A life well lived in blues…

As I sat back after my superannuation from IAF in June last year, with this cheque in my hand, which can now be destroyed, a few thoughts came to my mind. More than three decades back…on 14 Dec 91, my colleagues and I pledged our lives for India, our beloved mother land, ready to lay down our lives on land, at sea or in air for protecting the integrity and sovereignty of India.

That promise was not ceremonial.

It was absolute!

A similar promise is made by all men in uniform, whether they are in the armed forces, CAPF, police, ATS personnel, firefighters or bomb disposal squads and many others.

When men (this includes women) don their uniforms to head out for work every morning, they and their loved ones know and accept that there is a fair chance and a high degree of risk that they may not come back alive…

That’s the accepted risk, the covenant, the promise they make!

No doubt, such a fate can befall a cyclist, a scooterist, a pedestrian or anyone who steps out of his house even for a moment, but the difference lies in the conscious acceptance of the risk, the intent. The surrender by men in uniform to serve their mother land even at the cost of sacrificing their life is what differentiates the two events .

To know what it takes for a soldier to walk into a house where terrorists are holed up, to flush them out. Imagine walking into this house. Imagine advancing toward gunfire. Imagine knowing that the next step could be your last and…yet taking it anyways. That’s what it means to walk voluntarily towards an almost certain death! This selfless commitment of men in uniform goes beyond everything!

For a soldier, the risk is not accidental.

It is accepted.

Consciously.

Willingly.

I consider myself fortunate to have been able to offer this service to my mother land, as a defender of the skies, for more than 33 years and also fortunate that I am alive, whereas we lost many brothers in arms and colleagues on this journey.

Unfortunately, their cheques got encashed !!!

We as a nation must remain indebted to them and their families, forever and need to follow through on a reverse covenant that we shall take care of them in return for what their beloved ones did for the nation!

I express my gratitude to God and to my parents for giving me the fortune of being of service to our great nation.

A life in blues.

A life of purpose.

A life well lived.

Jai Hind.