Jaswant Singh Rawat - The Forgotten Hero

First of all a tribute to all the martyrs who have happily laid their lives in the service of our motherland and a Salute to all the Indian Army Personnel.

I am confused with how should I address him. Should I mention Late Jaswant Singh Rawat or Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, Fourth Garhwal Regiment? Based on his extraordinary act of bravery, I would choose to believe that he is still among us and is serving at the India-China Frontier and shall address him as Jaswant Singh Rawat, Fourth Garhwal Rifles.

As we head towards Tawang, the Switzerland of North-East, about 500 kilometers from Guwahati, the Gateway of North-East we shall come across Jaswantgarh, a war memorial at Nuranang in Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh, which stands in memory of 4039009 Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat, Mahavir Chakra awardee (posthumous) of the 4th Battalion of Garhwal Rifles. A journey towards the picturesque Tawang through pristine hills of Arunachal Pradesh can't be complete without a stopover at Jaswantgarh Memorial that stands testimony to an Indian soldier's unparallel bravery. It was the final phase of the Sino-Indian War in November 1962. Even as his company was asked to fall back, Jaswant Singh remained at his post at an altitude of 10,000 feet and held back Chinese soldiers for three days assisted by two local Monpa girls named Sela and Nura. They set up weapons at separated spots and maintained a volume of fire that made the Chinese think they were opposed by a body of troops. Finally the Chinese captured the man who was supplying rations to Jaswant and he revealed to them that they were opposed by only one man.They attacked in force, Sela died in a grenade burst, Nura was captured and Jaswant supposedly shot himself with his last cartridge when he realized that he was about to be captured. Jaswant has killed around 300 Chinese soldiers after confronting them with continuous fire for three days. It is alleged that the Chinese cut off Jaswant Singh's head and took it back to China. However, after the ceasefire, the Chinese commander, impressed by the soldier's bravery, returned the head along with a brass bust of Jaswant Singh. The bust, created in China to honor the brave Indian soldier, is now installed at the site of the battle. The post that he had to repulse the Chinese  troops has been named Jaswantgarh in recognition of his valor and sacrifice.

The Garhwal Rifles are today deployed on India's western borders, but the unit makes it a point to keep at least half a dozen personnel at Jaswantgarh to take care of Rawat as if he were alive. He is served bed tea at 04:30 AM, breakfast at 09:00 AM and dinner at 07:00 PM. Five army soldiers are at his service round the clock. There are no chores to be done. Life couldn't have been more comfortable for Baba Jaswant Singh Rawat, but for the fact that he is no more. These soldiers not only serve 'Baba' but also render their yeoman services for travelers along the hazardous portion of mountain terrain. Besides coming to rescue of travelers in trouble, they run a snack store where they serve tea, coffee, samosas, and pakoras to serve the tired tourists charging a nominal price that goes to upkeep the war memorial. They make his bed for him, polish his shoes and deliver the mail sent by his admirers. They even clear the mails the next morning after 'he has gone through them'. They change his bed sheets every Tuesday. Each morning, his bed is found crumpled, and his freshly ironed clothes lie scattered on the floor. The army men posted over there believe that Jaswant Singh is still here all the time, although no one can see him. According to locals and soldiers posted near Jaswantgarh, Rawat's spirit roams the area, and he comes in their dreams and solves their problems.

Jaswant Singh Rawat is the only soldier in the long history of the Indian army, who is known to have risen through the ranks after his death, and this rifleman has been promoted to Major General, and is still believed to command troops guarding the dizzy heights of India's eastern frontiers with China. He also gets his leave, salary – everything that a living soldier gets. A Leave Certificate always hangs on the notice board issued by his commanding officer for ten days casual leave to attend a marriage ceremony of one Yoginder Yadav from November 5, 2008 to November 14, 2008. Jaswant Singh's family members apply for leave on his behalf whenever needed, and if the leave is granted, the army men carry his portrait is to his native village with full military honors and when his leave expires, again his portrait is brought back to its original place.

Myths, folklore and superstitious beliefs are also strong among the soldiers. Army personnel passing by this route, be it a General or an ordinary soldier, make it a point to pay their respects at the shrine of Jaswant Singh, or else they invoke his curse. A Major General once refused to pray at his shrine while crossing the area, saying this was just a superstition, but he met with a mysterious road accident a few kilometers away from here and died.

What to do when the Law itself is against Justice?

The law states rape as a crime and also has a provision for such rapists to escape under the excuse of being a minor. This is the law but this is sheer injustice. Now the question is, what to do when the law itself is against justice?

If we follow the law and commute the punishment to a year or two in the reformatory school expecting a transition from a demon to 'good behavior', we are barring the victim and her parents from justice. We need reformations. On one hand an innocent girl is paralyzed both physically and mentally and on the other hand the culprit escapes with a petty punishment just because he is able to produce a certificate that proves that he is less than 18. This has already happened in the Nirbhaya Case, which happened in December 2012. The case received nation-wide condemnation and forced Indian Government to amend rape laws. While the four adult rapists received death penalty, the young convict -who was six month short of coming of age was sentenced to only three years in a correctional facility.

Today a high percentage of sexual crimes in India are committed by teenagers, who know that they can get away with it. If in pre-meditated murders and rape, the offenders are bought at the higher courts than this would discourage juvenile criminals.

Rape-Cases should not be treated like other cases and kept pending at Lower Court and then Higher court. Rape and cases associated with crime against women should be treated under fast trials and it should be ensured that neither the criminal escapes nor an innocent gets jailed. 

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Juvenile Rapists - Commute or Convict??

Old enough to rape but young to be punished..

Juvenile is person who has not yet attained sexual maturity. The section 2 (K) of the Indian Law of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of children) Act, 200 defines juvenile or child as a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age. I believe that the fault lies in the definition of the Indian Law. Today the court recognizes the freedom of guilty minors more than the lives of innocent rape victims. The amendment in the law is an early need.

I don't understand why are those ill-minded people been sent to the Juvenile development centers? As said that a rotten potato in a basket destroys all the other good, similarly an ill-minded so-assumed minor rape accused would also destroy the other minors in such centers who have been sent there on petty charges. There is no scope for the rectification. 

These so-assumed minors should be treated at par with other criminals and should be punished to death. Keeping them alive under the term of 'life imprisonment' would only waste the good amount of money that we pay as tax. 

Rape is the most brutal and bestial act. If a boy is found out guilt than because of his less age he shouldn't be let off. If he is old enough to gather the guts to rape, he is also old enough to be hanged. Rape cases should be treated under fast trials and if convicted they must be hanged immediately. Chop off the rapists from the society, rape will soon be eliminated. Where its the case with rape the saying changes to, 'Kill the sinner and the sin will be eliminated'.

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Indian parent's and their fallacy

The journey of compulsion and misguide starts from post matriculation itself when a so-assumed known man says, "Science le lo beta.. bahut scope hai" (You must opt for science, it has a lot of scope).

I have also come across such jerky people. I am fortunate enough that neither my parents nor anyone of my blood relative is such narrow minded. I was given the utmost freedom to opt for anything after tenth.

I have seen a friend of mine. She's very intelligent. She has always been a good student till tenth. She wanted to join arts and continue with Mass communication and then finally choose Journalism as her profession. She couldn't because of the typical mentality. She had to opt science even if she didn't want to. She couldn't opt for journalism. She was manipulated to take something which she never really thought of choosing. There she is today, cursing her fate and struggling with drafting tools & pantographs. I respect her parents for everything but not their compulsion upon their daughter to live her life according to their way.

This typical misguided mentality has started disappearing from the society. Today parents have understood that it is more important for the child to live their dream than to study engineering or medical with the hope of scope.

Dreams and passions do exist and also their is ample amount of social support to pursue them. Away from the world of engineers where they are bound to work under heavy stress in night shifts in the IT sector, there are many parallel worlds where people are more successful, happy and less stressed. Let us see the world of musicians and sportsmen. They have more glory & happiness and even they are living their dreams. If we see ourselves and our world of fellow bloggers and freelance writers, we can find millions of happy faces living their passions.

The belief that doctors and engineers are the only one's who are happy has almost become a myth in our country. Today children are allowed to live their life their way.

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Human Notions Under-Rate the Spirit of a Religion

"Aren't you a Hindu", asked my uncle.

Actually this question was a result of a long conversation between me and one of my kin's. He has always been devoted towards Hinduism and temples. Very recently there was a big 'Puja' at one of the big temples near his place. He took responsibility of most of the duties and also raised mickle amount of fund. One day evening when I was at his place, there was a good assemblage of ample number of known and unknowns. He started blabbering and boasting about his effort and accomplishment of raising such a great fund for the temple. Everyone around started appreciating him for his deed. I felt something wasn't right.

"Can you donate five thousand bucks  from that collection towards an orphanage and an old-age home?", I asked out of embarrassment. 

"What do you mean? This is the money of God", he replied.

"Isn't the service to humanity considered as the service to God? Why are you reluctant to give this money to the people who need it the most than on people on his feast you are more bothered now?", I asked him.

He couldn't control his temperament and then he barked his question of doubt on my religious orientation.

"I am a Hindu and I am a human too. I am a Hindu and so I am concerned for the humanity", I replied to his doubt on my religious orientation.

Why have people forgotten that service to humanity is service to God? I am a Hindu and I love my religion. I am not towards the spirit of the temple but I am always for humanity. It is not religion that speaks against humanity but it is the act & deed of some preachers & followers the demoralize the morale of the commons towards religion. Religion is utmost purity, serenity, bliss and is always for humanity.

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Religion - Sanctity or Insanity

What does the base and existence of any religion define?

I believe benevolence, humanity, peace, love and brotherhood builds the base of any religion.  Religion marks the threshold of eternal serenity in everyone's heart. Religion also marks  the belief that everyone is equal and establishes the  prevalence of concord. No religion ever demands slaughtering or butchering humanity. 

There is actually nothing called religion in a society where people are marked as untouchables and are impeded from entering holy places. There is actually nothing called religion in a society where a thousand Goddesses are worshiped but the girl child is always vulnerable to infanticide, foeticide, dowry deaths. There isn't any religion in this world where the world itself is divided into two worlds of poor and rich. Prevailing differences and consequent clashes between religious group marks the base of wars.

I don't believe it is even necessary to fold hands and fall on our knees in any place which is believed to be holy if we have been practicing to keep the upliftment of the morale of humanity. There is religion in everybody's heart. There is religion in the belief of every child's heart. Religion is something which defines love in our heart.

College Days

Commemorating every single mischief of the last four years has now made college life look adorable. Bunks, proxies, Cheating in internals, attendance shortage, LL (Lover’s Lane), imitating teachers, sharing data hand-books, parking lot, birthday bumps, Wonder La, Bike trips, Nandi Hills, educational trips  … everything stands as a beautiful part in each one of ours Book of Engineering. On one hand where we had friends from other branches yelling about the differences prevailing among them and on the other hand we have always cheered the  Royal Mechanical Brotherhood. Bengaluru had been a home far away from home for me. In the arms of all the brothers around this was perhaps the most beautiful phase of life. Although we always complained about the scarcity of the feminine gender yet in the end it didn’t even matter. 

Now we have all separated like the branches of a tree. We are all focussed and heading towards our destination. But will this life remain as good as the last four years from now on?? The bitter part of life will now be served to us. At every phase we would be expected to act towards responsibilities, duties and social norms. We are not expected to be mischievous and now on mischiefs would be treated as mistakes. We are all graduates, just like millions of them in the streets. We will have to be in the rat race.

Life after a decade shall be lot changed than what we lived during engineering. Most of us will be married. All of us will be established as white collar employee or entrepreneurs at different corners of the globe. We won’t be college going lad any more. We won’t be wearing our friend’s tee and a pair of torn unwashed jeans every time. We won’t have plenty of time to watch every movie. We won’t have time to fix a girl for a friend. We won’t have that appetite to eat every dish in a buffet. We would hesitate for a street fight. We won’t have that bunch of friends to get us a cake and kick our ass on the mid-night of our birthday. We would have plenty of money for petrol but the least enthusiasm for any bike trip. We would be missing studying together a night before exam. 

One fine day we would plan for a reunion and we would be there with most of us hanging a beer belly. There we shall sit and cherish about all the mischiefs of our college life. As for now, it’s too hard for me to realize that I just lived the best days of my life.