in a pub becomes a rage in the country and people write to media and government to take action when on the other side a one month old baby of a beggar may have died due to lack of food? Ok. I agree I have never heard such news before but then maybe there was no spice in it either.

I may be looked down upon by a few who may read this post and they may intelligently raise a concern about "encouraging child begging" but it is just all right. Sometimes, rather going by the society laws I guess it is all right to listen to your heart.

Fortitude at Rezang La

The topic for this write up was being provided by Captain Vinu,and also some information was submitted by hm.Devdeep Ahuja further researched about it and prepared this article.

Fortitude at Rezang La

At 14,230 feet height, Chushul, a small village on the Sino – Indian border was manned by the ‘Ahir’s - C’ Coy of the 13 Kumaon when a full scale war broke out between the two nations in Oct 1962. The Coy had been airlifted from Hyderabad on 24th October to defend the Rezang La ridge, which was the home to highest air strip in the world at 16,000 feet.

For these gallant soldiers, war with the enemy also meant a combat with the elements of nature. None of the 123 soldiers had been acclimatized to the biting cold and were asked to hold fort against the Chinese soldiers who were fully acclimatised and comfortable in their thick, padded uniforms and were confident of their numbers and superior weapons.

The expected Chinese attack on Rezang La came on November 18th in the morning. It was the end of a very cold winter night, with light snow falling. The icy winds howling through Rezang La were biting and benumbing. More than the thin air and cold, the location of Rezang La had another serious drawback. It was crested to Indian artillery because of an intervening feature, which meant that they had to make without the protective comfort of the big guns. In the dim light of the morning, the Chinese were seen advancing through nullahs to attack both the platoons of 13Kumaon.

In the first counter offensive, both the platoons littered the nullahs with the Chinese dead bodies using their LMG’s, grenades and mortars. The Chinese used heavy artillery fire for their attack second time around and their reinforcement of about 350 soldiers again advanced through the nullahs. This time the third platoon opened fire on the invaders and within minutes, again the nullahs filled up with Chinese dead bodies.

Unsuccessful in their two attempts, the Chinese then encircled the three platoons with fresh reinforcements of about 400 men. They resorted to heavy shelling on the Coy from all the sides. Major Shaitan Singh, the Company Commander, displayed exemplary leadership and courage in the battle. Unmindful of his personal safety he moved from one platoon post to another and encouraged his men to fight. While moving among the posts he was seriously wounded, by a sniping Chinese MMG. But he continued to fight along with his men. While he was being evacuated by two of his comrades, the Chinese brought heavy machine gun fire on them. Major Shaitan Singh sensed danger to their lives and ordered them to leave him. They placed him behind a boulder on the slopes of a hill, where he breathed his last.

All the soldiers fought valiantly till their last. Of the 123, 109 laid down their lives while the other 14 were seriously injured. But an estimated 800 Chinese soldiers were killed in this battle. This was a genuine ‘last man-last round’ defence. On this horrific battle, Major-General Ian Cardozo, in his book ‘Param Vir, Our Heroes In Battle’ writes, “When Rezang La was later revisited, dead jawans were found in the trenches still holding on to their weapons... every single man of this company was found dead in his trench with several bullet or splinter wounds. The 2-inch mortar man died with a bomb still in his hand. The medical orderly had a syringe and bandage in his hands when the Chinese bullet hit him... Of the thousand mortar bombs with the defenders all but seven had been fired and the rest were ready to be fired when the (mortar) section was overrun.”

Major Shaitan Singh’s supreme courage, leadership and exemplary devotion to duty inspired his company to fight almost to the last man. For his service to the nation, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, posthumously. The other heroes who were awarded the Vir Chakra in 1962 defending Rezang La were Naik Hukum Chand (posthumous), Naik Gulab Singh Yadav, Lance-Naik Ram Singh (posthumous), Sub. Ram Kumar and Sub. Ram Chander. All hailed from the Rewari district of Haryana, where a Rezang La memorial has been placed in their memory in Gudiani village.

The remembrance of this famous battle just brings to life the tradition of Indian Army. of fighting to the last drop of blood, which places life secondary to Honour of our Motherland.

Hail the Indian Army.

Reflections on Republic Day

As India celebrated its 60th year of the inception of Constitution on 26th January this year, my thoughts turn to the splendid hour when in 1950, on the same day, the Constitution of Indian Republic came into force and we moved from a British dominion to a sovereign republic. In an exquisite balance of various streams of ideas and in language that is poetical, the Preamble to the Constitution pledged to secure for our people "justice, social, economic and political; liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; equality of status and opportunity, and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the Nation."
Dr B R Ambedkar, presenting the Draft Constitution, professed political freedom but questioned the social and financial freedom of a common Indian man in his famous words "On 26th January, we are going to enter a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life we shall by reasons of our social and economic structure continue to deny one man one value". And he then asked: "How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we deny equality in our social and economic life?"
These questions raised by the chief architect of the Indian Constitution then are still valid 60 years later. Republic Day is an appropriate occasion for us to evaluate the facts of our society and our economy, and to examine our hearts to find out how far we have succeeded in overcoming these contradictions in our minds and in the objective conditions of the life of the common man in India.
In retrospection, we have achieved political stability with strong roots of democracy. Financially, India is the second fastest growing economy even in this year of credit crunch. While politicians in general have been criticised, the Prime ministers and Presidents that India got, were educated visionaries right from Pandit Nehru, S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Hussain to Dr Manmohan Singh. They have led our country to an era where India is indispensible in the world politics and financial considerations.
On the other hand, still, there is corruption, molestation and suppression of women, terrorism, inter religion and inter caste divides which makes us hang our head down in shame. The education levels are still amongst the lowest in the world. The issues of child labour and child abuse have just begun to be addressed.
It is not important here to repeat the public expressions of politicians but time to take action. It is a time for us to assume responsibility; responsibility in thoughts, actions and deeds. As Dr S Radhakrishnan said, “Be ever alert, be ever on the move, go forward, work for a free, flexible, compassionate, decent democratic society in which Christians, Sikhs, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, will all find a safe shelter." It is important for us, as Indians, to realise that Republic Day is not only for us to celebrate what was achieved 60 years ago, but also to find a direction of shaping the future of India.
We need to make sure that our children get the best education, which provides them with a stimulus to think about ourselves as a nation rather than as individuals. It is paramount to ensure promotion of self esteem of women to enable their equal participation in the development of modern India. Our armed forces, which sacrifice their lives for our safety, need to be felicitated for their contributions in maintaining peace in India, in adverse conditions. The farmers and the menial workers who work tirelessly to feed the whole of India need to be provided with facilities to ensure a comfortable and meaningful existence for them. Our concerns should not just be limited to multi national companies that bring in the revenues, but also to the village dwellers as that is where the heart of India lies.
We as Indians must once again take a pledge to re-dedicate ourselves to our beloved motherland to make our country excel in every field from education to development, science and technology and wipe out all obstacles that forbid our nation's progress.
Jai Hind

Post By Devdeep Ahuja