The Possession of Leisure

Take a look around you. Everyone is running. Running after something or the other. Running to reach someplace. Running to catch a train. Running to make a meeting. Running to make end meet. Running to stay ahead of the others. Running after time. Everyone seems to have something to run after. Something that they aspire for. Something that they dream about. Something that they want to own. To possess. Whether it is at work or at home. And they end up spending their entire lives running, without ever having the joy of enjoying what they have attained through all this running. The time for enjoying is always tomorrow. Yet, tomorrow never seems to come. And one day it is all over. You lie on your deathbed, looking back at your life, and the process of running starts all over again. What could have been done. What should have been done. What needed to be done. All the missed opportunities. Now gone forever. And you close your eyes to eternal sleep.

Let us step back for a while and ask ourselves what is the purpose of all this running, when on that final moment of reckoning, all you have is you and your memories. Can the memories be of joy and happiness of a life well lived, or does it have to be about the things that could have been. I once read somewhere “No one on his deathbed ever said, I wish I had spent more time in the office.” So true. Yet, every waking moment of our lives we run after that elusive pot of gold at the rainbow. We run after that mirage in the horizon. We are always on the lookout for that turn in the road of our lives which will change our fortunes forever. And yet, when we finally do take that turn, there emerges ahead of us yet another turn, yet another rainbow, yet another mirage. And the chase continues. We continue to run till we fall.

Why can’t we gift ourselves the luxury of leisure? Why can’t we decide to take possession of that luxury called time? Is it decadence that allows us that luxury? Is it only people who do not have to think about what tomorrow entails who can have the luxury of leisure. Without a care in the world, without the eternal running endemic to humankind? Do people look at those with time on their hands, enjoying the luxury of leisure as fortunate human beings who do not have to work for a living? Maybe yes. But when you come down to think of it, how much of our lives are spent in keeping up with the person next door? Why do we have to compare ourselves with someone else? And why does all equations have to be drawn against the equaliser of material possessions? Isn’t that what we try to do when we are running? Get a better job, a higher salary, a bigger car, a four bedroom house, china and silver on the table? Why does it have to be that? Why can’t we be happy to live the life that we want to? Maybe because we have forgotten what we want out of life. Maybe we never knew what life has to offer. Maybe we are so conditioned to grow up, get educated, get employed, make money and teach our children to do the same. Why can’t we step back for once and gift ourselves the luxury of leisure?

Is it so difficult to possess leisure? No, it is not. Not when you really get down to it. What does one need to lead a happy and contended life? Not much, to be honest. Three square meals a day, a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and the wind in our faces. Why should we consider ourselves happy only if we have the big television and a fancy cellphone and a sparkling sedan parked outside? We will not take any of that away with us when we make out final journey. On that day if we can ride the wagon with a smile on our faces and no regrets in our hearts, is the proof of a fulfilled life.

I would love to go back to sustenance living. Grow what you can eat, build a home with your own hands, as big as your needs, breathe the fresh clean air away from the dust and grime and fumes of the city, never have anyone to compete with, just have family around you to love and to cherish. That is my dream. I want to stop running and give myself the luxury of leisure.

The blood of our bravehearts

It has been a long time since the Army has been involved in a protracted operation to apprehend / neutralise infiltrators, trying to get into Indian territory. I understand that winter is near and the snows on the mountains will not make it easier for people to infiltrate. In 2013 the level of infiltrations and ceasefire violations have taken a quantum leap. Skirmishes have occurred quite frequently. But this operation in the Keran sector has lasted fifteen days. Despite what the denials might be, I am quite sure that the infiltrators were quite heavily entrenched, and equipped with arms, ammunition, food, medicines and other supplies. In the first few days we heard about infiltrators being eliminated but no bodies were recovered. This gave rise to the story that they had occupied a village along the border and that the operation was not only to neutralise or apprehend the terrorists, but also to liberate the village. This operation happened, as is so often the case, when one unit was handing over the area of operations to another. And this time one of the units that found themselves in the line of fire almost the day they landed in the sector was the 3rd Regiment of the Third Gorkha Rifles (3/3 GR), which I am proud to say is the Regiment that my father was commissioned into on Dec 4, 1954.

Anyway. After 15 days the operation came to a halt but the battle continues. A large cache of arms have been recovered – sniper rifles, automatic weapons, pistol, and such like. Almost ten of the supposed 35-40 terrorists have been killed. And in the coming weeks that are left before the snow comes down blanketing the countryside, the Army expects more such attempts to push in terrorists and militants (and soldiers?) into Jammu & Kashmir. The current operation is over, but the battle, like I said, continues.

There are a lot of people who are questioning the fact of these infiltrations. How can there be so many infiltrations in an area that is supposedly the most tightly guarded in the whole world? People are trying to fault the Army. Little do they realise the difficulties that the Army finds itself in. The terrain is hilly and mountainous. There are innumerable places to hunker down and evade detection. The terrorists have been known to dig tunnels under the fence. They cut the fence wire and sneak in under covering and distractionary fire from the Pakistan army. Yes, people will come in, the task is to catch them before they can get into more populated areas.

But the Army in under another kind of pressure, this time from their own Government unfortunately. They are not allowed “hot pursuit”. They are not allowed to cross the Line of Control. They are not allowed to use indiscriminate use of firepower. They also do not have the communication facilities required to combat such activities. Guerrilla warfare is very different from conventional warfare. And Pakistan and its cohorts excel in it. On the other hand, the powers that be, sitting in South Block, go back to the glory days of war, when armies faced each other, eyeball to eyeball, on the battlefield, went to war, and may the best team win. Guerrilla warfare is about tactics and deception, it has to be tackled to guile and strategy. Dealing with such infiltrators needs to be unconventional. It has to be demonstrably preventive. The soldiers need to send the message to the other side borrowing from the film Sholay – “Tum ek marogey to hum char marengey (If you kill one, we will kill four).”

Whenever people talk of sending a strong message to Pakistan, the almost automatic and robotic response is, “So do you think we should go to war?” The time probably has come for a military solution to the problem. Even so, short of war there are a lot of solutions to put pressure on the rogue elements in Pakistan, to squeeze them, to ensure that they start hurting at the upper levels. Currently, some infiltrators die and that is the amount of discomfort to the establishment training and equipping them. The discomfort needs to be palpable and it should come home to roost.

Why can’t the Indian Government be more assertive in their public statements?

Why can’t the Indian Government impress upon the global community about what is happening?

Why can’t the Indian Government insist on diplomatic sanctions against Pakistan?

Why can’t the Indian Government try and get sanctions imposed by the world against Pakistan?

Why can’t the Indian Government reinstate India as a no-fly zone for Pakistani aircraft?

Why can’t the Indian Government impose a blockade of ships going into Pakistan?

OK, the Pakistani Government could be the babe in the woods, without knowing what their military and intelligence services are up to. Let us give them the benefit of doubt. But with the above initiatives, the people of Pakistan will start putting pressure on the Pakistan Government to act against the rogue elements in the Pakistan military and ISI.

The possible outcome of such activity inside Pakistan could be another coup d’état. So be it. At least India and the rest of the world will know who is the person sitting across the table and whether that person has the power to take decisions. I am sure that the Prime Minister of Pakistan or his Government has no clue. They cannot have breakfast without the approval of the military/ISI nexus. And Nawaz Sharief will be extra cautious about displeasing the military given his history at having been ignobly ousted from office during his last term. So the less we expect from the civilian dispensation from within Pakistan, the better. It has to be external pressure applied to make things change.

In the meanwhile India should go ahead and destroy all known terrorist camps within Pakistan ... WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT. After all these terrorists are “non State actors” and Pakistan has nothing to do with them. So they should not have any trouble if India “assists” them in removing this menace from within Pakistani territory. Maybe terrorism within Pakistan will also go down with these camps destroyed and manpower eliminated.

India could try these solutions for a few months to see if there is visible improvement in the situation. Meanwhile the threat of war should be a clear and distinct possibility ... visibly and out in the open. And this hogwash about both countries being nuclear powers is pure bollocks. Pakistan may not have a no-first-use policy, but they will be foolish to embark on a nuclear misadventure. They know they will become global pariahs overnight and with the state the country is in, they can ill afford that. Pakistan will never use their nuclear arsenal. Let India call the bluff and let us see who blinks first.

And after the war, let the armies decide on the post-war treaty. Left to the politicians, they will once again hand over strategic assets gained after the loss of soldiers. And the problem will continue. In 1965 we captured the Haji Pir Pass and then gave it away. The Haji Pir sector is from where much of the infiltration takes place today. If we land up in Lahore and are found having a drink at the Club waiting for the rest of the formations to catch up, we should hold on to it. And recapture and keep as much territory as possible from what Pakistan took away in 1947-48. Give the Army a free hand in case of war and see the Kashmir problem disappearing into the mists of history.

Meanwhile, along the Line of Control, we will continue to see the soldiers’ blood flowing needlessly.