Live the Life of your dreams

By M S Nazki

Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine! This is is a tribute to an Indian soldier

-One more thing O! Ye! Indian soldier, ‘live the Life of your dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.!

-Another thing, ‘it’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.’! May be for the good or may be for the worst!

-I always have an incident to tell with a story because i just get a line to do so. The place was Bikaner! It was late into the evening and I had just told my wife to get the Television on so that I could watch the India-South Africa match!

-I was about to change and fix a drink for me when the senior Subedar of Company came!

-I did not know what he had in mind but soon I was cme to know!

-It was all about Dil Bahadur Pun! He was a new draft to the Battalion but a Southpaw with an extremely great footwork! He had won the Inter company championships and subsequently the Brigade! I knew he was a promising youngster in the feather weight category!

-But the Senior Subedar had a story to tell to me! And it went like this, ‘Sahab, Dl Bahadur Ko ghar Maa ek Problem Chaa?! (There is a problem in Dil Bahadur’s house! I casually asked what was it! ‘Sahab Sikkim Ma Barsaat dhere Hi Bahi Ko Chaa Aur Usko Ghar Barsaat le Leyi Dube Ko Chaa, Par Maanchi Sahi Salaamat Ho (In Sikkim heavy rains have fallen and Dil bahadur’s house has been flown away by water but people are safe!’ Honestly speaking I was n a quandary!-Div champion ships were a month away and he was in a weight that could have given us the championships! Gurkhas are fond of rum and I got a drink for the JCO! I asked him what he wanted. The reply from the JCO was 16 days leave! That day was Sunday? I knew my soldier’s problem but my problem was elsewhere! I had to take all sorts of permissions and obviously arrange for the money and an astronomical 30,000 Rupees in those days! I just told the Sr. JCO do not worry, ‘he will go home!’ But added do talk it over to the Subedar Major and concluded by saying Rakesh Tamang to train instead of him! The latter was equally good!

Usually from MSN just get one line to write a story and this time too I just got one line and that was, ‘soldier’s life is all about conquering challenges along the way & to keep moving forward !’ That is why I cited this example because this had many twists and turns!

It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. I the very next day I talked to the second in command who was officiating as the Commanding officer! I knew no would be the answer but I had decided with a ‘Yes in my mnd’! The officiating commanding officer was talking about division Championships and I about soldier’ home which he wanted to visit!

The decision fell on me as the officiating Commanding officer said! Sil Bahadur went home and instead Rakesh Tamang took over the gloves and kit bags! For sixteen days the boy trained hard and he was all set to take part in the championships! But on the 16th day evening Dil Bahadur arrived and the next morning he was on the training schedule! He looked fit and ready to go! Both trained Rakesh and Dil Bahadur but both could not have fought in the same weight. I decided that Rakesh should shift to Light weight! We were weak in that category!

In a boxing combat it is the intent that matters and we knew we needed a Light weight Category boxer! Whether the move would click or not everyone wondered but I knew it would!

We did win the divine boxing championships! Two soldiers won, the feather and light weight bouts were ours! Soldiers love to keep moving forward always even if the adversity is simply just too strong for them!