I AM A SOLDIER

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”.