As usual, we had the weekend family parlance last Sunday. Topic drifted to ‘courage to perform at the right moment’, when faced with a challenge.

‘You might have prepared well, you might be well equipped , time is right, but if the drive does not come to go for the kill, you don’t win’ I said. “All other things are external and somewhat internal, but what could you do, to internalize the killing instinct? How that is developed? Is it encoded in your gene , or it is developed trait?” was the teaser. A few took the bait and many have not yet 🙂

After the Google Meet got over, my son sent out this message . Looks like he wanted to share with others and just copied me. He was citing the example of Indian Army, the fearless force in the world.

//Appa said about our army overcoming psychological barrier against enemy. They don’t fear. This is also due to their memory of past. We all carry the shared memory of our ancestors. Who are the Indian army? Was it the British Indian army or the army before and whom they chose? All these Rajput, Jat, Sikh, Kumaon, soldiers, carry the courage, martyrdom, sadness and resentment against enemy. It is their collective memoirs, the shared memory in the genes that make them fearless. In Rajasthan itself there were more than 1000 ‘jauhar saka’. Jauhar is women going to immolate themselves, ‘saka’ is the men putting the ashes of the burned women on forehead and going to fight till death( they will kill at least 5). So people carry these memories besides their bodily aggression. The combination of avenging instinct and protecting the country’s pride is deadly.

राजस्थान के प्रमुख जौहर, साका Rajasthan Jauhar, Saka ~ Rajasthan GK |  Current Affairs 2020

This also includes the psychological fear they inflict on enemy. This has been used already by our kings. Rana Pratap in battle of Dewair which happened after battle of Haldighati, ran amok with his 5000 men and killed 30,000 Mughals. That 7 feet Rana on his horse killed a Mughal General Bahlol Khan with one strike slicing him and his horse in half. This was seen by the mughal army.

Were Maharana Pratap and Akbar friends at any point in life? - Quora

Imagine in front of you a 7 foot man in complete rage slicing another man in half. How would you feel? This was what demoralized Mughals. His son Amar Singh too killed another general in one strike of spear. So demoralizing the enemy has been our tactic.

“( I have just corrected the typical youngster vocabulary – tat ( for that ), abt ( about ), b4 ( before )…. 🙂 )That demoralizing spirit comes from the shared memory of the past.

The Rana would have remembered the women screaming and jumping in pyre to save their honor. His mother, sister, a relative’s wife, daughter… He could not turn back. Either he kills or gets killed. He better do the first.

Thanks to Abhijeet, I could explain later to a team of youngsters , about having the rage, grit to commit and get it done. More than academic knowledge , what gets you to the point of victory is your emotion, a deadly focused one, a righteous cause …

I also told them how the Pakistani forces jumped to their death from Siachen, when the Indian Army attacked second time. Barely equipped with their knives, the mere shrill of the Indian soldier’s voice was enough for them to jump to death. That , is the power of emotion, focused and aligned with the cause.

Thanks Abhijeet Sudhakar.

Proud of you, boy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *