remembering kargil and capt. batra

April 21st

forwarded by a friend.

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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