Stop at Kargil ....

I am a student of history and I love this subject. History is both achievement and

disaster to mankind. History is truth, and wars play a major role in history. I have heard of many wars, but I am a contemporary of the Kargil war.

What could be the purpose of a war and in particular, Kargil? It would sound crazy if we listen to the facts. There are personal differences among leaders and also communal reasons between different nationals.

Whatever the reasons be around this war, it is destruction of sophisticated machinery and national wealth. The most important national wealth lost is human life on both sides. The people gunned down are not the cause of the war. In order to obey orders and maintain discipline our Indian brethren and our brothers in the enemy camp have their lives terminated on a given purpose.

These warriors have all the thoughts as we civilians have. They have their kith and kin, they have their ambitions in life and they also have their heights to achieve amid all obstacles.

I am not here to comment on Indo-Pakistan relations, neither is the purpose of this write-up to comment on the Indian defence mechanism.

I have no mind to compare the loss of lives and land on either sides. I am here to stress the basic humanitarian thinking among the Indians around me.

It is at this stage that we have to praise the Almighty for the precious life he has blessed us with and also for the instant thought that kindles us. What is the thought? Yes, we have to understand that time has to be usefully spent and according to god's will.

Coming back to the theme on hand: what is our attitude and duty to the souls that have been sacrificed?

We have to be proud of our warriors and be sympathetic, generous and kind to the families they have left behind.

Although we have witnessed the scenes of grief on television, I appeal to the patient readers of this article to once again remember the mothers who have lost their sons, the wives who have lost their spouses and the children who are in a way orphaned.

I would choose to bow down in prayer to plead with the Almighty to protect the children, they have left behind, who are the future of this nation. Let us remember the families of the Pakistani martyrs also.

"O Lord let thy Kingdom come".

MARY SOLOMON, VII

CSI EWART MATRIC H S SCHOOL, Chennai

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