A soldier on a cause!

The boy woke up startled at the cries and shouting by the elders!

It was pitch dark, he called out to his mother, there was no response, he tried searching for her by crawling all around the space

She was nowhere to be felt or found and he could neither feel the presence of other family members

He was scared, some inner sense lead him to hide inside the trunk box which was the storage space for his mother's sarees

He felt reassured to be amidst his mother's sarees and sleep took over his scared and confused mind

He woke up to the noise of many footsteps and voices, hit his head on the trunk box lid, recollected the past night's horror, so cautiously peeped through the lid gap

Most of them were strangers except for the one officer whom he remembered visiting his mother once to console her on his father's untimely death

The officer's presence encouraged the boy to step out of the trunk box, run and hug the officer's legs

The entire group was pleasantly surprised to see the unharmed kid and the strong-willed officers heart melted when the child innocently asked the officer about his mother

The officer lifted the child, held close to the heart and walked out of the hut, closely followed by the others

The boy could see that his tiny village of about 15 huts, overlooking a valley was devastated and none of his known people was around

The group assembled at the open grounds located in the outskirts of the village which was one among the 20 villages that were closer to the borderline

The officer slightly opened the cotton sheet that was covering one of the many dead bodies which were all placed respectfully side by side, awaiting their turn for the pyre

The boy saw his mother's calm face, slowly walked up to her and tried to wake her up, his mind recalled the moments of seeing his father in a similar state

The child in him refused to realise the irony of the situation and he longed to hug his mother

The officer walked up to the boy, lifted his chin, looked straight into the moisture eyes of the child and said 👇

"Together we shall bring peace in these terrains"

Though the boy couldn't understand the depth of the words, something in him stirred to bring his conscious attention to the officer's pronunciation

The officer addressed the gathering and said, I am taking the responsibility of the legal guardian to this boy and promised to raise the boy as a responsible adult

The officer was the law enforcing commander of that region and hence completed all the legal formalities of assigning himself as the legal guardian

The officer meticulously followed with the upbringing of the boy by enrolling the child in the army boarding school, attending to all the needs of the child

Periodically interacting with the school management and closely following the growth of the child

When the time came for the boy who had grown up into a fine young man to enrol in the army services

The officer who had retired from official services by that time and had chosen to stay back as a resident in the same locality

Took the young man to his previous official room and pointed to the photo frames of a dozen terrorists

The officer said these Inhumans were the cause of the massacre that happened in your childhood and many of these terrorists have perished in the crossfire

Still, there are many of them hiding in these hills and attacking the innocent public at odd hours and fueling the riots carried out by the young ignorant minds in these regions

The officer faced the young man, looked straight into those strong pair of eyes and asked, do you remember our resolve at this spot, 18 years ago?

The young man replied 👇
"Together we shall bring peace in these terrains"
Having said that, the young man hugged the officer tight, stepped back and saluted in front of the officer

Both of them teared up a bit, the officer's strong-willed heart melted once again and the young man's heart resolved to uphold the promise

Today the young man is the commander of that region had raised to that rank by steadfastly eliminating terrorism in those terrains

And for finally bringing peace in that region 🌱

"A soldier on a cause will never retire from the cause till the cause is fulfilled"

Salute to all those soldiers who sacrifice their lives and times for the sake of the citizens 🙏🏼

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