Requiem for unsung soldiers Sathya Saran

Source: www.dnaindia.com

High up in the Himalayas, in windy Drass, which is in Kargil to be exact, are two Army-run spots that could well become tourist highlights for travellers passing that way..

The Kargil War Memorial is one of them.

Inscribed on the pink Jaipur stone wall that is bracketed by pretty stone trellises and a series of lamps, are the names and battalions of the many brave men who died while saving their motherland from the enemy. Common enough an idea as a memorial, but there is more.

The now peaceful memorial that seems a haven of quiet, with only the wind whistling in the nearby trees, is directly behind the mountains that were once enemy-occupied territory.

Framing the memorial and dwarfing it by its sheer magnitude, the peaks rise rugged and tall. They are close enough to the road that we have travelled, and which links Kashmir to Ladakh, as a national highway, to be vital as protectors of the link. And it was these peaks that were in May 1999, the year of the Kargil war, that were occupied as possibly the first step to further intrusions into India, by the Pakistan army.

The hills behind stretch 160 km across, crossing and re-crossing the Line of Control. Enemy positions occupied the strategic mountain tops, knowing full well that attack from below would mean a deployment of many times more the number of soldiers needed for confrontation on level ground. Stealth, the ability to stay hidden even as they attacked, and the fact that they were in camps of a sort were the vantage points the enemy had in their favour.

The courage and patriotism of the Indian soldiers however, combined with superior military strategic thinking ensured that despite the searing cold and the snow, (Drass is the world’s second coldest inhabited place on earth after Siberia), despite the fact that there was no time to equip the men with special protective winter wear, the peaks were captured one by one, with a loss of men that was amazingly less than the numbers lost by the infiltrators.

Looking at the peaks as each story of its reclaiming is recounted, it is impossible to imagine the battle happening, the victory actually being real.

But the fact that the names stand etched on stone, and the road unrolls safely before us, proved it happened.

Further down, the Kargil War Museum tells us more in greater detail. Photographs of the men who commanded, of men toiling upslope the steep mountains, of jubilant, victorious faces celebrating a victory, bring it all alive, as does an audio-visual show that almost makes us feel the cold in the mountains, and brings me close to tears at the courage and valour exhibited by so many in the face of extreme challenges.

By the time I leave the museum, I am sobered beyond words. My mind is full of the thought that even as I sit around complaining of the heat, the rain, the traffic and other mundanities of daily life, there are men out there 365 days in the year, far away from home, with only the mountains and the dreams of their families to keep them company, so that the peaks that protect our borders remain safe.

I tell the officer in charge that the CD of the Kargil conflict should be made available freely to schools and colleges. So children can know the real-life drama played out in the mountains, and learn to respect the freedom that they take for granted.

Patriotism is not at a high premium these days, and could do with some promotion.
The Army, silent and watchful, concentrating on doing its duty, could do with some positive, serious marketing.

The CD could help in both.

Otherwise, like I did, we tend to take most of what is reported about skirmishes on the border, with a pinch of dinnertime salt, and go on with our lives without a second thought.

Email: ssaran@dnaindia.net