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.”
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