How many of us know and remember ‘KARGIL’?

 " When you go home, tell them that for their tomorrow, we gave up our today "

     --Tears fill my eyes when I read these words which aptly describe our soldiers.

Oh  what   shameless  creatures  we  Indians  are! Someone  was  braving the enemy bullets and shells to protect  the integrity  of our motherland,  sacrificing  their  lives to save  us  from   the  embarrassment  of  our  territories  being annexed by some cowards, and remember what we were doing; we were dancing to the tunes of songs praising  a  pack of 15 players who earn lacks just for sweating a little on cricket field & losing simple matches. Sachin Tendulkar  has  been  lifted  to  a  height which even Mahatma Gandhi could not reach. Photographs of  cricketers are placed  next to that of gods. I am sure no one will look twice at the photograph of Major Saravana or the likes of him due to whom we are able to call ourselves free.

Our  gallant  soldiers  couldn’t even sleep properly for days amidst  exploding bombs and  bullet  sprays,  and  we  stayed  awake  the  whole  night  bursting  crackers and partying  just  because our  cricket team had won a match. Isn’t it a shame that all the money  wasted on cricket during those days could  have provided a great relief to the grief stricken families who had lost  their bread earners (in many cases the only ones!) in the service of our motherland?

When  three  American  soldiers  were  captured  by  the  Serbians,  thousands  of Americans  took  out processions,  demanding their government to immediately get them  freed. Compare  this  with  what  we  were  doing  when  our  Air force pilot Nachiketa was being held captive in Pakistan, we were shamelessly glued to the idiot box watching cricket.

No one has thought of producing a song to encourage the brave son’s of Nation who are  sacrificing  their lives  for  us without a second thought. Our soldiers are certainly not risking their lives of monetary gains, as we all know that the monthly pay they get is  not  worth  even 1  percent of what they are doing. All they require is a little moral support  from  their  fellow  countrymen  and   the  thought  that  their  family  will  be taken  care  of  properly. But  how  many  of  us  have  ever tried to find out how the families of  the  dead  soldiers  are? It  is  known   to  everybody how public support can raise the  spirit  of  cricketers  and  make  them  do  astonishing  feats. Can’t  we even do such a small favor for our saviors?

It  is  high  time  we  Indians  realize  that, if our cricket team cannot get the cup once, there is  always  another  chance , but  if we had lost in Kargil, we wouldn’t have got another chance.

And if, god forbid, that had happened, I would never have been able to say:

                                    “I am proud to be an Indian”

                                                                                         Pratheesh Kumar.