Thursday, April 21, 2005

remembering kargil and capt. batra

April 21st

forwarded by a friend.

-----------------

Kargil remembered, thanks to Parvez's visit.

At the NDA Khadakvasla an Instructor asked the Officer Cadets to list the
names of the other Officer Cadets in the room on two sheets of paper,
leaving a space between each name.

Then he told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of
their mates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as
the Officer Cadets left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the Instructor wrote down the name of each of the Officer
Cadets on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said
about that individual.

On Monday he gave each Officer Cadet his list. Before long, the entire class
was smiling. "Really?" he heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant
anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most
of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. He never knew if they
discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The
exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with
themselves and one another. That group of Officer Cadets moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed at Kargil and the
Instructor attended the funeral of that special student. He had so many seen
a serviceman in a military coffin before, but this one was special. He
looked so handsome, so mature, so young, so full of life & yet no more.

The town lost another young Army Officer in Kargil. Captain Vikram Batra
(23) was the son of Mr G.L. Batra, Principal in Government Senior Secondary
School. He belonged to 13 J&K Rifles and was on his first posting to Kargil.
Last week Captain Batra had succeeded in capturing 5140 Peak in Drass
sector. Just two days prior to his feat General V.P. Malik, Chief of the
Army Staff, had personally congratulated him for his successful mission in
capturing 5140 peak. His name was also recommended for Mahavir Chakra.

The news of the death of Captain Batra spread like wild fire in the town.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the residence of Mr Batra and raised
anti Pakistan slogans. The body of this young soldier reached the evening
after and the cremation was to take place on Saturday with full military
honour.

The place was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a
last walk by the coffin. The Instructor was the last one to bless the
coffin.

As he stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to
her. "Were you Capt. Vikram Batra Instructor?" he asked. He nodded: "yes."
Then he said: "Vikram talked about you a lot."

After the cremation, most of Capt. Batra's former classmates went together
to pay their respect to Capt. Batra's parents. Capt. Batra's mother and
father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his Instructor.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his
pocket. "They found this on Capt. Batra's when he was killed. We thought you
might recognize it."

Opening the wallet, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper
that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The
Instructor knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which he
had listed all the good things each of Batra's classmates had said about
him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Capt Batra's mother said. "As you can
see, Vikram treasured it."

All of vikram's former mates started to gather around. Manoj smiled rather
sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my
desk at home."

Amit's wife said, "Amit asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Dev said. "It's in my diary."

Then Ajay Singh, another classmate, reached into his pocketbook, took out
his wallet and showed his worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this
with me at all times," Ajay said and without batting an eyelash, he
continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the Instructor finally sat down and cried. He cried for Capt.
Batra and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will
end one day. And we don't know when that one-day will be. Not this way, a
young 23 old gives up his life crying out "yeh dil maange more" when he
captured Peak 5140 at Kargil.

He did it for us, so that none of the Paki Jehadis sent by Parvez Musharaf
could come into India.
So please, tell our people & pass this message to all you think are Indians
by heart & mind, who love and care for our country, that these guys are
special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
So, let's stop licking the arse of Parvez Mushraf (this is for the Yellow
Indian TV media). We are not here to redefine our original borders. Kargil
was an attack by the Pakis for which we lost some 600 patriotic,
disciplined, tough, dedicated handsome Indian.
And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward this message on. If you do not
send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do
something for India.

- PN

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shadow Warrior,

I read this article on The Times of India:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1084950.cms?headline=C~for~cow,~R~for~Ram,~U~for~Uma...!

and found very demeaning how "Hinduism" can be equated with "communalism" by third-grade journalists. I thought it might be useful for you take note of this.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Read the comments also to that TOI article. None, yes.. none has supported the article by that Missionary pimp.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rajeev,
One of the readers on Outlook India web-site had posted the following link:
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=56631.
Its the first in series of analysis written by Arun Shourie regarding the complete demographic change in NE owing to an influx of illegal migrants from BD. These articles make a very scary reading and I wonder when will the Indian politicians wake up to this horror which will ultimately lead to the creation of Greater BD.

Anonymous said...

Nizhal Yoddha,
I wish not to tread away from your post on our Kargil Hero.

Not so long ago, joining Army & serving the country was a matter of not only pride but a great career move for young graduates.

But in a survey in India-Today weekly some years ago it was shown that Defense as a career option has lost it's sheen & it has now slipped to some irrelevant position as a career option.

Obviously country's talent is moving towards plush & cushy jobs in IT,Management,Service sectors.

We routinely see statements from Army General that the standard of new recruits is coming down.

There's also i feel, an underlying feeling that the we as a nation display near callousness towards the sacrifices made by our Jawans.
Hence no one wants to take up this 'thankless job' , if you will.

There's no real motivation when the Nation is busy looking the other way. Apart from money, a graduate also looks at respectibility & pride in his job & and in some cases even more than money.

By giving Musharaf the red-carpet we have in some ways insulted not only Captain Batra's mother but 1000 of those brave & young soldier's mothers who were more proud than depressed about loosing there sons in kargil.Those mothers were holding their tears behind the shield of pride. We as Indians have snatched that shield from the proud mothers.

We want peace at any cost. Even if that involves sucking up to the same monster who was responsible for snatching our brave sons.

Whether God forgives Musharaf or not, he won't forgive us Indians.

Nanana said...

Dude, the article is a fake. As in, its an inmspiring tale etc, but its a poor hack job about an article on a this inspiring teacher in America, and all the students gathered at her funeral still had thier slips etc.

You know the biggest mistake? Vikram Batra never went to NDA. He was a Direct Entry into the IMA, 1997 Batch if I remember correctly, after he did his B.Sc from Chandigarh.

Please edit and put disclaimer.

Anonymous said...

I wish the mail was a true one, atleast then some credibility would have been restored on the nationalist part of this blog-space. And it would have started a sensible discussion on why our soldiers' sacrifices are not respected beyond one day!Heck, the Defence minister at the time of Kargil from the NDA government even made money out of the coffins of our martyrs!!!
The number of fakes posted on this space is going up too fast.. Rajeev, maybe you need to understand and verify what you post before making it public!

Anonymous said...

Does not being a part of NDA make Capt. Batra's sacrifice any less ? Also as regards to the next post from Anonymous i fail to see the connection between this post & so called 'scam' of the Defense minister which was fabricated in Sonia Gandhi's house. Dude if you really want to know which politician in India made money & which politician really works for the nation check out Sonia Manio's bank balance & Fernandes's bank balance for yourself.
For starters, Fernandes does not own a land in Italy.
It is convinient for leftists like you to get honest individuals like Mr. Fernandes & Mr.Naik 'involved' in scams.With the 'scam' generating factory , The Indian Media, firmly with UPA, we are likely to see more 'scams' coming out of TOI & IE targetted towards NDA ministers only to be given clean-chit by courts few years later. While Gandhies & Marxists enjoy all the luxuries at the cost of Tax-Payers money & smile away with a hefty bank balance, a man of highest integrity, George Fernandes, is made to look corrupt.

Nanana said...

No, not being a part of NDA just makes the article a fake. (and it is a complete fabrication)

No one questioned Batra's sacrifice.

nizhal yoddha said...

come on guys, did you read the thing at all? it was fairly obvious that there was something wrong with it. here's an excerpt:

Last week Captain Batra had succeeded in capturing 5140 Peak in Drass
sector. Just two days prior to his feat General V.P. Malik, Chief of the
Army Staff, had personally congratulated him for his successful mission in
capturing 5140 peak. His name was also recommended for Mahavir Chakra.


now doesn't that give you a clue? batra died during the attack on the peak.

also, i believe the story of the american teacher and her students carrying these slips of paper around is a fabrication. did you, rishi, verify its truth? these are urban legends floating around.

i posted this because the sentiments about capt. batra and lt. kalia and all the others who sacrificed their lives -- and lt. jeevan kumar who was tortured and shot dead by the bangladeshis just two weeks ago -- are people we need to remember at least once in a while.

in a world where hoaxes and fabrications like marxism and some other major religions rule the roost, let's not get our panties in a twist about a small exaggeration. it is obvious that the majority of the people in the world believe in some hoax or the other, esp. certain religious hoaxes or scientific hoaxes.

to all the guys so worried about hoaxes reducing this blog's credibility, i thank you for the crocodile tears. caveat emptor. everything you see anywhere is a potential fake unless you can follow up references, if any. so you go do the research and figure it out for yourself. by the way, why are you fixating on george fernandes when nehru, krishna menon and k m panikkar together killed so many of our soldiers (who froze to death because they didnt have proper clothing) and lost us 50,000 sq. km of land in 1962? that doesn't bother you, obviously. this is why it is clear you yourself are a fake.

Nanana said...

Rajeev, no one who was there during the Kargil was is ever going to forget Batra or Kalia. Trust me on that one. Like my parents generation wont forget Khetrapal or Shekhon.

I dont know whether the American teacher thing is true (was it in a Reader's Digest), but that is besides the point.

All the best to you Rajeev, dont kill too many with friendly fire here :)

Rishi

nizhal yoddha said...

point taken about friendly fire, rishi :-)

reader's digest, economist, nytimes, whatever: there is the military-industrial-media complex at work in the west, and you should read chomsky's 'manufacturing consent' to see how much they either fabricate or suppress or slant stories. you might have heard of the pulitzer winning nytimes guy and wall street journal guy who were found making up stories. so i take whatever i read in the press with a large pinch of salt. and so should you with whatever you find especially online.

Anonymous said...

Hey,
Ive seen this article before, only it wasnt about Capt. Batra, but an American teacher...
Please verify before publishing articles....
Anyway, good that this article made many people remember Capt. Batra and many Kargil heroes....
The idiotic media was showing cricket (World cup) when our soldiers were dying....
How idiotic of the players , they were playing with Pakistan when our martyrs were sacrifising their lives.....
I have stopped watching cricket from that time....
Our media is so biased and silly, you dont get to watch good news now a days... half the time they are 'full' of breaks, and the news thay show is all masala news, of some page 3 or bullshit content, and some sansani news, with huge heading ' some XYZ ka BALAADKAR...', they sensationalise the news and sell it... and ofcourse the left leaning....
Even the movie made on Kargil was more of Hindi movie stuff rather than the soldiers conditions.....

Inspite of this, our armed forces are one of the best in the world... and we have some of the cheeky leftists aksing 'why to maintain such a huge army?' reminding me of Nehru..... some even question the 'Extravaganza' of Republic day..... Whenever I read such columns in our marxist news papers I feel like giving them a hard kick on their behind...
Good job.... nice articles... Ill be visiting..
Sameer

Unknown said...

all i want to say is.......... dont wait for revolution...... let us make revolution........ join politics, join army, join police force, be an IAS officer and do something for the country...........let us rock india...........india rocks

Anonymous said...

hello, his blog is great and for me a way to communicate with capt vikram batra