Skip to main content

Suicide of soldiers

When I was a journalist, Mysore hosted an army recruitment rally and while preparing the news item, I got to see the photographs of the youth who had come to join the army. From one glance it could be seen that they were from the economically backward section of the society. They had come there with a hope to aid their families financially. Most would return unemployed from such recruitment rallies, unable to pass the physical fitness tests and other criteria. And those who get selected, would return laden with the hope that now, their families would eat three square meals a day.
It is heart-breaking and thought-provoking when the peace-keeping forces including the military, para-military and the police forces face serious problems in extreme weather & inhospitable conditions. Do such circumstances lead the personnel to take the extreme step? Today, I read that one CRPF soldier commits suicide every three days ! About 6,000 soldiers left CRPF in 2014, while 4,186 left in 2013. Even the military is not an exception.
If the guardians of our land, water and the skies abandon us, what will happen to the sovereignty of our country?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Caterpillar or butterfly?

'Caught in a strange land in a net with other butterflies, I'm a caterpillar yet undecided to remain a caterpillar and perish or turn into a beautiful butterfly and live a life full of joy.' Readers don't laugh. But I came up with this one night recently when I was travelling in a train. I tossed and turned, not being able to sleep, upset over unexplainable things and frustrated over events not in my control. Then it occurred to me that our life and its usefulness depends on our decisions -- whether to remain a crawling caterpillar whose existence otherwise is either ignored by all and sundry or who is cursed for just being there and thrown out with a stick, or to develop wings of life and metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly whom everybody adores for its beauty and colour, for its flitting liveliness, for its service to the flower's pollination... I thought that I should be a butterfly, of service to others, but then again I thought, anyway, who really cares? 

A listener

I have always been a listener. And we can listen only when we are silent. Since childhood, silence was my way of life. It is the only way one can understand the psyche of others.  I also listened to myself. It encouraged me to think. And when I began thinking, this world began to reveal itself. And when I started understanding people, I also realised the only way forward is to again remain silent. Silence in either way keeps me calm, peaceful. I feel like a detached onlooker. 

Parents extraordinaire

My friend told me a story today while we were travelling in bus. It made me think of human emotions and the ways they are manifested in relationships. On Monday, my friend got into her bus as usual and sat on a vacant seat near an old man. He was bent with age, possibly carrying the life's burden. After a while, he started talking to her, asking about the time and her destination. When the city bus stand came near, he said he had to go to Sayyaji Rao Road to buy dosa, come back near Town Hall to buy churumuri and go somewhere else for some other eatable. She just nodded thinking why he was telling her all this. He then said it was all for his son. My friend asked him what work does his son do, to which he replied 'nothing.' He is well-educated, with good computer knowledge and intelligence enough to work. But he never steps out of his house and this aged dad works for a living, not only looking after his grown son but also cooking for him and lovingly serv...