Glittering Gold but the Forgotten Heroes...

Armed forces of India offer young and brave individuals a carrier that no other profession can. At 21, you have men under your command who are ready to give their life at your command. Yes, at the mere age of 21. Men and women serving in the armed forces are looked towards with respect. Working for others sectors, one may achieve career growth, foreign trips and high incentives but working for armed forces, one achieves that glory and honor which might be impossible to be earned by any other profession.

Apart from this, the people working in the armed forces are given good pay and perks that include recreational facilities, adventure sports, leaves, opportunities for higher studies and medical facilities to self and dependents. The list does not end here. To add I would quote a military brat (as they are referred). He said, “Being a Fauji Kid, you weren’t a millionaire but you had swimming, horse riding, squash, tennis and golf; you attended many May Queen Balls before you even knew what Miss India was”.

But that’s not all about Armed Forces.

The people working in the forces work in extremely difficult conditions and terrain. After joining the forces at a very young age, they undergo physical training that is extremely tough and prepares them to survive any adverse condition. After being commissioned, they are deployed to hostile environments, under difficult climatic conditions where they have to stand holding guns at their hand to ensure that we sleep peacefully on our cozy beds. Mind you, pressing the trigger when the time arrives is a lot easier than holding the gun every time and ensuring that the time does not come. These men and women have to live far from their family and friends and at times don’t even get a chance to reach them over telephone.

Honored, yet not coveted; adventurous, yet not desired. This is the sad fact about the Armed Forces of India. We Indians are excessively emotional species and we display patriotism just as a part of emotion. Songs like “Ae mere watan ke logo” make most of us emotional and patriotic at the same time. Words like “Bharat Mata ki jai” and “Jai Hind” become obvious responses when we listen to such tunes. But when it comes to action, we turn our backs. Our armed forces have been suffering from the shortage of officers because bright candidates don’t think career in armed forces to be a suitable job for them. They rather choose to work for MNCs and earn bucks, make foreign trips and share posts and pictures about patriotism in facebook rather than joining the forces. They find the life at armed forces too difficult or too dangerous and refuse to serve the country. At this point I would like to say, it’s not that serving in the armed forces is the only way to serve the nation but a country which has such a large population and more numbers of engineers and doctors than required is facing the shortage of talented officers in the most important wing that is defense.

Whom to blame for such situations?? The youth who is too scared to join the army?? Is that all?? I would say “No”. After getting placed in couple of MNCs after my engineering, I was looking for better options. And that’s where I got interested in Armed Forces. The more I read about their contribution, bravery and sacrifice towards the nation, the more I got interested and at a stage it became my passion. I failed in my initial attempts but tried again and finally succeeded. Before I was trying for armed forces my father had a thing for the officers and the lifestyle they had. Then I tried for forces but couldn’t get through. I was looked down as most parents do in case of failure of their kids. Then I tried again and got through. What do you think my parents must be feeling?
 

My father shared the news among his business fraternity and several questions on my capabilities were raised. People said that I must not have got any job after my engineering that is why I am looking for a career in the defense. They said that the life at armed forces was too dangerous to opt for. My father quickly agreed to their opinion and I was told that only those guys who had no other option should go for defense. I went to a gathering and there several gentlemen belonging to same fraternity tried to convince me not to join such a job when I may have a much comfortable life. I was amazed. Where did all the pride go? When it comes to the real test, we Indians opt for shedding our responsibilities to others so that we may live safely what if its selfishness.

Great soldiers like Capt. Vikram Batra, Lt. Manoj Kumar and most recently Lt. Navdeep Singh are the names known only among the armed forces fraternity and the aspirants of armed forces. These lads, at the age when most of us are busy sending texts to our friends trying to woo them, made the supreme sacrifice to the nation. Yet they are the forgotten heroes, heroes who are seldom remembered.

No doubt the life at armed force is difficult but “A nation will remain the land of free only so long as it is the home of the BRAVE”.