Monday, 30 September 2019
Thursday, 6 June 2019
Saturday, 4 May 2019
Monday, 29 April 2019
Saturday, 9 March 2019
An Unfinished Story
An Unfinished Story
This story started around 70 years ago. The autocratic Lord of the
house decided to hand over the property to the deserving native people. But one
last sadist twist he made was to divide it amongst the brothers. While the
central part of the property was handed over to Kishan, the left and right were
given to Ishaan.
By nature Kishan was peace-loving while Ishaan was aggressive, greedy
and unethical. After Lord’s departure, he immediately entered into Kishan’s
territory and grabbed an unoccupied room of his property. He wanted more but Kishan
arrested his foray. Kishan did not retaliate further and compromised with the situation
of a room occupied by Ishaan. Kishan was always mightier than Ishaan but his
upbringing did not permit him to use his muscle to get his property back. His
reaction was only to ask the colony people to mediate and sort out the
unauthorized room. However, nothing happened.
Ishaan wanted more, especially the room next to the one illegally
occupied by him. After some years he made attempts to grab it but was contained
by the superior might of Kishan. In the next attempt it was worse; Ishaan had
to lose his entire right property due to internal family dispute.
His property was truncated and he was humiliated but Ishaan did not
give up his evil designs. After some years he grabbed a small piece of land next
to the room he desperately wanted. Kishan again threw him out from there but
made no attempt to capture Ishaan’s property or even take back his own.
Knowing that he cannot fight Kishan in direct combat, Ishaan decided on
a different strategy. He handed over the room illegally occupied by him to a
non-paying tenant, Rihaan. Rihaan was a hooligan working for Ishaan and made
many attempts to damage the property of Kishan.
When Rihaan’s activities, backed up by Ishaan, increased manifold,
Kishan entered Ishaan’s property and slapped Rihaan on his face. That should
have ended the evil ambitions of Ishaan-Rihaan combine but, possibly on a
suicide mission; they further enhanced their destructive activities.
When it crossed the limits, Kishan again spoke to the colony people
who, barring one Chan, accepted that Kishan has a right to take measures to
protect his property. This time Kishan entered Ishaan’s property, found Rihaan
and broke his leg. Next day, Ishaan sent an assault party to destroy Kishan’s
property but was duly repelled by Kishan who threatened Ishaan of similar
reaction when and if required.
Will it be the end of their confrontation? Or should Kishan have
destroyed Ishaan’s property once in for all or, at least, taken back his own
property, to ensure this?
Readers to answer; advise Kishan accordingly and end this story
suitably.
-----------------
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
Sleep Well, Indore!
The regular stone-pelting on my army colleagues in Kashmir reminded me of an article of mine published when Indore had communal riots in 2008. Just replace 'Indore' with 'Kashmir' and it is as relevant today!
Sleep
Well, Indore!
That stone had absolutely no business to be so damn
accurate! And fatal! None! It was hurled by a 12 year old innocent totally
untrained in warfare. This boy may not have even shaved once! This stone had a
very stupid shape; the weight was anything but balanced. It must have been
difficult to hold it, leave aside throwing. That too so accurately! The
visibility was very poor with so much of smoke around, half created gleefully
by the rioters and the rest by a scared police. It is said that in Mahabharat
time they used to call off the war the moment the bugle was blown at the
dusk. Unfortunately, there are no such
rules in this deadly game the politicians have expertised in. That’s why it will
always remain a mystery how the hell that ‘stupid’ stone found the exact spot
in the head to hit and the exact penetration to make to ensure that the highly
decorated soldier had no chance whatsoever!
Compare this stone with the many instances when sophisticated weapons
in expert hands failed to accomplish this task.
Compare with that bullet which was fired by that well trained Chinese
soldier who had all the time in the world to aim in the semi darkness at
Nathula, when this soldier, Rakesh, was a young officer. Okay, it missed only
by a whisker, but miss it did! Or with that land mine 4 days later which was
just 3 feet away from Rakesh when it tried its evil designs? Fine, it
incapacitated him for some time, he was unconscious but that was surely not the
performance desired from a state-of-art land mine which was well concealed by
expert hands! Or compare with that attempt by the Nature itself when that huge
land slide near Lungthu which almost buried Rakesh, now a Captain, almost
alive? Is it not great inefficiency burying 3 vehicles of the convoy along with
7 persons but leaving the primary object unharmed save for a leg fracture?
Next, compare it with that LMG burst which was fired from a
point-blank range in 1965 at Khemkaran sector but managed to just put some lead
in Rakesh’s left arm? What should be the cost of one such bullet with all that
administrative and training support put in (even if we discount the life of
that enemy soldier who was pierced by Major Rakesh’s bayonet), as against the
stupid shaped stone in 2008?
If you are still not convinced of the gross injustice and unfairness,
remember 1971? That fierce attack launched on Major Rakesh and his troops? And
do you remember that evil-looking pistol which was trained on Rakesh’s temple
for what seemed like eternity before that technologically advanced weapon, so
well maintained by the Pakistani army, decided to get jammed? Oh, losing out to
the stupid stone!!
If so far it did not happen - the protagonist survived - definitely
that dark night in 1976 in Assam should have done it through that ugly looking
knife of the nexalite which pierced the right shoulder of Rakesh? But then it
was only a partial success - which turned out to be a failure actually- as that
shoulder was decorated with higher rank! No Sir, it’s really absurd!!
Srilankans are very brave and determined; LTTE should have
comfortably finished this ‘task’ in 1988. After all it was their terrain,
Rakesh knew nothing about it; they had the huge advantage of surprise as they
had ambushed the IPKF in the jungle. So many bullets, so close, not one
piercing through any of the sensitive parts of Rakesh so as to ‘accomplish the
task’! How do they place Guerrilla warfare so high in military training?
And how come this ‘stone’ competed ‘successfully’ against the brute
force of the rebels in Somalia which hated the peacekeeping Lt. Col. Rakesh and
had surrounded him from all sides?
Yes, it was a close shave for Colonel Rakesh at Kargil, just 50 feet
below the steep climb looking into the barrel of the machine gun well held by the
confident adversary while Rakesh was as it is half-dead with exhaustion. But other than grazing his
back, it did nothing substantially against Rakesh!
So all the fuss on terrain, technology and training failed; allowed
Brigadier Rakesh to retire gracefully and settle down comfortably at the
historical town of Indore to a well-deserved rest and comfort after all those
bloody battles and sufferings.
And, suddenly, here comes that real gem - a ‘stupid shaped stone’
hurled by an equally stupid looking 12 year old hitting Rakesh on his temple
absolutely accurately, killing him on spot while he was just buying vegetables
for his family!!!
So, Indore feel good, we have 12 year olds who can achieve without
any training (and expenses) what many armies and terrorist groups could not!!
Moral of the story then is “sleep well, Indore.”
--------------
Thursday, 14 February 2019
Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Friday, 4 January 2019
Wish for 2019
बप्पा को सलाम - कट्प्पा को पैगाम !
कर्त्तव्य-सजग हों और काम में अति प्रवीण
लगा हो उन पर ईमानदारी का अमिट ठप्पा
फिर क्यों वो बेईमानों का साथ देते
क्यों बन जाते हैं एक और कट्प्पा ?
मन सुलगता है पर चुप लगा जाते हैं
क्यों नहीं कह पाते सच्चा किस्सा
कि हो रहा है सब कुछ संघठन में गलत
और मैं नहीं बनूँगा ऐसे सिस्टम का हिस्सा ?
यस मैन बन चुके हैं वो पूरी तरह
निष्ठा क्यों उनकी एक व्यक्ति की ओर
क्या उनकी नौकरी की चिंता है इतनी बड़ी
कि उनकी लाचारी करे संघठन को कमजोर
क्या इस नये साल - 2019 में
हम कुछ अच्छे बदलाव पायेंगे
क्या कुछ कटप्पा गुलामी की जंजीर तोड़
आईने में खुद से आँखें मिला पायेंगे ?
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