My father served in the Indian Navy for 30 years. I'm just writing about one particular incident, thinking of which still chills down my spine.
I was in class 9 or 10, it was Vijay Diwas and a news channel was on, that was showing the stories of our martyrs and how each soldier fought bravely against the Pak forces. I asked mummyji out of excitement if daddyji ever went to any war to which she said YES....!!
I was like, seriously.....????
Being a naval sailor's daughter, I thought whenever daddyji was not at home, he was onshore, sailing, and/or maybe on cruise. I never ever dreamt of him being a part of any fight or battle as TV serials and movies also never showed much about naval forces and how exactly they save the country from wars and terrorists....!!! I thought it was all done by only Army and Air Force....
So it was 1999, Indo-Pak Kargil war was going on and Army & Air Force were at territorial borders of the 2 countries, Indian Navy was deployed at Indo-Pak coastal borders (in Gujarat, somewhere near Karachi).
All naval fighter ships on border did patrolling 24*7 in the Arabian Sea while being super alert. There was no way to communicate with the family members, forget communication, there was shortage of ration on ships as the number of days to be spent onshore extended, even the ration available was getting rotten. Well nevermind, this is what defence people are trained for and are expected to survive in such situations, so not a big deal, right...? Each day started with new "JOSH" and ended with prayers to see another sunshine....days passed and it continued for almost 45 days when...
The forces were ordered to move back and cease-fire was announced.All were relaxed and celebrations were there, Navy didn't have to fight as our Army and Air Force did wonderful job and we had won..!!Sounds good as it was victorious..!!
But you know what, I still remember one thing my mom said...Before leaving for the war, daddyji said to her "Agar main vapas na aaun, ya koi khabar na aaye toh bachon ko lekar gaaon chali jana"This is something that made me go numb for a while and respect parents and other faujis even more. No other mom can be as independent and braveheart as our moms are (obviously except single moms). I've never lived for more than 10-15 days continuously with my dad until the age of 13 and didn't know of his choices. My everyday question to mom after coming from school was..."Daddyji kab aenge?"To which she never had any reply; she simply used to laugh and say "bas jaldi aenge".Seeing daddyji was a celebration..!
She's an educated lady who never thought of having a career just to look after us, as staying in another part of the country with no known and husband always away, busy serving the country isn't as easy as it may seem, but she did it easily, as if she was born to do this, and all of my known aunties too did that..!Lots of love and strength to all the military and paramilitary forces :)
