Soldier!!!

He set out marching in the deadly cold,

Armed with gloves, gum boots and a white furry overcoat,

His mind instructing his body to condition to the extreme,

Only because of his stubborn resolve to follow his dream.

He was in Siachen, where the sea level was 18000 feet below,

To get there he had waded through waist deep snow,

Strong winds gave him company, the trek was infuriatingly slow,

The air was thin, the oxygen levels were dangerously low..

Here it often snowed, and when it did he took shelter in a shack,

A make shift protection, a few logs tactfully stacked,

The temperature fell to as low as - 60 degrees,

Nature was throwing a challenge, testing him it seemed.

He longed for a sip of a hot drink and a decent meal,

Instead he got a frozen block of juice and eggs as hard as steel,

He used a hammer to chop, the vegetables were hard as rocks,

Even boiling water turned to ice within minutes of switching the heater off.

For company, a few miles away, there were a few of his kind,

Like him they also had grit written all over their body and mind,

The loneliness could make one barbaric, forget what it is to be kind,

A few weeks here, one could become insane and lose his mind.

He could only see an expanse of snow for miles around,

If his body gave up, he knew, he would never be found,

The landscape was treacherous in this snowy glacier,

Equally treacherous was the enemy across the border.

To stay alert, he thought of the love showered by his mother,

The banter of his brother and the tantrums thrown by his sister

The intoxicating smell of his wife's freshly shampooed hair,

His kids smile, he felt they were with him right there.

He vowed to survive this nightmare, get out alive from this hell

But for how long he would be here he could never tell,

But as long as he was here his motherland was safe,

He would never give up, even if he had to sacrifice his life.

What made him come to this hell, you might wonder,

It was his sense of duty, he willingly took it on his shoulders,

Giving up the luxuries of life he chose to become a protector,

For his country he pledged his life, he is a brave Indian soldier!