Musing of a Colonel's student!!!!

There is something about Indian Armed Forces that fascinates
the people of my country. Is it the amount of money that is
spent on them year after year for maintaining an organization
of such mammoth proportions, or the whole aura of piousness attached with the armed forces everywhere 
in the world(more so in India),or the romance of dying 
for your motherland(or fatherland.....whatever 
suits you dear.Its a difficult question to answer and an even
more difficult subject to discuss, because of the sanctity
of the whole issue. But lets not talk about this ..........i would 
rather like to talk about something which i have been influenced in my life and have given my
 deepest thoughts to: the idea of dying or killing for your nation. 
And the fact that it becomes a matter of endless adulations and awards. This is the platform which armed forces
personnels think gives them the right to take a moral high ground
and boast about what they have done for their country and how
civilians(yours truly included) and nothing but parasites sucking
on the nutrients of mother India. How the system is bad and India
needs a military dictator. How nothing else but the institutions of armed forces are the only 
functional pillars of this country and everything else has gone 
into decadence and going down the drain(Though there is widespread
corruption in the armed forces, but i guess ceaser's wife is above
suspicion). Very strong thoughts indeed for people who are not even part of the society. For people who live 
as if they are citizens of an alien land. For that matter not even the law of the
land does not apply to them. 

Lets take the issue of dying and killing for the motherland. Well, thats
their JOB..............they get paid for it. And if the Job Description includes giving up your life and taking someone else's, so be it. When the poor taxpayer suffers the agony of driving on potholed roads,drinking unsafe water, coping with power cuts so that the generals and their lieutenants can sip on their scotch at subsidised rates and play bridge all day long, well the dying and killing part will have to be taken care by the armed forces. And scotch and bridge are just metaphors for everything and anything that is supplied to them. I know it may sound blasphemous to some but I am as much a patriot as anybody else guarding the border. Just because someone chose a profession where one of the occupational hazards is death, so be it. And they are well compensated for it in every form by the government with the money it earns in the innumerable taxes it levies on the law abiding citizens.

Another thing which irks me is the part of life of servicemen when they retire from armed forces and come back to the mainstream. Though they are not fit to lead a life that you and me lead. The never ending lines of orderlies ends, along with the free accomodation and other perks. And when they confront the reality they end up doing nothing but cursing the system all day long, the same system which fed the white elephant all its life. Ironical but true.

Well the idea of writing this small piece came to my mind becuase of a retired colonel of the Indian Army, who now takes classes in personality development( a compulsory two day workshop at my B-School). Poor guy finds faults with everything around him and us and has to his credit 5 pakistani soldiers in a war that he fought(it was your job mister).
Some of his mantras of business ettiquetes:
1. There are only two colours of formal shirts: white and sky blue.
2. There are only two colors of formal suits: Navy blue and
grey(whatever happenned to poor black).
3. Drink only scotch( I say only when someone else pays :)).
4. Sunday should not be longer than monday(not everybody will get it :))

ciao
Mukul Tyagi