Brave Sons' Of Soil

 That was a village from Rajasthan on the Indo-Pak border. As it is, the village had a population of about three thousand persons Out of these 60% were women. This skewed percentage was because there were many widows who lost their husbands, in war. This village has the distinction of sending at least one man to the Indian army. So a huge population of young men is enrolled in the army and quite a few men are martyred, leaving behind their widows. In spite of that the mothers do not hesitate to send their children into the army. It is a tradition in this village since the 2nd world War when Britishers forcibly enrolled the young men of the village.

At that particular time, the roads of the village were desolated, with main women of different ages going about their daily activities with a sombre faces. There was an old lady and a pregnant woman. Far away there was a girl playing and a toddler, a boy, was watching her. The reason for the unusual quiet was, most of the men from their village got orders to go back to the field of action as there was a war between Pakistan and India. Presently there were only a few veterans and very old men in the village. There was no fear or threat for the village, except that the people were mentally preparing themselves to hear bad news about their near and dear. An old scholarly person, who lived in the temple, would go around the village, trying to talk to the women and keep up their morale and boost their positivity. The women folk liked his reassuring presence and soothing words. In the evenings, they all would assemble in the temple and he would read and explain a few verses from Bhagavad Geeta. Together they all were gearing up to face the worse that was to come.

They all thought loudly,” We know the fate of our people when we send them to guard the Mother, our country. Having done that we will not mourn the loss of a single villager. They are Martyrs and we will put them to rest with pride and honour. We will continue to keep up our tradition. Bharat Mata ki Jai” The whole village reverberated with the slogan.