Page 109 - Love Story of a Commando

queen.’ The pride of being with a lion is regal, not everybody gets to
experience it. The men serving my motherland, standing fearlessly before
enemy and death and dealing with it daily, cannot be expected to fulfil the
promises of domestic life. You learn to embrace life and value every second
of it with or without him. Once you fall for a man in uniform, how can you
expect a normal love life?
The pain, separation, heartbreak, agony and afflictions are as much
part of the love story of a man in uniform as much as love, bliss, jubilation,
euphoria and contentment. And that is what balances the extraordinary
romance between the knight in shining armour and a fair maiden.
Virat kept firing until the other militant died. The firing stopped and I
tried to get up from my cowering position, but he immediately pulled me
back and said, ‘What are you doing?’
‘Getting up! Now that there is no more threat,’ I said.
‘And how do you know that?’ His eyes widened in astonishment at
my sheer stupidity.
‘Look! I am not trained like you.’ I felt offended.
‘We wait here for some time before we move. Okay?’ he said.
‘Okay!’ I nodded.
I curled down on that hard and cold rock, unable to sit anymore on
my sore bum while he continued to be in his alert ambush position. Gazing
at the stars up in the clear sky made me feel that everything was as normal as
it ever was. I giggled a bit. Surprised, he asked, ‘What happened?’
‘Stars!’ I replied. ‘Don’t they look beautiful? Magnificent, in fact!
Aren’t they?’ I asked.
He stared up briefly and said, ‘Yes! They are.’
‘You know! When I was a little girl, I would think that stars were
made up of all the dead people in this world including my grandparents. I
would often go to my roof at night and gaze at the stars for hours. When I
grew up to be a teen, my fascination for the sparkling stars did not die and I
would gaze at them relentlessly, trying to figure out what to do with my life.
It brought me a lot of solace. Then, when I achieved everything I had set out
to, the stars went away, creating space for people, noises and the
pandemonium of urban life,’ I said, almost as if speaking to myself.
‘You know what I did with the stars?’ he said. ‘I would always look
for my favourite constellations in the sky, only to create hundreds of stories
of kings, queens and wars through them. I always felt as if they could hear
my stories. Sometimes, I would close my eyes to make a wish if ever I saw a
falling star. I would be very happy as if I had touched that star myself,’ he
said.
‘And what would you wish?’ I asked.
‘I wanted to be the king of this world back then.’ He laughed.