Growing up in a country where millions have laid down their lives for almost double centuries for an independent government, it is very obvious that a basic sense of patriotism would get instilled within.
As an extension of this feeling , we have grown to show huge respect for the ones who are guarding the gates of our country and lay down with honour in the process. No doubt, only the special ones are capable of such heroics. From the very seedling stages, we have been trained to look at the Army-men with utmost honour for the same reason.
There has been terminologies to honour the heroes as well. “Service Men” being a hero and mere civilians signifying the damsels to be protected. This could sound a bit too harsh , but then the word “civilians” have been used by our heroes as lower human beings. A discrimination, a different one though. Never have my respect for the heroes have diminished but being discriminated as mere civilians , or weaklings where we share the same democracy, definitely hurts the feelings.
There have been multiple instances where statements like “we keep awake so you can sleep in peace” or “The civilians would never understand what we go through”, come up. All the Jawans of our country are trained to operate like super humans; that IS the job they are supposed to be doing. So why such statements at all. I have never heard a banker say, we work so you can sleep in peace without worrying about your money. So why this feeling of superiority should come into existence at all. We might be civilians without teeth and claws, but we work too, we add to the economic growth too. We all do our own jobs and nobody earns easy.
Once i hit the publish button , there might be an upsurge of comments by enraged patriots, but all I plead to preach , is that , we the “civilians” constitute this democracy too. It is everyone’s duty to practice equality. We don’t fire guns because we are not trained to do it.Being a trained killer is only a job , which some choose and some don’t. Some might not have many other choices, just like any other job seeker in our country.
Be it service men or civilians, if anybody thinks he has been holding up the sky for far too long now, please pass it, there would be someone else for sure. Nobody is a lone Atlas here.
aladin 