GLORY

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of exalted characters. ~Edward Gibbon

Year: 2025

Location: No Man’s Land on the Indo-Pak border.

The sun rose in the sky driving away the cold of the night. The barrenness of the desert added to the horror. The silence of the desert can break the spirits of even the bravest. It was dead silent. As the sun’s rays struck his badge with menacing force, the name shined in the emptiness of the place. Vikram Singh Jaiswal. He tried to open his eyes but the left eye won’t open. The eyelid had been covered by dried out blood. He tried to get up but his legs gave away. His body pained as if it was about to explode. I must be already dead, he thought to himself. If not, he was convinced he would die here alone. Just then a voice threatened to shoot if he moved. Despite the threat, it had a reassuring effect on him as now he was not alone. He turned and saw a man sitting some feet from him pointing a gun straight at him. The badge read Joseph Turning.

Joseph: Don’t move or I’ll blast your head off.

Vikram: I can barely move, even if I could, I couldn’t hurt you.

Joseph kept the gun pointed at him. He was still shivering from the cold of the night. Vikram noticed his legs were badly injured too. So there was no way either of them could walk away from that place.

Vikram: Relax. Killing you isn’t the right choice for me now. Besides, we are not under the orders of a commander right now, so we don’t need to kill each other.

Joseph(reluctantly putting his gun down): Did our troops leave us here? Did they think we were dead?

Vikram(shrugging): I am sitting here with you. How can I know that? But that seems to be the case.

Joseph seemed to lose it. He looked around, shouted for help. But nobody appeared.

Vikram: Cool it you moron. They will find us. Stop shouting.

Joseph: Oh now!! Are you going to call help on your fucking mobile.

Vikram: I don’t have one. And if you shout again, I’ll blow your brains out.

They picked up their guns and pointed them at each other. They could have shot but they knew they couldn’t.

Joseph: You Indians dragged us to this war and now I have to die here with an Indian.

Vikram: We dragged you to war. You piece of shit!! Who occupied Pakistan? You or us?

Joseph: Shut the hell up.

They threw their guns to the ground and lay there staring at the sky. Nobody seemed to cross that place. Without food, they knew they would not last long. Vikram pulled out a jerkin from his jacket and drank some water. The English man stared at him.

Vikram: You want some?

Joseph(staring at him): Yeah.

Day 2

They had been there for a day and a third soul had not crossed that place. The sun glowed with all the fury. Occasional winds added to the misery and with dust settled inside the throat, the sensation of thirst became unbearable.

Joseph: We are going to die here, isn’t it?

Vikram kept quiet.

Joseph(shouting): Goddamnit, we are going to die here.

Vikram: Didn’t you choose this when you joined the army?

Joseph: I didn’t choose this.

Vikram: That’s the tragedy of our times. People grow up thinking all would end well even before they have ventured out. You would join the army and grow old retelling the tales of your bravery to your grand children. Isn’t it?

Joseph(irritated): Why not. I just don’t want to resign to my fate the way you have done,

Vikram: O Yeah !! What have I done? What can I do? Can you go and call help. No !!

Joseph: Don’t you want to get out of here?

Vikram: We are at war. We get out of here and one day we might be fighting again and one of us may kill the other.

Joseph: I would like that.

Vikram: So let me kill you now.

Joseph: You don’t see the difference in the two scenarios, do you?

Vikram(after a pause): Either way a life would be ended.

Joseph: That would be an honorable death. (sitting up) that’s the way I always wanted to die if I should, in a battlefield.

Vikram: What do you mean?

Joseph: When you joined the army, you wanted to serve your country and you were not afraid to lay down your life for it if the occasion arose. But isn’t there a way you would have liked to die?

Vikram: I don’t like to think about my death

Joseph: But you do realize that in the army it’s a possibility, always. Well, I do. And when the time came, I would have liked to die staring at the enemy in the eye with a rifle in my hand, pierced by a rain of bullets. Yes, a rain of bullets. That would establish the fact that I was a danger to an array of soldiers who wanted me out of the way. That I did my job well.

Vikram: Pass me the water.

Joseph(reluctantly passing it to him): Don’t drink it all.

Vikram(after gulping down some water): That’s the way all soldiers want to die. You are right. But you have to realize that in the present scenario that is almost an impossibility. We may die here out of starvation or eaten by some animal.

Joseph: I realize that but don’t want to accept it. I want to be found. Live to fight another day or may be live to die a better death.

Vikram(smiling): Amen!!

They lay there for some time. Time seemed to have stopped. They tried to crawl but their legs just didn’t have the strength.

Joseph: I am dying of starvation.

Vikram: Then talk less. A lot of energy is wasted when you keep on blabbering.

Joseph: I can’t even walk far to get some food.

Vikram: What would you find in this place that you can eat?

Joseph: Anything. A scorpion. A snake. Anything.

Vikram: Delicious. I am not that hungry. Not yet.

Joseph: I didn’t say I would share it with you.

Vikram: Then go eat.

They lay there with nowhere to go and nothing to do. It was dark now. The temperature began to drop. It was hard enough to sleep there but with the wounds, the cold seemed to creep into their bones.

Joseph: I‘ll try to sleep.

Vikram kept silent.

Joseph: Would you look out for me if some animal attacks.

Vikam(after a pause): Lets hope they don’t hunt in pairs.

Day 3

It had been two days. They were ready to eat anything that moved. Occasionally they felt someone was moving towards them, but it always turned out to be a mirage. Hope was fast diminishing now. In the high noon, they sat facing each other, trying to nibble at a scorpion’s legs.

Joseph(throwing it away): I can’t eat this shit.

Vikram(still chewing): How can you. You are the great western consumer.

Joseph: What?

Vikram: Dude, you live in a world where even dog food has to be branded. A world where people are told what to eat, what to wear and what to say, by the brands. Or lets say we live in such a world. But you guys started it.

Joseph: You want to justify eating this with that argument!!

Vikram: No, all I am saying is that we eating this here is a direct consequence of consumerism.

Joseph: How?

Vikram: Every action today is a consequence of people chasing a lifestyle, wanting to live a certain way, believing certain things.

Joseph: Like what.

Vikram: Everyday my son gets up, he wants to look like some Bollywood star. Everyday my wife gets up, she wants to wear diamonds. Everyday the Prime Minister gets up, he wants to be remembered as the man who changed to course of history. Same goes for every such person in the world. Your president also wants to go in the history books. Looking after their country’s normal issues doesn’t fit them into the image of a historically important man. So they want to win wars and dominate others so that history remembers them. That’s what they consume. An image obsession. An obsession to be counted as important and powerful.

Joseph: And that’s why there are wars, That’s why guys like us have to fight.

Vikram: We are expected to pay the ultimate price for consumerism. To keep the show going. And if we die here, we won’t ever be mentioned because we won’t matter enough. I won’t have died working for my prime minister’s consumerist desires and you wouldn’t have died working for your president’s. We would have just gone missing. People won’t love to hear our stories.

Joseph: Where does that leave the sense of duty towards our motherlands? If we are fighting for what you say we are fighting for, how do UK and India matter. Are we not fighting for them?

Vikram: We would have been fighting for them if we were real dangers to each other, not just perceived dangers. This is paranoia. Nations live in the fear of being attacked and when that fear gets overwhelming, they attack some other country just to let it out. We are led to believe that we are fighting for our country but in essence, we are just fighting against some country, that’s it.

Joseph: And our deaths? What about the death of soldiers?

Vikram: That is the only thing that gives us a sense of duty. Even if we are part of this huge game show, we have to play our parts well. And a brave death is a reward for doing your goddamn job well. That’s the only solace that lies in this.

Joseph: Like I said, that is what we are being robbed of by dying here.

Vikram: Yes. The rain of bullets is the ultimate prize.

They waited and waited and nobody showed up. Hunger was getting to them now.

Joseph: I can’t stay like this for long.

Vikram: Don’t worry. In some time you would die a totally inconsequential death.

Joseph(staring at him, then after sometime): We may not be found. In all probability, they won’t even search for us. For all you said about consumerism, I still wanted to go back have a Big Mac with my kids. Now that a good death seems impossible, that’s the only image I am clinging on to.

Vikram: I understand.

Joseph(with moist eyes): I would never see them, would I. Isn’t it hard to die when you have all the time in the world to think about it. If we are found, wouldn’t it be a shame that we were lying here all the while war was going on. We wouldn’t have played our parts.

Vikram: If my army finds us, you are doomed. If yours finds us, I am doomed. There’s no way both of us are going to be rescued. They won’t even kill. One of us would be a prisoner of war. I should have died in the war.

Joseph: Did you ever think you would crave for death like this. Its funny, the things war does to men, or the absence of it in our case. I have been robbed of my duty, I don’t want to be robbed of dignity.

Vikram: In that case, all the possibilities are unacceptable to us.

Joseph: This is the worst that can happen to a soldier and destiny picked the two of us.

Vikram(nodding): At least I like the last thing I would have done before I die.

Joseph: What?

Vikram: Make a good friend.

Joseph smiled and gradually they drifted off to sleep.

Day 4:

The end was near. As much as they could have hated it, they were helpless. The men who decide the fates of nations were not in control of their own fate anymore. Their faces had gone pale and death seemed imminent.

Joseph: If you die first, I would shoot myself. I don’t want to die lonely in this desert.

Vikram(thought for a while): Lets do that.

Joseph: Do what?

Vikram’s face had a new vigor. He seemed to have found something.

Vikram(getting up): We don’t have a lot of time at our disposal. There’s only one way we can make some sense out of this hopeless situation.

Joseph: I don’t get you.

Vikram: What were we supposed to do?

Joseph: What?

Vikram: Shoot each other. Lets do that.

Joseph: Are you kidding?

Vikram: We won’t shoot to kill. Shoot at the arm or at the leg. Towards your back lies India’s territory and to my back lies UK’s. We get shots at each other alternately. Keep moving towards my zone between shots and ill keep moving towards yours.

Joseph: Are you out of your mind. This is crazy.

Vikram(shouting): Yes it is. What else can you do? You’ll be dead before this day ends. At least die doing what you were supposed to do. Die doing your duty. This is not a time for reason. This is our only choice at redemption. This is the only way we can liberate ourselves.

Joseph(shouting): Goddamnit. I can’t shoot at you now. You know that.

Vikram: Then rot here to death. Do you have a better idea? Lets hear it, because we don’t have much time, you know.

They sat staring at the ground without a word. An hour passed by. Another hour passed by. Joseph realized there was no other way to avoid an embarrassing death

Joseph: OK lets do it.

Vikram nodded. They picked up their guns and moved back and faced each other. Desperate times need desperate measures. This was a desperate time.

Joseph: Who takes the first shot?

Vikram: You.

Joseph: No

Vikram shot at Joseph’s arm.

Vikram: Now shoot.

Joseph grimaced in pain while both of them crawled back towards their respective finishing lines.

Joseph turned and shot at Vikram’s foot.

Vikram turned over from the impact of the shot. They looked at each other with bloodshot eyes then picked up the guns and prepared to go again. Suddenly there was noise, a thudding noise which seemed to come closer. Figures appeared on the horizon. In a minute or two, they saw their troops running towards them. The troops reached the location and stood pointing their guns at each other with Vikram and Joseph in between them. The troops asked each other to let their beleaguered soldiers go so that there would be no bloodshed. Vikram rested on his knees facing the UK troops and Joseph facing the Indian troops.

They had come to the rescue. Now they can go back. Go back to the world where……A wave passed over Joseph and Vikram. They felt a sudden chill. How could they go back now? Things would never be the same again. Both of them knew it. Fate had been biased against them. Now they had their turn. As they half stood there, both of them realized one thing. Going back was not an option. But there was another option. God had granted them their wish. This was their shot at glory. Then they spoke.

Vikram: Lets play our parts.

Jospeh let out a feeble yes under his breath as both of them positioned their guns straight ahead and fired. They fired in a frenzy that felt so liberating. A smile crossed their face because they knew what was to follow.

And finally, it rained bullets.