SIACHEN STAR

“Under a starry sky, deep inside a white snow is where I rest “

Army has always been one of my interests. From saluting whenever I come across them to playing Call of duty (The place where I felt that I was a soldier). But, it’s more than just a video game.

Recently, I met an Army soldier in a journey and interacted with him for a while. Fortunately, he shared a few of his stories with me.

So I’ve summed up a few articles (which I read) with his experiences, multiplying a touch of imagination and my thoughts to it. Here, I’ve made a small attempt to bring today’s reality in this contemporary world of WAR and PEACE.

The overall result is a short FICTION story below.  I am narrating this fiction story with the first person being me.

DISCLAIMER: “ Except for the fact that the Army organizes annual Siachen civilian trek, the story is purely fictional and inspired by true events. No character is related to any person from the real life. Just an imaginary thought. ”

Here goes the story:

Siachen. The very name gives me goosebumps. The highest altitude battlefield between two blood rival countries. Situated at the extremes where 18000 ft tests your limits of patriotism and -50 deg C tests your “freedom” of blood circulation. For national civilians to taste this risky place, the Indian Army has set up a “Civilian Trek” every year, where 30 civilians will be selected. The program is for a month, where you have to pass two medical fitness stages to make it to the final list. On an average only 20 common people make it to witness this coldest battlefield.

Back in the city, being a “typical” frustrated IT employee, I wanted a much needed adventure to rejuvenate myself and of course to believe that I am still alive! (Thanks to routine life.) Siachen was always on my bucket list. Finally, Me and my friend, we both decided to check off this trek from our lists. And we applied as per the procedure. Given our trekking experiences, luckily we got selected. With a lot of opposition from our homes, we finally managed to convince our parents. And our journey began on one important condition, “DIGITAL DETOX”. In other words, no contact with the world. No social media for that period. Not even wanted to know what’s going to happen around us during the trip. Because, I believe purity of an adventure can be experienced in that way. With great difficulty, we also dropped cameras from our packing list. So, it’s just two of us in search of a “Life changing experience” with our eyes being cameras and heart to store the captured memories.

Then came the day, we landed in Leh. From there, we were taken to Army facilities. Like I said before, we passed the two fitness tests. After a few days of acclimatization, exercises and training, we made it to the final list. We were taken to Siachen base camp situated at 12000 ft altitude. It is also home to the Siachen Battle School, the world’s highest elevation military training academy, where, we were taught climbing skills such as ice crafting, rock crafting and rope techniques. The entire ambience made us feel like soldiers, who are getting prepared to do some daring adventure. After a few days of intense training, we were in the ultimate list for a 60 Km, 7 day trek.

After taking blessings from the legendary OP Baba,(a disappeared soldier, believed to be protecting the region from the past 30+ years.), we took off to the higher camp  with all the acquired energy both physically and mentally. The biggest “enemy” up there was not the people from the neighboring nation holding the so called “killing licenses”, but our very own dear Nature. The fact says 97% of the casualties were due to weather and mountain conditions. Soon, I realized that I was standing on a snowfield, whose peaks kissing at the sky and also taunting the ten storied busy buildings of cities, and the fact that now I belonged to a clan of some finest people, the band of brothers.

Under the starry sky, deep inside a white snow land is where I rest.

The trek went on for 4 days before we finally reached the last point called Kumar Post (15,632 ft) named after Col Narendra Kumar. We were greeted by a few soldiers with whom we interacted. Soon, my friend and myself, we were talking in our native language discussing our journey, about his frost bytes etc.. That’s when we met a soldier who came to us by listening to our discussion and introduced himself to us that he was also from our very own state. There was a pure smile on his face. (Probably by meeting his fellow people of his state. Yes! Language definitely brings people closer)

On introducing ourselves to him, I started with that common question “What made you choose ARMY ?”. One thing that caught my attention on conversing with this soldier was that he mentioned he dreamt of guarding our country since his childhood.

He said “ I was always inspired by brave stories of many kings from the history who fought for this country. Every Night, my grandmother used to fill my mind with all these stories that, I used to stand in their shoes and felt that I was one among them. And I used to get dreams on these stories, that I was fighting for this country and hailed by the people as a “STAR”. One such dream was when I saw myself as a  soldier guarding across the border in the very challenging snowfield. That’s when I decided to join the army and here I am, living my dream!” 

I was speechless. For people like us who sit in a safe place inside the country and still find reasons and excuses for not achieving what we want, there was a person who was a striking example to all of us. I saluted him from the bottom of my heart.

That’s why I always go with the phrase “ The unsung and the unexplored are always very best”.

The next morning, before we started back to the lower camp, we greeted every soldier and prayed to give them more strength and this soldier, with whom we had deep conversation the previous day, gave me a sealed letter and requested me to hand that  to his family, once I go back to my place. He said “ It is very rare that we get to call our families from here given our field of duty at these extreme conditions. I usually communicate through letters, most of which don’t make it to the destination. Also, I share my thoughts, dreams with my family, especially with my father since my childhood. This time, it feels like that you should make the letter reach it to them.  So that at least, I’ll be happy it reached them”. Though he just wanted me to post his letter from my place to his, I decided to give that letter to his home by myself and also a sense of small satisfaction that in a way I was serving my country a little bit, by being a postman between that brave soldier and his family, who were equally brave of course. Though my friend insisted to open the letter and see what the soldier had written, I strongly denied it.

We finished our return way successfully and collected achievement certificates and went on to complete the rest of our trip to other parts of North East India. We killed around 2 weeks in that process. All those days, the main thing I had in my mind was to deliver that letter to his family as soon as possible.  

When I reached back home, we had no clue what happened in the world around us. And I never cared to know the NEWS for those 40-50 days.

The very next day, I decided to go that soldier’s hometown, which was quite a little far from my place. Due to some reasons, by the time I arrived at his native, it was Night. With the help of some local people, somehow I reached his home.There was no one to be seen outside. When I went inside, it was dark with a small lamp at the other end. With the glimpse of light from the lamp, I saw an old man sitting in silence. That was the soldier’s father in his late eighties. I greeted him and explained the reason why I came and handed the letter sent by his son to him. I could see a feeling of happiness and sadness both at the same time in his eyes. I expected him to speak and but no word came out of his mouth. He started to read the letter. I tried speaking to him again, that’s when he showed a sign that he cannot speak. (I got to know later that due to his vocal cord issues, he lost his speaking ability few years ago). Just when he was finishing the letter, a phone rang loudly. (It sounded like a destruction of peace) He picked up and listened to a strong voice for a few minutes. I sensed that it should be some matter of seriousness from that voice on the phone.

After he hung up, the letter fell off his hand. He looked at me with a strong feeling of both satisfaction and sorrow. He went outside and looked at the sky filled with stars. I was shocked and that’s when I  got my eyes on the letter, which was lying on the ground. It said:

NEWS I MISSED during that last 2 weeks of my travel:
3 Soldiers went missing after a strong avalanche hit their patrol party in Siachen.

“ Under a starry sky, deep inside a white snow, rests a star in peace “

Dedicated to every single soul who sacrificed and are ready to sacrifice so that we could live inside in peace.

Thanks!

Your comments are highly appreciated.