A small house with backdrop of trees, a field &
surrounded by many houses. A old man sitting on the chair inside the house busy
in watching TV. The phone placed at the corner of the room rings. The man gets
up, goes, and lifts the receiver. There is sudden change of expression on his
face after the call gets over. Drops of tears roll down from his eyes to his
cheeks. He wipes them with his hand, pretends as if nothing has happened &
moves into his bedroom. He laid there in his bed holding onto somebody photo
close to his heart and sobbing like a child & making me think what that
call was all about. What did the person on other side told him, which made him
cry? I tried to grab him but could not get hold of him. I shouted for him to
tell me what happened, what is the matter but he remained silent as if he can’t
hear me. He went to sleep holding the photo. After sometime a lady as old as
him came to the room took the photo & kept it on the table, waked him up
& called him for dinner, while telling not to worry so much for the person
in picture. The man got up, washed his face & moved to the dinner table.
The dinner is served to him by his daughter in law with the lady i.e., his wife
sitting next to him & his grandchildren’s fighting over TV remote just two
steps from him. I am standing at the corner watching all this with silence and
patience. The man lifts his hand to take the first bite of food, brings it
closer to his mouth but is not able to eat it. He moves his hand down. His wife
asks him what is the matter. Why is he behaving strangely? He moves his chair
back & speaks something in low pitch. As soon as he finishes his talk his
wife & daughter in law starts crying. I was unable to know the reason for
this, as I could not listen what he told. Just like his grandchildren’s I was
clueless. The environment has turned into remorse and sadness has eloped the
happiness. Food kept on table become cold nobody ate anything, nobody had even
moved an inch from the time the man had spoken. Man was trying to console both
of them being the head of family. I wondered about the man, he was consoling
two of them with no tears in his eyes & just a while back, he was crying
alone in the room.
Morning had knocked the door, nobody could sleep the entire
night with me still trying to figure out what has happened. The doorbell rang.
The man opened the door. Four men carrying a coffin entered the house. The
coffin was draped in Indian tricolor. The head of the family opened the coffin,
a corpse laid there resting in peace. As soon as I saw the face of person in
the coffin, reality hit me hard. I was dead, the son of this man & lady,
the husband of his daughter in law & father of his grandchildren’s was
dead. Last thing I remember was calling my father & telling him I was going
for war and will comeback to meet him once this gets over. I died in war while
stopping the people who had only one motive to destroy my motherland. I died by
a bullet which was fired by them & hit me straight in my heart.
I could not keep my promise to my father, mother, wife &
my children. I came back but not as what they wanted me to or what I had in
mind. Now I knew the reason of my father’s reaction after the call, him not
even hearing my words, my mother and wife crying. My children’s asking my wife
why was I sleeping & she holding both of them close to her heart and
telling them I needed some rest. I left them in middle of water on a boat with
nobody there to row it to the shores. My mom keeping her head of my heart &
crying, making me remember the moments I spend with her. The happiness I gave
her & at last the ultimate sadness I gave her. My father standing tall
trying to hide his emotions just to show he is strong more from the fact that
he has to now take care of everybody. The pride on his face of his son being
given his life for the country was visible. He never cried in front of his
family, never in front of me & now I could never thank him for the burden
he took for me. The extra work he put for me just to see me happy. When I
wanted to thank him I was lying in front of him & not able to speak even a
single word. This was the worst feeling I had got I can never be back now how
much ever so I wanted and my family life will never be same again.
The reason being “I AM A SOLDIER”. My life is for my
country. For me motherland comes before my mother & pride of nation before
pride of my father. I could cancel my holidays just to save my motherland from
being attacked by external sources. I could work in extreme cold environment to
extreme hot environment, I could go days without food just to make sure nobody
hurts my country. I could stay away from my family for days, months and even
years. All this I do without expecting anything in return. I pray only for well
being of this country and its people. I do all these just because its my duty,
my goal and my love as “I AM A SOLDIER”.
