A true fauji, the call of duty is all that matters

Little does it matter that more than a year ago he was on the Line of Control (LoC) fighting for his life as the Pakistanis opened up. As shells came crashing down on Capt Devinderpal Singh, consciousness slowly ebbed out of him.

Fast forward to the present. As he dons the uniform he has a new responsibilities today. Life has moved on for this soldier as he shrugs off the attention the loss of the limb gets him.

“I am a fauji,” he tells you nonchalantly. “I am trained for this. Yesterday I saw a civilian driving a M-80 and he did not even have a prosthetic to help him. Just his crutches that were tied on the left side so that if the M-80 fell he would have some support. That man is definitely far better than me,” he tells you.

So there. You realise that the anomaly is in you if you think he is any different. The limp at climbing a steps may be there, especially in a nation that builds its tall buildings without a thought to the disabled.

And life goes on. More so because this soldier wanted it to go on. Which explains the highest grading when it comes to his psychological profile in the Army’s stringent medical fitness profile… the key to a soldier’s performance fitness.

Flashback again. To the time the when infantrymen like him were charging up hills that just had numbers to designate them. Numbers where legends of courage would be rewritten every day.

Capt Singh was at in such post outside the valley on the line of control when the Pakistanis started acting up. Lightly called the “Diwali fireworks,” the mortar shells smashed in. “Usually we would be inside our bunkers and we always knew from the sound what kind of shell was fired and where it would land, ” remembers Capt Singh.

It was during a lull that Capt Singh moved out to check the defences. “I suddenly heard a sound and before I could move it burst right next to me,” he says.

And from there everything comes out in a hazy memory. “Someone was shouting that Saab is down and radioing back for help,” he remembers. His senior JCO without thinking of his personal safety just picked him up on his shoulder and ran.

Something that was as good as suicidal as the Pakistanis waited for just such a moment when they could shoot an Indian soldier down. With sparse smoke cover the JCO took him to the nearest medical aid in the defences behind them. Which started off a nearly year long journey from the Military Hospital at Udhampur to the Artificial Limb Centre at Pune.

While many contemplated leaving the army attracted by the huge money that the army and the State Government doled out.

For Capt Singh, while other grateful state governments doled out money to their disabled soldiers Uttar Pradesh, his home state stayed away from disabled soldiers.

With a thorough knee amputation which has literally derived him use of the leg, the man is getting ready for new challenges personally and professionally. “The docs said that I would not be up for 5 months. I was on my crutches and walking about to move to Pune in a month.” With shrapnel all over him and a long procedure to get him back on his feet this soldier has been reassigned to the Pune Sub area.

Nothing to it as he calculates his meagre finances wondering if he can buy a specially modified car to keep him mobile. A family far away in Roorkee where he hails from, this soldier will convince you that life goes on. And can be fun if you want it to be.