28 July 2018

What we witness in the current times are peaceful coalitions, diplomatic missions, and peace treaties. We all can peacefully move around in our shining cars going about our business, enjoying movies and exotic foods with an untamed sense of freedom and security. But do you know how we are able to enjoy this freedom? It has not simply come to us but we have earned it hard. The freedom and security we enjoy today is all owing to the courage, dedication, sweat, and blood of our heroes, our soldiers, who stand like the colossus at the edge of our boundaries, keeping death and destruction at bay, often sacrificing themselves to pain and death so that we stay in peace and comfort and enjoy all the luxuries in life.

JPIS

Even as we speak, they patrol our borders like lions, feral and proud. There they live and breathe in conditions that most of us even consider uninhabitable. Be it being knee deep in the chilly snow clad glaciers, in hot sand dunes of Thar, or in bare mountains of the east, they face it all for us, for our freedom, for our happiness. There they stand like sentinels, brave and proud, holdingan immense sense of love and duty, courage and honor in the service of our great country. They take great pride in having the consolation of tricolor draped as a shroud over them when they depart the realm of the living, in memory of what they stood for and what they fought for. Such is the fierce pride and honor that lives in the heart of every soldier of our proud nation, protecting the golden land of seven rivers, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

It is men and women such as these that make us believe again in the gradually fading words of courage, honor, and patriotism. It is they who inspire us to be better than what we can be, leading by glorious examples of feats that fill us with pride and at the same time makes us teary-eyed for the sacrifice they make for our country and countrymen. It is patriots such as these who are indeed the cream of our nation, standing up for everything that our constitution stands for.

But sadly not many remember the deeds of heroism and often ignore their great sacrifices as daily news. Our youths today are missing the very essence of what it is to be an Indian, with our young generation aiming more towards what to achieve rather than what to give. Words like compassion, honesty, and values are swiftly becoming a thing of the past. We, at the JP International School, on the occasion of Kargil Vijay Diwas, would sincerely request our young generation to remember the bravery that our soldiers portrayed during the Kargil war and even today while fencing the borders. The sagas of the bravery of our heroes in uniform are so countless and each so inspiring and unique in its own right that all, if recounted, will fall short for a full-length novel.

One such extraordinary soldier of our country was Captain Vikram Batra, the hero of the Kargil War often referred to as ‘Sher Shah’ who stands out on top amongst all. He went on to capture Point 5140 at an altitude of 17000 feet facing extreme difficulty and danger. In spite of being seriously injured, he persisted and managed to kill enemies in close combat. He bravely fought for the nation till his last breath succumbing to his fatal injuries with the word “Jai Mata di” on his lips. Before leaving for the war, he told one of this friends that he will either come back after hosting the tricolor, or will be back wrapped in it, but he will be back for sure. Such was the bravery, sense of duty, honor, and courage of this brave heart Vikram Batra and many others like him. If the brave souls like him would have not fought and sacrificed for the nation, everything we enjoy would have been lost to the foreign forces that continuously try to disrupt our nation and destroy our freedom.

We, at JPIS, believe that it is our prime duty to teach our youth about the extreme bravery of our soldiers and to make them understand the value of love, courage, honor, and sacrifice for the nation. Schooling plays a profoundly important part in any youngster’s life, and knowledge balanced with value education is the only way to create responsible citizens holding love and passion for the country.

- JP International School