The father's hand may have to learn to rest on a wall or a stick, instead on his son’s shoulders.  A widow would tightly clinch at her mangalsootra one last time before selling it away to feed her small children, to pay the bania for continued supply of daily rations, to bribe the officials for the overdue pension.

The nation would pay its cus­tomary salute on every Independence and Republic Day. And forget thereafter. He would indeed be remembered by a politician at the time of election, to be traded for votes and humiliated.

The battle has ended.  The war would go on, forever.

India, as expected, has emerged winners.  Badly beaten and humiliated, Pakistan is withdrawing from the Indian land.  Typically disgraceful in defeat, the Pakistanis are re­ported to be laying mines while retreating. The intentions are quite clear. They must continue to sow the seeds of hatred, scut­tle the peace through arts of terrorism, wage a proxy war in the name of the Holy Islam, shed the blood of innocents and spread a reign of terror not only in the region, but all over India.

The war will continue.  Only its definition would change.  More trains would be derailed.  More crowded places would be attacked by fanatical suicide squads. Under the false ceiling of imaginary dreams, more youths would be taken into the fold of militancy.  The show would go on, so would the diplomacy, taking us all on a ride on one bus or another.

A rogue cannot be civilized. It simply does not understand the meaning of civilisation. And, therefore cannot be dealt with as per the civilized laws of the world. By simply removing venom out of the snake, it is not disarmed forever. The nature replenishes it in no time and the snake reverts to his natural habit, of hiding behind the bushes, of raising its hood at the slightest opportunity, of making lethal blows.  It feels threatened, by anything that moves, by any size that is larger than its own.  Its head must be crushed in order to ensure a longer lasting solution.

Similarly, a rogue can be kept in captivity and possibly tamed too, but an entire army of rogues cannot be taken on to the path of civilisation.   Given a safe passage once, the army would return with bigger vengeance, with larger dose of venom and hide in even thicker bushes of fanaticism to make killing blows.   That it could get hurt or killed in the process is of no consequence.  Nature of fanaticism does not allow it to think beyond a point.  Its head always has to be crushed, each time, without mercy.

Armed Forces of our country are a silent service.  The men never strike work, never ask for a raise, take the toughest of the assignments in their stride and perform all tasks as a call of duty without even raising a question.

There are no duty hours. They are on call 24 hours a day.  7 days a week, 365 days a year.  While on leave, they are subject to recall at short notice.  They do not enjoy freedom of speech and cannot even resign their job at their goodwill.

Unlike the Pakistani Armv, they never revolt against the political leadership, sometimes very questionable and demoralizing decisions.

For months together, they remain cut off from their families and at times even from an eye contact with any civilization.  They spend all the festivals, joys and sorrows in the hostile environs and in the company of the enemy.  Yet their sacrifices go unnoticed. On the contrary, they are often taken for granted, misused and abused to humiliation.

Since 1997. more than 4,000 soldiers have been lost to the insurgency operations.  Given the poor background of an average soldier, a fatherless child grows with a feeling of guilt and neglect.  There is no one to celebrate his birthday, to listen to his day-to-day demands.  Given the pathetic norms of some of our customs the young widow of a martyr too faces the wrath of the society.  She is held responsible for her husband’s early death and struggles to make the two ends meet.  In fact, she leads a life that is worse than that of a criminal undergoing a jail sentence.

It’s time that we the citizens of India stood in unison for our brave men who ask for nothing in return to their supreme sacrifice, that we refrained from a mere lip service and actually cared.

Its time that we understood our men nd respected them for what they are.  It’s also for the children of India, for whose beautiful tomorrow, these jawans give away their precious present, to show that they appreciate. They must be taught to respect the man in uniform.  We may not be able to given them materialistic support or join them all in their grief.

But we all can surely met them individually or at least send them notes, cards and letters of encouragement, of support, of care

Public Schools could imprt a useful training to their toddles and growing children by helping them draw sketches and drawings and then sending the same to the children of our martyrs.  By showing our solidarity, we would not only be sharing the grief of hundreds of the families, we would also be able to send a clear message, both to our neighbours as well as our own politicians that we care, that we understand and respect our men and that we shall not tolerate injustice and ill-treatment meted out to our warriors.

It’s time we stood up, cleared our lungs and screamed in unison,  “we are one”.