I am from Army....!

I am from Army!

I was eleven when I decided to be an army officer just like my father. I always used to see him in the uniform and had always witnessed the happiness and pride of wearing it, so when they asked me what I want to be, I said, ‘my father’. I always wanted to serve for my country and so whenever my father used to come back home I always asked him to train me mentally and physically. At the age of eighteen, my father died in a terrorist attack at the border. He came wrapped into the flag and I could see everyone crying including me but not my mother and my grandfather. At first I thought they have lost their senses to judge the situation. His body was lying in front of us and I was witnessing the prideful smile on my mother’s and grandfather’s face, that moment was like they haven’t lose anything but they have gained. Everyone was surrounding us and all the army men who came along were standing too. I asked my mother that why she is smiling and so dadu?  And with the same pride she replied, “Because we are from army and we don’t cry. Your father didn’t die in vain, he martyr for our country and he still lives in our heart.” That day I realized what I actually wanted, I didn’t wanted to be like my father only but also a child of the Bharat Mata so that the day will come and I will sleep in peace into her lap. I stopped crying and I asked my mother to do the rituals because she was the one with him even when he wasn’t there so when it came for the last journey of my father she deserved it more that anyone.  After all the rituals were done my mother took off the garland from his photo and asked us not to put it ever again because he lives with us into our heart and in our soul. I know I can never feel what she feels but I always tried and respected whatever she asked me to do.

I miss him every day but there were times when I missed him more. One day I was into his room, wearing his uniform and his cap, suddenly my mother entered and she looked at me saying, “I told you your father is always with us.” And I felt it, that day I realized I was ready to be like my father, to be an army officer and to give the meaning to my life. At nineteen I joined army force and after a year I was posted at the border where my father was. Everyone welcomed me and told me the stories of my father that how big hearted person and how fun loving he was. For a moment I was jealous of them because they had spent more time than me and my family. When I went to the border for the first time I saw my father standing in front of me and wishing me luck and happiness. I know it was an illusion but for me it was just my father for real. Every time I visited home, I used to tell all those stories to my mother and I could see her happy and just to see her smile sometimes I used to cook own stories. My all holidays were about telling stories to her about me and my father. I was twenty two when I fell in love and my family asked me to get engaged so by the end of my twenty third I was engaged. Another years passed and another album of happiness was filled with the family that we made at the borders.

It was 9 pm at night and we were making dinner and singing and having fun, suddenly we heard a gunshot at some distance and the next moment we all were prepared. Some terrorist tried to enter and attacked us. After three hours of rescue operation it all stopped and five of us died. They were all set to send back to home. It was 3 am in the night and I came home wrapped into the flag. Yeah! I was one of those five who died. I was lying in front of my mother and my grandfather. They were not smiling the way they did when it was my father. Standing at a corner and lying in front of them, I could see the redness of my mother’s eyes and the eyes of my grandfather holding the tears and not let them to drop.  My father came and asked me to come with him but it all wasn’t ending the way I wanted. I asked him to wait with me and he teased me saying, “they love me more.” Then my lady love came, the girl I loved, she sat near to my body and smiled the way my mother did when it was my father. My mother, grandfather and my dad all were looking at her and realized that it wasn’t a lose but a gain again. She told my mother that her son didn’t die in vain and so he deserves to go with a smile. My mother stood and saluted me and so did everyone and then I was all ready to hold my father’s hand and to learn again everything in the world, that was waiting for me.

 

“We don’t live the normal life like everyone but the life we live is normal to us. We miss our family but the family we live with has love that makes us happy.”

 

JAI HIND!

JAI BHARAT!