8th December 2021
Chennai
Preface
“I miss meeting my friends,my teachers and my tennis court ”, 8 year old Agastya was heard sharing with his elder sister Aditi, who was 3 years elder to him. While nodding her head to what her brother said, Aditi continued, ”Yes true.I too miss our school library, PT classes,cultural and sports events etc. In fact my science teacher was telling us during one of our classes that had we been in school, we would have been exposed to science labs by now. How exciting it would have been to try out all the science experiments practically”!
A tribute
Agastya and Aditi live in Chennai with their parents Vidhya and Vijay, both of whom are software professionals.While Agastya and Aditi attend online school both their parents have been working from home since Covid 19.
Vidhya,who was busy with office work, joined her children and was listening to her children pour their hearts out to each other and what they have been going through since Covid 19. At one point their conversation started getting serious with her younger one telling how he started hating this kind of life with so many restrictions. They shared how life has become so monotonous with masks,sanitizers,travel ban,restrictions on gathering,meeting people and so on. Unable to control his emotions her son started sobbing.Sensing the seriousness of the situation, she hugged both of them and comforted them.
She said ”You both are right.Life is not the same as it was earlier. Slowly we are getting used to the new normal.The impact of Corona has been huge.Especially all of us should be grateful to the frontline warriors like doctors,nurses,sanitation workers and so on for prioritizing other’s life over theirs and sacrificing a lot. But as goes the saying ‘see the light at the end of the tunnel’ there are some positive things that have happened too.
For instance,
- Working from home,online schooling etc were something which was unimaginable until Covid 19.
- Many adults especially women have started pursuing their passion which wouldn’t have been a priority if not for Covid.For instance, you can take me as an example.You know how passionate I am about learning music.With office work,household chores and attending you both, I felt it was not my cup of tea but with the possibility of online learning I am able to fulfill my passion.
- Spending quality time with family has been a blessing in disguise during and post Covid 19. Just think, until two years back how many hours were we four, able to spend time together like this? Your father was always busy with his meetings and travel so we hardly got to meet him. Am happy that for the past few months he hasn’t travelled and is always around us”.
The little one who was feeling better by now continued “ Yesma, I am happy that appa is able to spend time with us for the past few months.In fact,if not for Corona and travel ban I would have missed him a lot. I am sure children like me will be happy to have spent time with parents 24/7 due to this pandemic”.
Aditi intervened and said,”It’s not the case with everyone,Agastya.My classmate Dhrithi’s father is in the army.He is on National duty and is serving the country even in this pandemic situation.He has not met his family for months together now. Dhrithi was sharing with us during one of our online classes about this”.
Vidhya continued “ Rightly said Aditi.Irrespective of whatever happens or in whatever situation they are in, they always place their duty above everything. There are a lot that they sacrifice in order to protect the nation and to safeguard the citizens of the country.
- They can’t participate in any joyful as well as sorrowful events in their family at their will,be it functions or funerals.
- They safeguard the country even under extreme climatic conditions.
- They need to be on constant vigil throughout their service. We might not be aware of how many days they starved or had to forgo their sleep.
- They miss several important milestones in their life right from being with their wife during her pregnancy,watching their children grow,their children’s first day to school,taking care of their parents when situation demands and so on”.
Vijay, who was in a meeting until then joined them sometime back.He was patiently listening to Vidhya explain about the sacrifices and hardships faced by our soldiers.He then added, “Yet, if a person sacrifices his life while he was on duty, it doesn’t stop other members of his family from joining the army. That is the solidarity of military family.There are several living examples. To name a few:
- Jyoti Nainwal, wife of martyred soldier Deepak Nainwal, became a Lieutenant of the Indian Army.Her husband, Deepak Nainwal, was martyred in Kulgam in Jammu and Kashmir while fighting terrorists in 2018.
- Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhoundiyal, was killed on duty while battling terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019.His wife NitikaKaul was commissioned in the Army Ordnance Corps as a Lieutenant, two years after his death”.
Vidhya, after seeing her children’s reaction she could figure out how curiously they were listening to what their parents were telling till now.She herself was astonished to see their curious faces which otherwise would have gone restless by now had it not been their topic of interest.
She wanted her children to know more about these true warriors and continued.“There are several attacks that happen along the line of control on a day to day basis and we keep losing our soldiers.But still, while on duty they try to protect each other to defend our country and while doing so also lose their lives. Some of the major war attacks on Independent India were
- The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 or the First Kashmir War was an armed conflict that was fought between India and Pakistan over the state of Jammu and Kashmir from 1947 to 1948.
- The Indo-China war of 1962 between India and China in Aksai Chin, North-East Frontier Agency and Assam.
- The Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 or the Second Kashmir War took place from April 1965 to September 1965 between Pakistan and India.
- The Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan.
- The Kargil war was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Vijay added,” Apart from these, they also play a major role in protecting the citizens from hijackers and terrorists attacks. Mumbai terror attack on 26th November 2008 is one of the inhumane attacks that the world will never forget. Several innocent people were killed along with numerous Indian soldiers. The then Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare , Army Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Mumbai’s Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte, Senior Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) TukaramOmble were among those killed in the attack.”.
Upon hearing all this, Agastya said,” I never knew our men in uniform sacrifice so much for our country and for its citizens. My respect for our policemen, traffic policemen, military men, navy and airforce have increased by leaps and bounds. I will share whatever I learnt about them with my friends so that they will also be aware of the sacrifices made by these heroes”.
The other three of them applauded his decision when a notification alert popped up in Vijay’s mobile from a news app. With a sad tone he said ”Regret to share that the Chief of Defence of the Indian armed forces, General BipinRawat along with 12 others including his wife were killed in chopper crash in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor district, sometime back.”
All the four of them paid their respect to the departed souls and mourned their deaths!
Conclusion:
As English novelist George Orwell rightly said, “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf”. We often laud celebrities whom we see onscreen be it people from the film fraternity, sports field etc., and give them larger than life image. We seldom give due recognition to our soldiers who are the real unsung heroes of the country. Let us celebrate our real heroes and their families!
Jai Hind!!
By: Jayashree Sriram
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