correspondence love

Love with a man in olive green makes you travel from the snow clad mountains in Jammu to the sea shore in southern point at Kanyakumari and from Rann of Kutch in west to the scenic  beauty of the beautiful rainy areas in the east. the olive greener job is not so easy, he is on job 24*7. He wakes up when everyone's sleeping and sleeps only once everyone falls asleep. Months he works tirelessly with out leave. Few are his holidays in which he falls asleep. now in this kind of a routine how does a olive greener maintain a girl friend? Difficult question however the answer is not simple. He still manages, day of tiresome work starting with pt at 5 in the morning with a long days slog which ends only at night, some times six sometimes seven, or further delaying the time to return home. the little time he gets the number of tasks are lots, finishing his homework which he gets along, dinner and then the time for family and finally comes the turn for the girl friend. yes there comes the time when she waits the whole day for his call to end her day with his voice. The sweetest voice, and while talking the tired man in semi sleep condition even dozes off, this pisses off the lady a lot but she still holds her temper knowing his schedule. then comes birthdays, anniversaries or festive which celebrates without him, not because he doesn't want to be there because he cant be there due to the call of the duty. Either it be peace or field he is busy all the time. The olive greener are not just busy with guns all the time but even with pen and paper which occupies there majority of the time.

Now the question comes about correspondence love? what does it mean with this busy schedule crises of time all the time how does he still manage to love and be with the girl he loves and pleases her. Its not easy to wait for months to meet him, just like a correspondence course  where you wait and kill the whole year and attend to your exams, that's how a olive greener lovers condition is like. She cribs she cries but rare are the moments when he is around to wipe her tears. Rare are the times when she gets to hug him or be in his arms. She waits patiently loosing her patience times and regaining her patience. Praying all day and night for his safety just like your exam results. Mostly distant and rarely near still she trusts him and lets him travel far, deep in the jungle , up in the mountain hill , remote villages with least facilities in the country or the crowded city. Tension comes before appearing exams that's how tension comes when he is about to come, the nervousness is just like how you are going to attend your exam what do i wear, how do i look, did i gain weight god am i looking good or not, but the results are always sweet as he never cares for what you look how much did you gain nor what did  you wear, he just cares for the twinkle in your eyes, the care in your deed and love in you for him. being with him is just like attending a paper, how much ever time you get its always less. and as the time starts slipping away the heart beat increases. However the years pass and you graduate and in the same way you graduate from girl friend and boy friend to man and wife, but this doesn't end here, the cycle continues and correspondence becomes a integrated part of there lives.

that thing called pride

"oucch", he said while she was pining the commendation card to his uniform, by mistake the sharp end of the pin had pricked him.This was the first time since marriage that Avi had joined back to work and Maya had joined him in the unit. For the first time she payed attention to all the medals that were there on his chest, very colorful she thought, and left it there without asking as he screamed again "Maya, I am getting late darling". Her thought was disturbed and she landed into reality. Finally waved bye bye to Avi for office.

There was lot she wanted to talk to him about and ask him about the colorful medals and the golden color medal which he wore that brightened his uniform. She was lost in her thoughts and tried googling it, but google also couldnt help her much she didnt know how to find the answer about them as she didnt want to wait till Avi came back. She went around surfing and lost the track of time.

Maya and Avi were married twenty days back, it was an arrange marriage. There's was no different marriage, from a very typical arrange marriage, both came from the conservative family where there families decided about there wedding and where they saw each other only twice before wedding, once when both t t the families were meeting and second time when they were getting engaged.They hardly knew each other and now they were forced to stay with each other. The grew up in the conservative families where pre marital groom and bride talking to each other wasn't taken as a good sign and hence they couldn't know about each others liking dislike much.

Maya was a Science graduate with a B.Ed degree, and married immediately on the completion of her course. Avi was in a boys school till his 12th standard and there after he joined NDA and immediately after commissioning he got posted to Siachen and even before he completed his field tenure his family had found the prospective match for him and sent Maya's photo to him. Avi didn't know much about Maya but there was something about her which made him want her and unable to look out for any excuses he said a yes for this proposal.

The next leave he went on, the second day he went with his family to see the girl and within a week he got engaged. They could barely exchange glance or talk to each other. The first time he had heard her was post marriage when after the bidai they all came to his home and the bride was getting a introduction about a all the members of the home, and near and dear relatives. As each day passed they were getting to know each other better, and having spent her honey moon along with him at the bay in sun, sand and the sea "GOA" , Avi and Maya had just reported to the unit just two days earlier so that they could settle the home at the earliest.

This was the first day when she had seen Avi in Uniform. She was just mesmerized by how handsome he looked in uniform. The aura that he held in uniform and how good she felt standing next to him. Coming from a civil background and having no knowledge about the defense she would find herself lost when he would introduce her to someone. The whole new culture came to her as shock. When they entered the unit for the first time, there vehicle was stopped at the gate, the couple was asked to get down and the whole unit was crowded up there to welcome the newly married. Everyone congratulated the new couple a and Avi was handed a cycle and the lady was asked to sit on the on the cycle handle in front and ride it till there house which Avi had already taken before marriage. She was awe stuck seeing the openness which she had never experienced and had gone red with shyness. The other shocker to her came to her the evening before during there welcome party when they were asked to sing together and dance together. This all was too new to Maya, the openness of the place made her free like a bird, she was still to discover a lot about the culture. She lost the track of time, when there was a knock on the door, she walked towards the door wondering who could it be. On opening the door she found Avi at the door, surprised she stood there thinking something. Avi, just smiled saying I am back. She looked at the watch and realized the time was already quarter past two, and Avi was there as he had promised to be there at the earliest. He asked her to get ready soon as they had to go for lunch and shop a lot, for setting the army house into home a sweet home. Excited they were together to start a family life together.

Lunch followed by shopping the household stuff from market, and then dinner and exhausted were they returned back to the home. Finally it was night and with no strength left to anything else, and sleep no were near they laid on the bed talking to each other. it was then the right time she thought to ask him about t the colorful ribbons on his chest and golden shining medal on his uniform. She asked, "Avi, can i ask you something", "yes" came the reply. "Avi what are colorful ribbons on your uniform and what does that golden medal with army chief commendation written signify". Avi laughed, and her innocence and replied her back the grey white grey symbolizes that i served in siachen, the one in orange with two lines (green and white) signifies my service in J and K and the one in blue color with white peaks signifies higher altitude, and the golden medal that you see is a medal received from army chief its called commendation card". Maya was absorbing all the information he was giving her.She amazed at Avi's bravery, then she shooted her next question," was it very cold in Siachen?" Avi didn't mind answering her questions infact she was enjoying her doubts "yes it was very cold, sometime the temperature dropped down to -40degree's." Maya was admiring him for his bravery to have seen all these things at such a young age. Then she asked him many questions on how did you live there, what did you eat, how did you cook and all the questions that kept coming in her mind and in the mean time Avi opened his laptop and showed her few pictures he had clicked there Maya was so thrilled to see them and so excited. Avi was patient all the while answering her questions and was l loving answering her as he could see the excitement in her eyes.

Then came the question and the golden medal what is that for? Avi said its called Commendation Card, and why did you get. Avi was lost a little by the first question itself. She touched him Avi was totally lost in his thought and it took him a little while to come back to reality. He said i got it for a operation in Siachen. That was enough to excite Maya, she said operation what operation tell me about it please, initially Avi refused but Maya was persistent in her request and he agreed to tell her about it. It was about a year and a half back when i was posted in Siachen.

Peak Winters it was then, snow clad mountains, the men in uniform and foxes are all that could be found there. Everything was white, it looked just like heaven pure and eternal. The first thought that comes in your mind once you reach is just peace and wanting to be there for ever, but with the passing time you discover reality, living conditions aren't as great as you think. Sitting, guarding, sleeping, reading , eating ,writing are the only things that one can do there. Bathing is next to impossible so may be in two or three days we have sponge bath, walking bear feat can give you froze bite so one has to be very careful, and dressed all the time. Oxygen is scarce so you have to be careful not to over work there. Shaving is difficult if you cut then bleeding would be a problem. Ice has to be heated to drink and other daily stuff. So this is a shot glimpse of how life there is. We get supplies like ration, newspaper, letters with the help of the army and air force helicopter. Letters which everyone waited for, and newspapers no use as the news was already old by then as they would arrive late.

it was one such day when the weather god didn't look in a good mood. The air force helicopter Cheetah along with a pilot and co-pilot was to fly for our post to deliver some goods. Suddenly there was a big boom sound we all heard, everyone looking out for the source of the sound. There we saw the bird c cheetah , descending the speed at which it was descending was 10 times faster than the usual speed and we could see the fire in the tail and blades had stopped rotating. The chopper crashed to one of the hilly peak due to the bad weather and went and fell in a valley. Looking at the way it had crashed there was no scope t the pilot or co-pilot would have been alive.There was a cold wave that passed through everyone witnessing the crash. Everyone was numb for few seconds. By the time everyone regained there senses the copter was 150 feet down crashed and in bits and pieces in the deep valley.

Next two hours were busy working on for the rescue operation that had to be launched, how to reach the spot, how many people, material needed, everything was worked out. A troop of ten men was made. Who would go down. The troop was assisted by me and a senior officer who completed the operation. Reaching on the spot the sight wasn't a pleasant one crashed copter half burnt the two bodies inside burnt and black, unable to recognize who's who. Then reached a doctor who was also a part of the team, who checked out the two bodies and declared them dead, the bodies were tied with rope and sent up with great difficulty. The weather god i wish was kind and little cooperative that day but his non cooperation lead to a lot of trouble, of getting the team down in the valley and getting them back up, with the extreme weather conditions it was a tedious task. The bodies were further carried to the base and from there to there respective families for the last rites.The matter was reported to head quarter, and my name was refereed for the commendation card and this is what it is. With that Avi ended his story.

Maya was deep engrossed in Avi's story, her eyes were moist and there was a sense of pride she felt, her lips were sealed and she struggled to find words to speak. She was speechless for couple of minutes all she could do was hug him tight.

With that story the night ended, the next morning life was back to the routine and Maya was back to where she started from admiring the medals and ribbons on his uniform. The pride that she had standing n next to him couldn't be put better in words.

They lived happily ever after