Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
We have lost another Hindu to our own cowardice. Nishank Rathore was found dead a day after his father got a message from his phone – “your son was brave”. “Gustakh-e-Nabi ki ek saza, sar tan se juda”, the message
said further.
Uma Shankar Rathore, the father of the victim, received
the message at 5.44 pm on Sunday evening. Panicked, he started
attempting to trace his son. He had gone to meet his elder sister, his
other daughter informed him. Later in the evening, his dead, mangled
body was found on the railway tracks.
“Tell this to all Hindu cowards”, read the message to Nishank’s father, “Never ever Blaspheme”.
The message that Nishank’s father got
It was late last night when we reported the news of Nishank being
murdered and the bone-chilling message that was sent to his father, from
his phone, by the killers, moments before he was chopped up. “Another
one”, was the first thought that ran through my head. The very next
moment, I felt immense shame. I was not as outraged as I was after I
watched the video of Kanhaiya Lal being murdered. I was a little less
outraged. I was a little less shaken up. I was a little less devastated
and more importantly, I was a little less angry. It was a sense of
despondency that edged out some of the anger I had harboured in my heart
since the Kanhaiya Lal murder.
