A Soldier's Rage

“They enter our borders. They kill our soldiers and they get away with it. Shouldn’t we teach them a lesson?” he had a strange restlessness in his voice. Calm Manohar seldom got enraged but the news of his brother facing death to a coward attack broke his heart and ruptured his spirit.

The ground beneath Manohar’s feet shook when he got the news of Pulwama. It was just a day ago when his brother had called him. “A soldier should always be cheerful and alert, we have shouldered a responsibility, we cannot let sorrow overpower our duty” he had told him.

Kunal’s smile flashed in front of his eyes. He could visualize nothing but Kunal lying under a ruptured metal, with fractured bones with bated breath embracing the death he had never deserved.

“You know what Mohsin?” Manohar looked at the friend he had been talking to. “Sometimes, I feel like it would have been better if I had accompanied Kunal in the Indian army. If not protection, I could at least have earned the pleasure of dying alongside him.”

Mohsin patted his shoulder.

“At AirForce, we have supreme ammunitions. We own weapons which will wreak havoc in the minds of enemies but every time, every single time we hesitate to use them. Why does peace have to cost so much?” tears burned Manohar’s eyes and his lower lip trembled.

He sniffed and avoided the tear to fall. Never let sorrow overpower your duty, Kunal had said Those were his last words for him.

A guy suddenly interrupted disrupting their conversation.

Mohsin and Manohar were shocked by what they heard. Never before this had they been called for such an emergency.

They rushed toward the headquarters.

The commander stood on the dais. The room was filled with officers cladded in sky blue.

Mohsin and Manohar settled among the group.

“SOLDIERS!” the superior commander in charge yelled with authority. His voice reverberating across the headquarter.

“I suppose you know how our Prime minister has furnished us with complete liberty to act against the foolhardiness of Pakistan. I’m sure the atrocities of Pakistan has boiled your blood which oozed tear out of your eyes. I’m damn sure that each one of you desires to enter their border and kill those terrorists by piercing a bullet in their heart”

The entire room was silent, hoping to hear what they desired the most.

“Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you. We won’t be able to shoot them in the heart” the officer continued.

The room sighed in unison. An atmosphere of disappointment enveloped the room.

“Not a bullet. We are going to bomb them this time” the officer said with an eerie sense of tranquility.

The silent crowd cheered in sync. Smile emerging on every face, Hope in every eye.

“We haven’t entered LOC since the Kargil, tomorrow we will force into that region and show them what it means to meddle with India” the soldier roared like a wounded lion. His voice amplifying with every word he spoke.

“Let’s show them what we have got. SOLDIERS! It’s time to act. Peace comes at a price and we had paid it from time to time. It’s time to return the same with debt. Suit up we head out before the sun dawns their camps and return with the satisfaction of burning them with both 1000 kg of explosives and fear”

“Bharat Mata Ki…” the commander shouted at his maximum voice.

The entire room retaliated in unity “JAI”

Mohsin looked at Manohar with a smile enlightening his face, Manohar had tears in his eyes. His emotions overpowered his duty. But it wasn’t sorrow, it was a joy. It was pride.

His prayers were finally answered.