The Soldier

Bheem singh looked across the vast barren land called no man’s land to search for movement. He could spot none. He turned towards his colleague who had been his bunker mate for 10 years and in about 8 bunkers. Both of them belonged to a special squad in the army which the intelligence unit would direct to post when signs of trouble arose. His friend Arjun relaxed with sunglasses on and a thread on his tiny finger of his left hand, the other end of which was tied to Bheem singh’s finger.

They had developed a technique which was quite fool proof. If one of them was relaxing and the other on guard, the one on guard would pull the thread when trouble arose. The person relaxing would open his eyes without moving his body and look through the sunglasses to assess the situation and would move only when the partner signalled to. When assessing the situation behind the sunglasses the intruder would not be able to see the open eyes of the soldier relaxing and would automatically assume that the guard is fast asleep this would buy time for the guard sleeping to decide and act accordingly.

The silence was spooky but both of them had gotten used to it. The silence was shattered when the audio unit buzzed,

“Bunker 338, trouble might be on your way. Be alert over and out” shouted commander Vir singh at the other end.

“Over and out” Bheem Singh replied back..

Well, today’s intelligence units got their information from infra-red detection techniques from satellites posted overhead. Thus anything with life would emit infra-red rays and Bheem singh assumed that this time it might be some animal crossing their path and thus Bheem singh was casual about the whole thing and did not jump to super high security mode like he used to do some years ago. However the sudden hustle and bustle awoke Arjun who looked at his watch and said

“10 minute re, then you sleep”.

Bheem singh smiled and looked at the horizon recounting the tales of bravery and patriotism he heard about Vir singh. He almost smiled when he remembered his first outing in 1981 with the commander after a valiant battle one of the soldier went atop the hill to replace the enemy flag with ours. He was successful, right after that he was shot in the head and his corpse came rolling down. The soldier from the enemy camp drew closer to removing our flag and placing his flag back. An enraged Vir singh ran atop the hill dodging bullets from the enemy camp and took his dagger out and slit the throat of the enemy soldier when he laid his hands on the pole of the flag. The snipers saw the spots from where the smoke emanated after the enemy soldiers had fired and pretty much brought down the remaining enemy soldiers, while Bheem singh and his battalion mates ran to help Vir singh neutralize the final few left of the enemy side. A now smiling Bheem singh looked at his watch and said,

“Oye! Your time is up, wake up.” And arjun woke up with a start.

Bheem singh then cozied into his side of the bunker and just when he was about to doze off, Arjun started tugging rapidly, when Bheem singh opened his eye he saw Arjun pointing his rifle to the entrance of the bunker. A loud bang and then another and then another followed by a few more bangs and Arjun fell back with blood oozing out from somewhere near his eye, his chest, and from many other parts of his body. Before Bheem singh could react another bang!

Three days later

Bheem singh found himself conscious and standing in front of his own home. A group sat in chairs in the verandah , a shamaina was present and the general mood was glum. The first thing that struck Bheem singh was that if someone in the family had died? After all death too was one of the many companions Bheem singh had on the field. He rushed in, thinking and praying that it was not their only son. When he reached the freezer box housing the body, he saw a male body with no head, his wife crying, wailing and screaming in sorrow beside the body. He went near shell shocked and his shock turned to confusion when he saw that beside the headless corpse was his photo. How could this be he thought, he was here alive??

He started laughing and started shouting, “Hey I am alive!!”.

But to his amazement no one could hear his voice. He saw a black hole behind and was sucked into it with no one to help pull him out. Zap!!! He reached the peak of a mountain as he saw the ground below he couldn’t but help notice the familiarity of the place. He glanced down and saw a group of men standing near a trench. He decided to go down and investigate. He kept looking around and there it was his bunker but it was manned by someone else. He assumed that they might be people from the local police or he hospital as they were dressed in plain clothes.

As he drew closer to the group of people he noticed that there were people from his army and people from the enemy camp gazing together at the trench. Looking at the enemy should have made his blood boil and he should have hid somewhere and tried to find what was going on. But there was something about the group that kept pulling him. He reached and stood just behind the group and peered inside and his gut wrenched, he felt like vomiting.

He saw a heap of body parts in the trench and on top of the heap was his own head now a breeding ground for mosquitoes. His sunglasses missing and eyes rotting and a river of red coming out from portions of his neck indicating that he had bled. He walked back and sat on a stone. Just then the group turned back on him and there was something familiar about them. Just then a soldier from the friendlies came up to him and introduced himself as vignesh and started talking,

“We were the one slain in the 1981 hill capture. The hill that was captured is not far off. After the battle under the cover of darkness someone mutilated our corpses and dumped them here. We knew you would come here soon to free us what is the plan?”

Bheem singh who had not still not digested those words fully screamed back, “Did you plan my death? How did you know I would be here?”

“We have been here for 12 years and we don’t know what you are going to do but we have learnt to read the signs of nature and we came to this conclusion. It is a complex art and we could help you in translation.”

Bheem singh asked, “So you think I am here to free us all. Tell me what happened on the night of 1981?”

Vignesh said, “We were all intelligence officers from either sides and had prior experience in warfare. We found with the help of our technology that a very deep ravine existed right in the middle of the no man’s land. What was more interesting was that a garden of flower’s existed. The flower had two petals, these petals though beautiful were peculiar as we were told that one petal was a potent poison and the other the only cure to the poison.

The flower’s grew no were else in the world and the ravine provided the right condition for the growth of the plant. Pharmaceutical drug lords decided to steal a few flowers spread the poison and then sell the cures. They began bribing both our armies and they got their men into the ravines somehow. We were aware of this and decided to chase the infiltrators towards our border with a team behind them doing the chasing and we waited at a point. Once in range we would open fire neutralizing them instantly and dispose the bodies.

Everything was set and we sneaked into the border and things went as per plan. But the infiltrators managed to trick us and made a run towards the hill. We had to eliminate them ourselves and we were fortunate enough that the hill was an area not too heavily patrolled. We decided to follow them and eliminate them before they crossed the border. We soon found ourselves close to their heels and close to top of the hill. One of the infiltrators pulled out our flag and planted the opposite countries flag and started opening fire at the ground below and hid.

What we did not expect was that such a huge battalion of soldiers were posted at the bottom of the hill and they instantly opened fire when they spotted our men at the top, many of them died instantly we made a dash to the bottom of the hill and they started pounding us with mortar shelling some shells going even as far as the ravine. We stopped and realized that the best thing to do was to surrender, we turned back to the top of the hill to place a white flag near the flag fluttering above when we saw a young soldier taking the flag out and planting our flag on the pole.

He stood watching us as we waved the white cloth and he was shot from the back and another bullet hit me on my leg writhing in pain I somehow hopped towards the flag and held the pole for support and was just above to wave the white cloth when a mad man slit my throat and grabbed the white cloth and my colleagues here were shot by the rest of your battalion.”

Bheem singh asked, “Why mutilate your bodies? Why dump them here?”

“Well whoever was behind the attack did not want anyone to know that intelligence officers were involved in the operation as this would have led to a high level enquiry followed by the discovery of the ravine and its subsequent destruction.”

Bheem singh asked, “Do the flowers still grow there?”

Vignesh replied, “The mortars ruined the flowers in the ravine and they were completely destroyed. However they have started to grow about a year back.”

Bheem singh asked, “Then why send my body home? Was Arjun’s body too sent?”

Vignesh said, “Well as per newspaper reports go you two died in a car crash, Arjun’s body had too many bullets while only your head had bullet marks. The day your supposed car crash happened it was raining so they could not say that the car burst to flames and both of them were roasted so instead your car had fallen into a deep trench and Arjun’s body was supposed to have washed of in the river below and only your head was cut by the crash and your body still intact and your head to supposedly washed of into the river.but the fact remains that a bullet too went through your head but did not come out thus your head was cut off and thrown into the trench. But I still cannot figure out why your body was retained seems like someone from the infiltrators party had a soft corner for you.”

“If they had a soft corner for me don’t you think I should be alive now?” Bheem said.

“I don’t know seems like someone you worked with is also a part of this and he would have convinced his bosses to atleast send your body home. That person could also be working undercover for the infitrators.” Vignesh replied

Bheem singh said, “Well whatever the case I am grateful to whoever sent my body but now I do not want to stay trapped here for eternity. Let us figure a way to escape a way to liberate ourselves, according to the Hindu religion when a body is burnt the soul is liberated. Have you tried burning the parts?”

Vignesh bore looks of disappointment and said, “We have tried that but we are unable to lift anything since we are spirits, we have a lot of flammable goods in the bags but we have not been able to open them.”

Someone from the group screamed, “ Then how is Bheem sitting on the rock?”

Instantly vignesh bent down and picked up a stone and threw it far and screamed happily, “See I told you, you are here to liberate us. We have not been able to do this since ’81.”

“Well then everyone grab whatever you can and set the trench on fire.” Shouted Bheem and Vignesh in unison

Soon bottles of alcohol, spirit and explosive powders were picked out from the bags and dropped in the trench but to a naked eye it would have appeared as if these things were floating on their own and the fire was lit.

The warmth the heat provided warmed the souls of the spirits who seemed to hope that they would be liberated soon. The fire soon died out but nothing happened and everyone hung their heads in sorrow. The silence was eerie, but this silence was disturbed when a convoy of jeeps having complex weapons and men in plain clothes passed by them towards the ravines.

“It’s them the people sent by the drug lords”, Vignesh said

The group followed them and were shocked, Bheem singh heart broken when he saw his beloved commander Vir Singh leading the infiltrators to the ravine. He did not know what to do. Vignesh and his team wanted to kill the infiltrators immediately but could not move.

Vignesh shouted, “Bheem your mind is controlling our actions please allow us to kill these people”

Bheem thought for a while and then said, “Let us not kill them as killing them would bring someone else in their place. I also want to see if my commander is an undercover agent or a crooked country double crosser.”

Everyone else seemed to agree Vignesh asked, “How are you going to test your commander’s truthfulness, his patriotism?”

Bheem went close to the truck and will a heavy heart dropped the very flag whose honour he had been defending for a long time and then went back to his place.

Vignesh was puzzled and asked, “What is this going to prove?”

Bheem said, “if the commander loves his country he will replace the flag in the jeep if not I have a plan.”

Just then the group observing the ravine started walking towards the jeep this time the commander walked behind the group. Everyone in the group paid no respect to the flag and just left it there however the commander who was not in line with the group stamped the flag accidentally, Bheem watched with baited breath as to what happened next, the commander then casually asked the orderly to pick the flag up and replace it. An enraged Bheem singh told something to the group and two men rushed towards jeeps having rocket launchers and all the others towards the jeeps.

Hiss!! Hiss!! Boom boom booooom !!! Hiss!!!

Were the sounds that followed as the spirits not started deflating the tyres of the jeeps and two other men started launching rockets towards either sides of the border. In seconds drone from both the sides flew by and took pictures as the infiltrators ran for cover. Helicopters came in soon with men from the International Border Security Force who pointed their guns at the infiltrators. It was evident that the infiltrators who were heavily armed would easily take down the troops and escape.

Bheem singh screamed and all the men started dropping sand near the eyes of the infiltrators who were temporarily blinded. This gave enough time for the infiltrators to be captured who in the end were dragged mercilessly towards the helicopters. Soon the scene cleared and the sound of the distant helicopters was still audible in the otherwise quite hill. The familiar smell of gunpowder surrounded the otherwise pristine smell of the valley and smoke started rising from the ground.

Bheem Singh turned back and smiled at the men and the men too returned the smile before disappearing into a fog. Bheem singh thought that he was finally being liberated and closed his eyes suddenly the smell went away and the smoke disappeared when Bheem opened his eyes. He turned back and the team of intelligence officers were absent. He knew they reached their abode. He went back heavy hearted to his bunker which was now unoccupied and closed his eyes as he lay in the spot he slept last with blood stains and pieces of flesh still present in the bunker.

After what seemed like a day or two he opened his eyes in his room. He stood up and saw himself in the mirror and heaved a sigh of relief at the dream. He went to the hall and switched on the news. That gave him a 15000 V shock as the news read,

“Commander Vir Singh caught selling his country.”

A now confused Bheem singh was confused and started pacing up and down the hall when he saw his picture in front of which a candle burnt and but the urn in which ashes are kept was absent. He then realized that the reason that no one was home was because his body was being taken for cremation just as he realized this, the familiar smell of gunpowder struck him….

__END__