Monday, April 4, 2011

आधी आज़ादी

The story was a flashback story in Rajat's mind ,when he used to be a soldier in Indian army and was posted at an army camp in the forests of Kokoda-Juganar, 300 km north of Raipur and few kms from the famous Baster belt. The Naxals were battling for control in this part of India's Red corridor. Rajat had heard lot of stories of ruthless police and Naxal clashes and victimized villages but had no hint of the storm which was waiting for him . After few days of patrolling , rajat was able to interact with the denizens of fields and forests and enjoyed teasing village girls and motivating school kids crossing fields by sowing the seeds of patriotism among them.

It was a dark stormy night, Rajat was having a gut feeling of something wrong gonna happen as its been one month he had been posted here but he had never seen God soo furious . Rajat went out the camp and sat under the tree , trying to talk with trees and apoplectic wind . It was in the wee hours rajat saw an army personal ,who was on the patrolling duty in the village, came rushing into the camp. That person told the CO of the camp that a group of Naxalites were in the village and they had killed the other army persons on the duty . Without wasting time and obeying the orders of the CO, everyone picked up the Guns , armed themselves with bullets and kissed the picture in their valets . Shouting "Veer Bhogya Vasundhara " , everyone jumped into the vehicles and were ready for the fight . After 20 minutes vehicles running on kacha roads , vehicles finally reached the village. But it was a dreadful scene there . Before army unit would have reached, local police had reached there and all around were the burning houses and a long queue of dead bodies. The Amry captain approached to the police inspector of that region who was shouting at the police men for arranging the dead bodies and ammunition captured from Naxals and asked him about the whole devastation. Inspector refused to explain anything and recommended Captain to read tomorrow newspaper. Rajat suddenly saw the dead bodies of the local villagers and even the kids in that queue . He was shocked to see all this .Most of the men of the village were in that pile of dead bodies and Police had tagged them as Naxals or killed by Naxals . Rajat couldn't stand to that blood bath so he freakingly ran toward the river . He didn't know what to do and how to forget such a heinous crime .


On his way , he saw few ladies with torn clothes and bleeding , he came to know that all had been raped but he didn't know who did all this : Naxals or Police !!!!!  He didn't muster courage to ask them as they were even afraid of  shadows . He reached near the river . He was gasping heavily and his mind was blank . Suddenly he saw a minor girl climbing a small hill . He relentlessly ran toward her , as he knew that she would jump from the hill top . He reached the top of the hill from the other side and so did the girl . Rajat shouted at her not to jumped. She turned back , seeing someone in army dress she baffled more. Rajat stepped one step ahead asking her to calm down but she was crying loud and said "You killed my parents , raped me , killed my four year younger brother and now you want me to calm down" . Rajat stepped another step and she stepped backward toward the clif . He knew whats going on in her mind. He closed his eyes and said "I am sorry" . He stepped back and turned downside the hill until he heard the splash of water . He thought of jumping into the water and saving her but then he thought "Does saving her from death will really help her in any way" and with this thought , he moved toward his vehicle. The splash of water had tainted his soul and he went into a mental trauma when he returned to his camp. From that day to till now , rajat didnt utter a single word and has completed his 30 years in Army asylum today.



Silence Prevails,
 Aditya Deadpan 

2 comments:

  1. my godness...kya to likha hai bhai...so true..so real. It closely reflected irony in lives of few good souls who try to do something better but fail to do it because of circumstances..sad is the fate of those who want to but can't do anything...brilliant writeup

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  2. world is dead,soulless, Godless and mindless...

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