The brave hearts
"We do the difficult as a routine; the impossible may take a little longer" - so says a plaque in the Indian Army base on the Siachen glacier. After all such is the mind numbing and excruciatingly challenging conditions on the glacier. 5000 metres height and temperatures reaching less than minus 50 deg. , you have to be either mad or highly motivated to serve time there. And the Indian Army is the most highly motivated. We have experienced it umpteenth times, again and again. Even the best of the mountaineers try to scale the highest peaks, only when they feel assured of the best possible weather. But the Indian army man has no such liberty. He has to be highly motivated. Fresh food supplies are not available to him. An orange or an apple can get as hard as a cricket ball if exposed to the cold for only a few seconds. If bare fingers touch metal of the trigger or the barrel of the gun for 5 seconds, frost bite sets in. Such frost bites can require amputation of the fingers. In extreme cases the finger can just fall off. In the normal conditions on the glacier the weather is challenging enough, it can deteriorate further in high winds, which blast off most suddenly without warning. In the last 30 years, 846 brave soldiers sacrificed their lives due to these extremes of the weather. "The land is so barren and the passes so high, that only the best of friends and the fiercest of enemies will pay a visit". Food is not easy to come by for these brave hearts. The army helicopters have only a few minutes window to drop off supplies to the forward posts to avoid enemy fire. When snow storms strike, 2 to 3 army men have to keep using snow shovels to continuously shovel away the rising snow levels, otherwise the post will become history in no time. And the worst snow storms can last not less than 3 weeks at a time. When you stay at that altitude for long, you lose weight, don't feel like eating and sleep disorders and memory loss, a common occurrence.
So friends, spare a thought to these brave hearts, their hardships enable us, mere mortals, to live in peace with our families and lets us enjoy ourselves, whenever we feel like. Spare a thought to their families, who sacrifice their happiness since their loved ones are so far away from their homes. RIP the brave hearts who fell in their line of duty.
JAI HIND
Yatin
"We do the difficult as a routine; the impossible may take a little longer" - so says a plaque in the Indian Army base on the Siachen glacier. After all such is the mind numbing and excruciatingly challenging conditions on the glacier. 5000 metres height and temperatures reaching less than minus 50 deg. , you have to be either mad or highly motivated to serve time there. And the Indian Army is the most highly motivated. We have experienced it umpteenth times, again and again. Even the best of the mountaineers try to scale the highest peaks, only when they feel assured of the best possible weather. But the Indian army man has no such liberty. He has to be highly motivated. Fresh food supplies are not available to him. An orange or an apple can get as hard as a cricket ball if exposed to the cold for only a few seconds. If bare fingers touch metal of the trigger or the barrel of the gun for 5 seconds, frost bite sets in. Such frost bites can require amputation of the fingers. In extreme cases the finger can just fall off. In the normal conditions on the glacier the weather is challenging enough, it can deteriorate further in high winds, which blast off most suddenly without warning. In the last 30 years, 846 brave soldiers sacrificed their lives due to these extremes of the weather. "The land is so barren and the passes so high, that only the best of friends and the fiercest of enemies will pay a visit". Food is not easy to come by for these brave hearts. The army helicopters have only a few minutes window to drop off supplies to the forward posts to avoid enemy fire. When snow storms strike, 2 to 3 army men have to keep using snow shovels to continuously shovel away the rising snow levels, otherwise the post will become history in no time. And the worst snow storms can last not less than 3 weeks at a time. When you stay at that altitude for long, you lose weight, don't feel like eating and sleep disorders and memory loss, a common occurrence.
So friends, spare a thought to these brave hearts, their hardships enable us, mere mortals, to live in peace with our families and lets us enjoy ourselves, whenever we feel like. Spare a thought to their families, who sacrifice their happiness since their loved ones are so far away from their homes. RIP the brave hearts who fell in their line of duty.
JAI HIND
Yatin
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