Saturday, August 06, 2005

if the mission requires...

Question
_______________________

Place: The Indian Army Camp, Siachen Glacier
Temperature: Minus 40 degree centigrade
Salary of a jawaan posted: Rs. 9,000
Extra Salary just cause he is at Siachen: Rs. 32
Freqency of a bath: 3 months
Frequency of shit: weekly
Freqency of death: daily

What is the motivation...?

(Possible) Answer
_________________________

patriotism
pride
power
money
prestige
...
...
bullshit...!!!

its all for the leader...the commanding officer...the 'in-charge'...

________________________________________________________________

Capt. Raghu Raman was here at ISB last evening. talking about 'leadership at 26,000 feet'...defining what leadership is all about...defining what it takes to motivate people under situations that are worse than anything possibly imagined...

he talked about crisis...which is not about getting a B grade when you wanted to get into mckinsey...or about getting tense cause you cant cope up with work pressure...! he talked about crisis...which is deciding whether to send 5 more soldiers in a blizzard to search for the 5 that havent returned...at the risk that they may never return...or that the 5 gone out might be 20 mtrs away from the camp freezing to death...!

he not only got a standing ovation (truly deserved) at the end of it all..he also managed to capture (atleast to some extent) the foolish-ignorant-pompous-greedy-selfish devil inside all of us and show him what the real gravity of the world is.

hah...i was dissapointed that we didnt win the frisbee final...! at the same time someone 26,000 feet above might not be 'allowed' to shed a tear when his friend doesnt return...forever...


its not the best feeling to know that your life is so trivial when compared to so much more...and especially when you have always felt that you have struggled so much to be where you are. someone out there worked a gigillion times more...and didnt even reach someplace...

i am blessed to be me...

~a

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quote:
someone out there worked a gigillion times more...and didnt even reach someplace...
I am not sure I understand what you meant...I hope ('coz I know you are more sensitive than that) you don't mean that the soldier's haven't reached anywhere in life.

ankur said...

oh no...you got me wrong there. ofcourse my life is a shitpot when i consider what i have done and then compare it to a soldier's. i was talking about so many others..who work so hard all their life..and yet somehow keep struggling. at some level i dont know if i have done something really that big to deserve being where i am...!