'THE PRICELESS POSSESION'

PRICELESS POSSESSION
Standing under the big Gulmohar tree,I watched the bulky truck move slowly out of my sight...and i thought to myself.....there goes my world in a single truck but in many trunks!!!
Along with just a suitcase remained one trunk with immediate required stuff,the bear essentials to go with us,on yet again another posting.And the fresh painted letters on the trunk read-Lt.Col.R RAWAT,and below was-FROM PATHANKOT TO MHOW(M.P)
Yes,I always wanted to marry an army personnel.Coming from Dehradoon,I found them everywhere,the roads,the market places,railway stations,etc..I would fancy and admire the young officers on cycles and scooters and families in cars and jongas and jeeps,and the one tonnes and the three tonnes!!As young girls we were always besotted by the charm of their spic and span turn outs and discipline besides their 'P's and 'Q's!
But there was one thing more which always drew my attention,the ever green black trunks one got to see accompnying every soldier!!!Every railway station is thronged with soldiers and their inseparable black trunks....
The soldier and his family has a very distinctive individuality.Apart from the love for our motherland,the loyalty towards our regiments,the ferver of do or die,the songs of martyrs in our hearts,the olive green uniforms adorned by a neat crew cut hair style,the almost see through shine on the notoriously heavy black boots.....we have something very very special and common amongst us-'the black boxes'.
Literally,these black boxes narrate the tales of valour from within.Open one and you would find the collection of mementoes,depicting the brave operations conducted in past during their previous postings.You read on tittles like-'operation bajrang','operation rhino','operation orchid','operation meghdoot' and so on..You also find the love passed on by the fellow men in olive green on the brass plates,reminding forever of comradeship shared during thick and thin.One recognizes the protocol and hierarchy strictly followed by one and all,when one sees the line of uniforms placed inside.The blue patrol,the white patrol or the six alpha or the six bravo,the dangri,the O.G uniform,and my hot favourite the combat dress!!Also comes out are the ribbons and medals,rank badges,appelets,berret and hackles and poms,the lanyard and the thick,rough belts,the D.M.S boots and the other kinds.These are the decoratives ,adornments and accessaries they can never march out without!!!Truly a black box!
Going back to the native homeland,once again you will definately find old,rusted trunks in one of those attics of your ancestral homes.I had ,one after marriage and the doors of this attic opened only with Amma's (my mother-in-law) secret keys.You could read the Lt.R.RAWAT in white on black background as amma lovingly opened it telling me how she bought this trunk for her 'titoo'when he went to N.D.A.Inside were the treasures collected by a mother of a soldier.The old passport size,black and white photographs of a youth of bygone years,the letters from his dormitory written to his father but preserved carefully by his mother,the old discarded shirts,shorts and socks,given to be distributed to the needy souls but couldn't be parted with old rakhi threads sent to the neighbouring sisters.Amma also showed me the snap of a pretty girl,'Anju',her son's first crush along with the photograps of other classmates and schoolmates.Humm..so muchof hazy,faded past memories stored afresh into these black boxes!!
I got my share of this priceless possession after i became ,Mrs Rawat w/o Capt.R.Rawat.With two boxes as a bachelor,it soon multiplied to ten and twelve and the number never ceased to stop.
How can it ever??A wife's dream lives inside it,her drawing room,the bed room, kids room, the kitchen,everything after all is inside these very accomodating black boxes!!Soon in few years you find the draftsman making stencils of increasing numbers to changing ranks.The 'Capt'. changes to 'Maj'.and the 'Maj.' peeps out from behind the 'Lt.Col's' paper pastings,and the 'Col' gets promoted to a 'Brig.' in times ahead.
Somtimes the freshly painted letters in white try hard to outshine the old letters,struggling to hide-'From,Dimapur to DehraDun'or 'From,Leh to lucknow'.
And ,so glimpses of many of the life's shades,we get to discover in these black trunks.......
- a soldier's life time achievement lies inside it!
- a son's frozen moments while parting from his mother's arms in youth,breathes inside it!
- and a wife's whole beautiful dream world lives in warmth inside it!
And life moves on and on,carried,hidden within the securities of these very black trunks....
NO DOUBT A PRICELESS POSSESSION.