LONELY LIFE OF PARENTS OF MARTYRED SON

Lonely Life of the Parents of a Martyred Son!

Last week, my hubby and I decided to visit an old friend of my dad living in Delhi. He is a retired officer from the Indian army. Very fine couple, well spoken, very well read and widely travelled! They had a son who they lost during the Kargil war, but they never show any trace of Pain on their face.

  

On the face of it, everything appear lovely, but the deep set of wrinkles on aunty's face tell a different tale altogether. Countless jokes from uncle, humor packed texture of his conversation, does a brilliant job camouflaging their Pain with grace, dignity and elegance. We had a wonderful time being with them. Since they are old associates of my dad, my hubby who is also serving the Indian Army, also had a gala time. Uncle and aunty told some very funny, real life incidents of their Army Life.

    Soon, their caretaker served us tea and with each simmering sip, came even more interesting chain of events from uncle's well preserved memory bank. I was wondering as to how could they talk endlessly, without a pause.

   After we were done with tea, I got up to collect all the cups and the other things to keep in a tray so that I could keep those back in the kitchen. But I was stopped by a very authoritative and stern voice "Noo, Please do not move those cups from there."

   I was astounded by his reaction, was taken aback and looked at aunty if I had ruffled his feathers by any action of mine. My heart was in my mouth, literally. But then, Aunty looked at uncle and said softly "Tussi bhi naa, Bacche nu dara hi ditta. Thora aram naal bhi keh sakde ho." ("You scared the child. Could have said it more softly").

   Uncle realised the sudden change in his voice and very sweetly he sat next to me, held my hand and what he spoke after that, made me cry from within. It was so painful, simple, yet so profound.

   Softly he spoke "Beta ji...in cups ko aise hee rehne do, subah tak nahi uthayenge. Kuchh toh ehsaas hoga ki zindagi yahan aayi thi. ("My loving daughter, please leave these cups like that only, will not remove them till morning. We also should have the feeling that LIFE had come here.). The house always remains spic n span, nothing is moved or disturbed and is kept as it is. Ham taras jaate hain ki koi toh ghar ko ganda karne wala ho ("We long for someone to come to our house and make it dirty). So let the cups stay that way. We will cherish the sight of it and promise me that you will visit us again with your sons."

   All I could do was to hug him and assure him to be back with my sons. I like my house to be neatly organised and make sure my boys follow the suit too, but my younger one still believes in living like a caveman. So, as usual, when I was lecturing him today after seeing the plight of his room, I got reminded of this episode and suddenly, I stopped lecturing him and gave him a suffocating hug leaving him confused to the core.

    I think, taking out an hour in a month to visit your Parents, Old relatives or Old friends, doesn't cost us an arm and a leg. All it takes is a few stolen minutes from our lives.

   PAIN is known only by the One who has it. A little Kindness, Caring, Sympathetic Attitude & Empathy, shall only add to your own HAPPINESS, PEACE, SATISFACTION & sense of WELL BEING. JAI HIND.

***********

 

*******   END   *******

       
       

ब्रिगेडियर_नरेन्द्र_ढंड

Brig Narinder Dhand,

Founder & Convener

Veteran's Web Portals.

NOTE - Join our Email List - Please send your Rank and Name, Regt/Corps , Email ID and Mob Number to our Member COORD at " mgr.grps@gmail.com " for Registration to receive updates on Veteran's issues regularly.

****************************
**************   PLEASE DO WRITE TO US **************

WE WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS , QUERIES, REMARKS AND SUGGESTIONS ONCE THESE ARE PLACED UNDER THE COMMENTS BELOW.

1. Kindly post your remarks under the comments below ending the same with your RANK , NAME and YOUR MAIL ID. Comments posted without your identification, we are sorry, will not be published.

2. Please AVOID EMAILING US unless you have first gone through the post in detail and have worked out the solution on your own.

3. We regret that we have no infrastructure to take on individual tasks on their behalf. Please do not embarrass us by offering donations etc to work for you, we have no commercial leanings.

4. Our aim at SIGNALS-PARIVAAR is to guide so that you can work on it as a "DO IT YOURSELF" exercise. Ours is a "NISHKAAM SEWA" to our Community.
********************************************