By Major Kulbir Singh 

Indian Army a wall of peace for borders in Jammu and Kashmir (UT) it was always In (UT) Jammu and Kashmir the men in Olive Green’s have been striving for that! After 24 years the scenario would have changed a lot! What was required was a change and it has come and it is all because many good men in Uniform and Camouflages stood up to ensure that!

 

-‘This is a tribute to the unknown soldier, who came to J&K, took on the brunt of bullets and bombs, just to make sure that citizenry kept moving on as life progressed!’

 

-‘Whether it be the borders or the interiors, these officers of granite will, brute courage (more often than not it has to be displayed) and soft hearts worked round the clock from midnight to dawn and from Dawn to Twilight for the sake of the Nation because Awaam here in Jammu and Kashmir mattered a lot’!

 

-‘The past is history, though forlorn and dark but the future would be great, that is a promise from the Indian Army for the future and upcoming generation of kids of J&K!’ Thus forgetting the past but learning from it is the subtle but invisible message from the soldiers who came here and many dedicated their lives for the people of J&K!’

 

-‘This book with chapters of various stories written by M S Nazki is a tribute to what the Indian Army did in the last twenty four minus this from a century for the people here!’

 

-‘The motive is clear and precise which the Indian Army follows and that is: Female or Male: Army officer’s responsibilities, duties and leadership can only be expressed on the War ground.

The government and the people of the country have a big role to play in the growth of army’s morale. The Indian Army will use its full power to protect the sovereignty of our states. That is what they did exactly in Jammu and Kashmir!’

And now they are streamlining the youth power so that the future of Jammu and Kashmir remains always great!’ 30 years back it could not be even thought off but now the blossoming hearts are beating hard and the heart beats can be heard in the waves of the pleasant breeze flowing in the air!

 

-‘ I heard this one once but read it time and over again and remember it till date, ‘he (an officer placed a cardboard placard above the entrance of his bunker with five words, scrawled with a red marker, that appeared to answer his CO’s (Commanding Officers question): I rust when I rest! I do not have to tell you more as to what the Indian Army is all about!

 

 

 

I had a friend in Rajouri, Abida was her name. She was a child then. One day I saw her with a flowing nose which she was wiping off with the neck linen she was wearing.

I Immediately handed over my blue handkerchief to her (Blue happens to be my favorite color)! She innocently asked me, ‘what will I do with it uncle?’ My response was that it will clean up your flowing nose! A fifth class student’s reply to my suggestion stunned me, ‘Uncle nose will stop flowing eventually, but the time is passing! I want to study!’

My reply was you will be my little friend, you will! My daughter’s class six books I gave to her as I went on short leave. I was there for two and a half years in Rajouri. My daughter was in Ninth and she was in eighth. The only difference was that my daughter was in Army Public School and she was in a Government Higher Secondary School in Rajouri!

That day it was the last day of leave and I knew my posting had come! My daughter told me, ‘Papa carry these Class ten books for my sister Abida!’ I just smiled to myself, took the books and handed the same to the little girl in Rajouri who was going to become big and she did later as the years passed by!

Abida taught me a lesson, ‘there should be no full stops in life’. The Indian Army teaches it on its own. Just keep smiling and moving ahead because time waits for none!’ (From My friend Major Kulbir’s diary which he has nomenclatured as ‘Rajouri days’)!

 

Another incident I would like to quote is from Hamirpur (on the route to Mendhar). This is what my friend writes, ‘many a times I used to get the job of going to the BG Brigade to carry a pile of documents and while returning the pile remained the same but the documents changed as they were the instructions from the Brigade Headquarters. On such visits or on Situation Room Discussions which were held every month and all company commanders had to attend, I always made it a point to visit Mendhar!

There were two reasons for that. One was that on a visit to a school in Hamirpur (Government) I saw a few children playing! Perhaps it was recess time. Just for curiosity sake I walked into the school!

Those were the days when the flaming trouble had brewed up but the boiling point had not yet arrived though the environment was hot, humid and ballistic!

I sat with a group of children and that was going to be the start of a long time friendship which carries on till date! As I sat a little girl, perhaps in class or five (I do not remember exactly) tore off her maize bread, put some green veggies on it and handed it over to me, the name Salma. jokingly I said where is the plate?

She smiled and a negative nod by the shake of her head was the cutest thing I have ever seen in life! I stayed there for fifteen minutes and as we were about to leave I handed over to her a packet full of toffees and said, ‘distribute to all in the school’! ‘We are hardly twenty here!’ was her response! I said at that very moment that do not worry you will be in thousands tomorrow!

Trust me the same is happening today! And it is all because of the Indian Army. They may look stone faced but the heart melts like flowing butter!’! The second reason for visiting Mendhar was that my brother-in-law was posted there as a doctor! And I had requested him to visit the forlorn villages where medical care was a must! Oh! Those were the days!

 

Salma grew up and today she is in Lucknow. Her mother was a great chef, cooking on the mud fire stove (Chula) and thus she too became a chef! A little bit of help from me and my friends helped her get there. Now married (to a chef) with two beautiful daughters’! This is the beauty of the Indian Army! This book is full of anecdotes such as the above mentioned!

The stories are of the borders and the LOC where once the guns boomed and bullets rattled the mud walls of the houses of the people! Now concrete constructions have come up and peace prevails! And this is all because the Indian Army stands as a wall of peace!