Kargil Vijay Diwas - 10th anniversary

In furtherance to my Post: A Nation of Hypocrites
Apathy shown by the Government and Authorities on the

10th Anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas : 26 July 2009

A poem on Kargil by Shyam Kumari

Kargil

Kargil is not the name of a far-off place,
Kargil is not the name of a high mountain ridge,
Kargil is a place of pilgrimage

Where wooing death as one would a sweetheart,
With the laughter of Rudra in their eyes,
Ever ready to fling their lives, gnawing hunger

And biting cold, they faced with a smile,
Where to defend Mother India, her brave sons die.

A cluster of grenades to their waists they tie
As they struggle for a toe-hold,
Crawling up the sheer slopes
Of those snow-covered harsh ranges.

To lighten their load they throw away their daily meal,
To be able to carry some more ammunition
And extra grenades to blow up those enemy bunkers,
Which stealthily Pakistan had made
And thus had our trust been sorely betrayed.

For he went to them -- Atal of India, the past to forgive
And forget with hands outstretched to embrace and befriend.

While they prepared to stab us in the back,
To wound our trust with a forward thrust in India .
Will Gods ever pardon what they have done?

Today to the Indian annals of sacrifice and self-immolation,
Are added new chapters, as our brave soldiers
Lay mutilated by their inhuman captors.

Today, the Tricolour of India
Flies again from those peaks snow-bound
And the full-throated war-cry of India 's hero-warriors
On those ranges will always reverberate and rebound.

Then hundreds of pilgrim feet will brave the arduous way
To light incense and to lay wreaths on the sacred spots
Where they fell, the valiant sons of Mother India.

Kargil has become a hallowed name, etched in pain
Spoken with pride, by patriots India-wide.
After Kargil India will always be wary
The torch of constant vigil will it carry.

Kargil has ignited a new fire
In our hearts an ardent desire
To wager all for the Mother's defense
Petty living no more makes any sense.

Today we need to answer the call of the Mother
All else will come thereafter.
Now the youth of India vie with each-other
As to who will fling first one's life on India 's altar
And who will first have the honour Of being a martyr?
Many try to be the first to die for the country.

O Kargil! thanks to you, a new spirit has been kindled
In state after state in person after person;
Love for the country, which had alas grown dim
Now burns bright and the Rajputs' ideal
In India 's daughters and sons is once more alight.

Be wary, O enemy!
Indians arise, India will not be beguiled again
It will never be taken in again.
Kargil reminds us of dark perfidy and of sombre sacrifice.
The nation pays homage to the Indian army
To its brave way of life, to its readiness to die.

Shyam Kumari
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pondicherry
June 30 1999