AN UNFORTUNATE TALE OF A FATHER AND SON

Once upon a time, there was a kid- extremely young, naïve and possessing an unpolluted soul. Once he was lying in a rubble after forces ravaged his surroundings, creating an environment of sheer terror and utter chaos. Everyone was anxious about saving himself and no one bothered to cast a glance on the kid who was surrounded by brutal terrorists, constantly being exploited and harassed with disdain. Every hit of the weapon on the soft flesh of that terrified child was a heart wrenching scenario. Still those heartless persons were oblivious to what they were doing. The father of the kid was watching helplessly from a distance, wary of his own life, he couldn’t muster the courage to take them on. Rather he kept on crying for help. He noticed two person standing unflustered in those utter chaos. One, the commander of those merchants of death and second, a person who was brave enough to look beyond the pandemonium and instead of fleeing or attacking, was absorbing the fury of the moment. The father pleaded to both of them. The first one, unsurprisingly, was unable to see beyond the trail of destruction his disciples were building. The second one, without a second thought, picked one of the guns of a deceased terrorist and fearlessly moved forward and killed all those abusers in a swift action and returned triumphant with the child.

Gratified by his act of humanity, he earnestly asked him to nurture the kid as his own and adopt him as because of him, he is still alive, far from the clutches of those perpetrators. The man casted a glance at the kid, badly hurt yet exceptionally cute and beautiful. He smiled and nodded and took him home. He nurtured the kid along with his kids and even gave him special treatment. He devoted good amount of his resources towards him and given the scar he carried from his past, he ensured he gets what he wants. All this started spoiling the lad and he started having the feeling of superiority. The man had already received widespread acclaim for his act and the second man, the commander, in the aftermath of his deeds was already aghast with the fact that he missed the opportunity to that acclaim. He was constantly burning in a fire of jealousy and hatred. So he decided to acquire that kid by hook or crook, so that he can accomplish what he failed to do that day. So he started reaching the kid using proxies and started moulding the fresh clay of his mind and tricked him to believe that he is being forced to live his life in the prison of that gentleman.

The kid started justifying his moulded thought process with whatever he was experiencing. He started a silent revolt. Seeing that, the man understood that evil souls are at work again. So he devoted most of his security to the safety of the kid. This had a cascading effect on him as he misread the extreme care and pampering as confinement, the security as imprisonment and started revolting against his father, the father who adopted him as his most beloved son. He started hurting his own siblings, started questioning the authority of his father over him and unknowingly started to inflict pain upon himself. He tried to break the safety barrier to reach outside, where the wicked man is waiting with his allies and weapons to welcome him and instead hurt himself in the face of those strong barriers which ensured his safety. It was ironic. And then he blamed those safety barriers for hurting him and not granting him the freedom he deserves. And then he started taking vows to destroy his father and all his kin. His attempts started materializing and he was even successful in breaking some of the safety barriers. Still those barriers are made of steels of will and compassion, and stood unhampered.

Seeing all his revolt going into vain, the kid started poisoning the mind of members of his family, the family which did everything to safeguard his future as the most beautiful in the world. And he started giving ultimatum to his father, the same father who sacrificed so much of his so selflessly. Even after knowing that the kid has nothing to offer rather than pain and turmoil, the father never even thought of throwing him out and sacrificing him to his naïve demands. He posed a live threat to his family, yet he kept on persuading him. But the roots of those evil thoughts planted inside him has penetrated him deeply, may be to a point of no return. Still the father has an unrelenting belief that one day he will see the truth and understand the repercussions of his naïve yet damaging actions.

What do you think the father should do?!...

CLASH OF EGO WITH HUMANITY: IS IT JUSTIFIABLE?

It must be excruciating. Painfully agonizing. Wait, wait – do they ever realized the pain or the agent of death had done its work in a smidgen of time, which was too less for human nervous system to process such firm emotions? Life might have been evaporated in thin air in a matter of seconds, may be hours. Some might have tried to battle an enemy, which transcends even the strongest of human army – the inevitability of ‘death’. And inescapably, they failed to escape those unsurmountable challenges, sans one. With air pockets to his aid and an indomitable will to live and fight on this unfortunate battle, Lance Naik Hanumanthappa survived stupendously for 6 days under the forlorn darkness of ice and rock. And when he was finally rescued admirably by the brave souls of the army, the struggle had already taken its toll. By that time, his soul might be yearning for freedom – freedom from the unrelenting agony his body was going through.

These dreadful scenario has been created by the same old bone of contention between the arch rivals – Siachen. The fateful avalanche claimed 10 brave souls in one of the most vulnerable place of the planet. The highest battlefield of the world is quite inhospitable for its extremely unforgiving terrain and hostile climate as winter temperatures reach as low as minus 45 degrees. The 5000 meters odd altitude deteriorates the human body over prolonged exposure to such heights. It was a far cry from the conditions we live in, as these real life heroes brave those intimidating isolations. But why we have to sacrifice them in the hands of nature when we can actually end their miseries.

Siachen’s stand-off is well known and well analysed by various experts. It had a problematic history tracing long back – 1949. When India beat Pakistan by a week in 1984 and foiled their attempt to capture the glacier by taking advantage of the lack of clarity over the delineation of the territory, both the sides weren’t able to gauge the price they are going to pay by deploying their armies there. After the numerous casualties on both the sides, Indian government has maintained that they are bound to pay the price for the greater goal of safety of the country. 879 lives are already lost by the Army. Pakistan, which operates from much lower altitudes has also maintained its status quo, even after losing 140 personnel in the 2012 avalanche in the Gayari sector.

Both sides had come quite close to a resolution in 1992 when they almost agreed upon demilitarizing the zone after being satisfied with each other’s demand. But the process was shelved after a lack of political will on the final agreement from both the sides. The Kargil war of 1999 convinced India that they have to maintain their hold on Siachen to thwart such veiled threat from its enemy. Besides, the ever growing presence of China in the adjoining Karakoram Range as a consequence of strong Pak-China nexus is a glaring threat for India. And then there is the argument of it giving impeccable and invaluable strategic advantage to India, which is allegedly a manufactured argument for the status quo to be maintained.

It is not quite hard to see that Siachen neither provide us any strategic superiority nor its absence any major threats. To launch an attack on India from there is extremely unfeasible and they have better alternatives than Siachen. Same applies for India too as in a place where survival alone is so difficult, deploying offensive strategies in a war situation is implausible. That puts a straight-forward argument for the removal of forces from there by both sides. There is an imperative need for the armies and political leaders of both sides to prioritize the humanitarian gravity of the situation. Concrete actions must be taken to resolve this difference as it is not so much involved as some of the other issues regarding Kashmir. This calls for some rational thinking.

The tacticians of both the sides are shrewd enough to discover and negotiate a viable solution which is acceptable to both the sides. Delineation should be done and treaties should be signed so that none of both can violate the decision of redeployment of forces. People thinking in absolutely pragmatic way need to understand that it’s not about Pakistan accepting the Indian occupation of 1984 or India fabricating hypo-critic and exaggerating arguments of strategic advantages and almost non-existent threats of compromise of its security. Not to mention the expenditure incurred on a daily basis. This is the time to leave the history at its peril and shed their egos to show the gesture of humanity which is shown by the women who offered to donate one of her kidney to the Lance Naik.

If there was ever a need for the world to interfere in the bilateral matters of India and Pakistan, this is the time, when they should. If both parties still face to see the consequence of their stubbornness over this matter, the UN needs to interfere and make them realize that how inhumane it is to leave those brave hearts at the perils of the capricious nature. Until something happen, we will continue to hear these heart wrenching news about these unimaginable disasters which is doing no good to no one in any way. However sporadic they may be, they always will bring such trails of irreversible damage to not only the army persons and their kin, but also to the psyche of the citizens of the nation, who take exemplary pride and have enormous respect for their army.