The Story Of An Unsung Hero ...

In the Land of Azaad Kashmir ,approx. 50 kms north to bhimber , lies a small village called BAROH, just at the line of control between Pakistan and India. The most prominent landmark of the village is a vertical ridge called Baroh Ridge. On the extreme end of the ridge lives an old man almost reaching the age of 100 years,named 'KHUSHI BABA'. With thick long white beard ,darkened skin folds around his eyes,lips strictly sealed and melancholy eyes with a thousand tales of a century hidden deep inside, Khushi Baba walks the land with a stick in his hand and is often seen sitting beside a stream washing his clothes or sometimes comes to my Regimental Aid Post to get medicines.He lives alone with nobody around to take care of him at such an old age.But there is a long story behind such loneliness ,reasons that make this country the 'Land Of The Pure' .Reasons that define the true kind and class of people that made this country possible.So lets just stop time of the present and journey back into the black and white of early 20th century to peep into the life of Khushi baba of the 1940's...

Born in Baroh in 1915 ,Khushi Baba spent his childhood days at baroh ridge in a way that has not changed much even now in this village with children more attached to nature and outdoor games and very little of an entertainment at home.Khushi baba then moved out to take on the world the moment he realised he was strong and old enough to leave home.
In 1942,Khushi Baba enrolled himself in the BRITISH ARMY and mastered in Guerilla training at Pune(Indian) and joined 619 Field regt. He worked tenaciously under the command of English officers. However,during the time of 1940's, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was struggling for Pakistan and separate nation for Muslims. Khushi Baba resigned from the British Army and decided to return back to his village of Baroh.

1946- Kashmir was under the rule of king Dogar. Dogar was building up an Army of his own in Kashmir, owing to the political developments in the subcontinent and more likelihood of the creation of two countries ,Pakistan and India. Khushi Baba on hearing of the package Dogar army had to offer, which included pension at the end of retirement and better scale of wages, enrolled himself in the Dogar Army at Nowshera.( Nowshera is only two ridges to the East of village BAROH).But it wasnt all fairy tale for Khushi Baba joining the Dogar's Army as onset of 1947 brought with  it fresh violence especially the burning down of Muslim villages by Dogar Army in the-presently- Indian Occupied Kashmir.Khushi Baba saw the burning,the killings of his fellow Muslims ,rapes of young women at the hands of hindu Dogars and prejudices of extreme nature. On realizing how biased the Dogars were ,Khushi baba couldn't convince his conscience, to be working under an Army that was going rampant on Muslims.

JUNE 1947-ESCAPE FROM DOGAR ARMY BASE CAMP 
 Pakistan was about to get independent .As Redcliff and his counterparts were busy dividing the subcontinent into two,words had reached Khushi Baba and his group of - planning to be deserters - of how hard the times were coming up for the Muslims of the region.He already had planned to take revenge for the spilled blood of his muslim brothers and sisters, by the Dogars.
So khushi Bada besides others ,decided to desert the dogars. They were at that time,living in the Base camp of Dogars in nowshehra .the only escape route through the base camp lay near the latrines and washrooms.one pitch dark night , khushi Baba along with others finally made a move .Through the small windows of the washrooms ,they jumped out of base camps and started running towards the ridge (Chai Ridge) that would lead them to Baroh.They knew they would be followed and killed as soon as the Dogars found out they had deserted.Khushi Baba tells of how long the night was and they kept on running and climbing the ridge through the darkness until they reached the other side of Chai ridge.
On reaching the safe zone ,it was dawn and sun was rising as Khushi Baba knelt and kissed the soil of Chai village.The moment he saw the Baroh ridge ,he started crying and promised His God that he would take revenge for all the Muslim killings he has seen.

This picture was taken from the Baroh Ridge as sun rises from the CHAI RIDGE.The same ridge Baba Khushi crossed at dawn more than 60 years ago.Across this ridge lies the Indian city of Nowshehra ,once a base camp of Dogar Army 

Post 1947- ARRIVAL OF THE PATHAANS AND QUBAILEE PEOPLE 
Qubailee people arrived to help out Muslims of Kahmir ,following Dogar's post independence annexation of Kashmir to India.In the region in proximity to Baroh, the qubailee Lashkars made their base camps in SAMAHNI and TANDAR villages. Khushi Baba knew the region very well and went to Tandar to help out the pathaans and qubailees.He served as a vital Asset to the qubailees ,showing them the various vulnerable areas and defiles and helped them understand the dynamics of the landscape around Baroh .On reaching Kartan ( a ridge on left end of Baroh) . The qubailees decided to camp before the fateful encounter with the dogars.They ate and danced for three consecutive days.(Khushi baba tells me of how the Pathhaans loved to eat meat and mutton and they spent three days eating and slept at Kartan to revitalize themselves for the upcoming encounter with the Dogar Army at CHAI RIDGE). After three days ,the commander of the Lashkar gathered his men and told them to take on the Dogars and occupy the ridge .(Khushi baba told me in a very candid way every word that commander spoke before the encounter with the Dogars.Khushi baba spoke in pashto and then translated for my convenience.He can speak urdu,pushto,punjabi,persian,all learnt over the period of a century) .

So the qubailees took on the Dogars and defeated them.The Dogars fled back to Nowshera Base Camp and even left their loadded trucks behind. However words had come of the huge Indian Army reaching Nowshera to rescue the Dogars .KHushi Baba suggested that the qubailees must not sit relaxed on the Chai ridge and move forward but nobody paid a heed to his words. On seeing how the Qubailees had given up any further advance,He left and went to the Pathaans and lashkars of SAMAHNI.
The commander of the Samahni LASHKAR was named Capt Khan.He was a wise man and a good tactician.On hearing Khushi Baba ,he took the news of Indian Army's arrival very seriously and planned out how to stop the indians from taking over Chai ridge. Khushi Baba knew the Indian side of Chai ridge very well ,he knew the most vulnerable points and tracks in the routes of Indian Army .Capt Khan gave 600 men to Khushi Baba to ambush Indian Army on its way to the ridge.

This picture of KHUSHI BABA was taken in late 1947,at the time when he was working for Capt Khan,commander of the Pathaan Lashkar camped in Samahni.

Khushi Baba took 600 men and infiltrated into the Indian territory .He knew all the tracks and bridges that would be used by the Indian Army vehicles to reach the ridge.He Half cut the logs on the bridge and placed 600 men around the bridge and created a perfect ambush.Then waited for the night to arrive. ( khushi Baba still recalls how the pathans wouldnt stop talking and laughing despite strict instructions of quietness lest anyone should hear them and ambush plan would fail) . They waited for hours and around midnight

,they saw lights of vehicles arriving their way.It was the Indian Army of 80 vehicles and huge weaponry reaching the bridge to cross it and attack the Chai ridge. Khushi Baba lay very close to the bridge,logs of which he had already cut with an axe.No sooner than the first vehicle reached the bridge,the bridge collapsed with the weight of the indian truck ,taking the vehicle down alongwith it into the abyss.seeing this , Khushi Baba ordered men to fire.The surprise element was achieved and the Indian Army was caught off guard and had to retreat to Nowshehra.

Throughout the 1950's and 1960's ,Khushi Baba continued to infiltrate the Indian Occupied Kashmir and was a very useful spy.He married in 1949 to a woman from a nearby village but spent next two decades away from home ,away from family and kept spying for his country.He still remembers how he would disguise himself like a shepherd and had once brought a herd of 30 cows from Indian territory and distributed them equally among his fellow villagers of Baroh.
But nothing comes easy.Every sacrifice has a price to pay. In Khushi Baba's case,his family left him owing to his long years of absence and his wife settled in Gujrat. This was the biggest price Khushi Baba had to pay for his country and the tragedy is that it goes unheard of.During his whole spying career. Khushi Baba had done eight successful infiltration and had once kept 20 men hidden in the jungle eating leaves and insects until the LOC finally became less hostile to cross .

Khushi Baba at present lives all alone and his kids are still settled in Gujrat. Little do they know how much sacrifices their father had carried out throughout his life in the name of Islam and Pakistan.Little do they realize their father is among the biggest 'unsung heroes' of Pakistan.

Khushi baba still lives in Baroh village

The Paths Of Randomness

I see a strange connection between the paths of nerves running wildly through my brain and those of life, marked with unpredictability.There are a thousand paths I've followed and millions more to come in life.Some leading to the disappointing ends ,others yielding the fulfillment of most sacred dreams I had.
so then Why do people lead a very conscious life when these paths of randomness have no fixed pattern.Do we little beings have any control over them?

If not,then Why life, more than often, brings us to a point in time where all other roads end and we are given a choice to opt between only two.Black or White! One road leading to the risky jungles of love and compromises,of risks and consequences ,of happiness and sadness of extreme nature.While the other tells a tale of deserts of monotony and lifelessness,of sands and smoothness,of waking up and sleeping down every day without an element of change.

It is this stage in life where even our neurons are brought to a halt .As if there is a perplex link between the paths of life and those in our head ,both ending up together at this contrasting point of bifurcation.Both cease to grow any further.

Such are the times when we realize our life has  stopped , like a caravan , that calls it a day and rests up to build enough energy first ,to prepare for the fateful journey.The camels are rested and the loads taken off.The head of the caravan weighs the options ,looks into his past and predicts the future, analyzing if he would be able to make it through the days to come.


A similar picture pops up in our heads too when our mind is left with only black or white to chose from.The neurons stop working as if they've called it a day, leaving us to figure out the confusions ourselves.Its this turning point of time in our life when either we become the head of our own caravan and actively contemplate our desires and beliefs,our resolve and strengths to undergo the greatest most dramatic journey of life or we become the weaklings and leave this onerous responsibility in the hands of fate and follow the safer monotonous root to eternity.


One way or the other , whatever be the path actively or passively, chosen by us, whatever be the repercussions,good or worse, years from now when our skin is pale and hair grey and we look back into our life and remember the night our camels sat and our caravans rested and life had generously given us the option to chose the destiny for ourselves, we must then stand by our decisions and take the responsibility for what became of our life.

The bold ones who take matters in their own hands,on the fateful turn in life,would easily take the fame or the blame for the results.The problem lies with the other class that gives up their wits,to the vagueness in their heads.They would even by the last breath ,continue to blame their fates,for they are made this way.They are born to follow than be followed,to drift with the flow than be the flow,to see what life had taken away than what life has given in return.

In short , the fate maybe written up there ,the strings may be controlled by the higher force but the true finality to our fates lies with us.Its up to us if we take the charge of our mind and reach for the glory or fall a victim to our nerves and blame fate for the disarray.

'THE PATHS OF RANDOMNESS are, in fact, the paths we create ourselves!'

A Heart Of Gold...

Words of wisdom flowing again

drops of knowledge glowing brain

wave after wave of torrential rain

they hit hard gleaming back

glistening my heart a precious sublime

words are'nt a note this time

switching swapping into a rhyme..

They tell a riddle never told before

of a dark room and empty floor

rich feelings tied to the ceilings

light shone through an open door

on a book of gold,the author's grandeur

precious gems and endless shore

the spirits and sufis dwell within

and lord is found on searching more

A thousand clerics I went to,

a million books I read

in search of truth known to few

until I  sketched the room in my head

a vague parity struck me,a deja vu!

I've seen this room of gems,I said

my mind reached its bounds, my brain gave up;

so I went to the heart to feel instead

Behold! the answer to the riddle came up

the puzzle my soul could only sort

the extract of life to finding God

lied in the very room of my heart..

Doors opened ,the truth unfold

of god's splendour and magnificence

I took a few steps firm and bold

accepting my ignorance and realities cold

setting my soul free of puritan mind

in rhymes of sufis centuries old

in eyes of soul that never go blind

in verses of quran ,the book of gold

But words never left me there

the journey to eternity started here

your heart is where the doorways open

the doorways to heaven concealed in layers

this riddle,they said, was not a conclusion

for darkness in heart is a mere illusion

an illusion to feel the light within

setting apart the darkness filling in

the darkness felt for every sin

reminds us of the light through thick and thin

So much this heart and soul know

of God and men,love and rage

wisdom flying free of earthly cage

casually inked on the page

spread out in rhymes and notes
are lessons learnt come of age...

Of Eyes And Mind..Of God And Mankind

A clear sunny day marked with cold winds from the north,sitting on a mountain peak, tall grass dancing around me,dancing and laughing with the winds and trees swirling a knowledgable motherly smile,i see the distant cliffs.My eyes mesmerized by beuty and splendor of nature.A thought pops up in my head, bringing an overwhelming educated smile on my lips too,like the trees.Overwhelmed by the very thought of knowing all the answers. Is it the satisfied heart or the happy soul of mine that inspired my eyes to appreciate the work of God? Is this what philosophy of life is all about when it says that all is one! Our soul,our surroundings ,the universe filled with oneness.Wholeness that i see in trees and my lips that are in harmony with god and His ways. The world,they say, is nothing but our own state of mind. Why ,after all these years ,when such a day has come a million times before,have i thought of this oneness today!why was I not au fait with it before?

Suddenly i felt waves of knowledge surging to explode my heart from within,a whisper from the core of my soul,it said,
'A beautiful painting is a direct reflection of a painter's heart.'
I pondered my mind out and doors began to open one by one.Doors locked in me somewhere deep,carrying answers to the truth about God.Answers that were buried all this time in my soul,by the dirt of worldly teachings taught to me since childhood by humans.
And i thought of the scenery in front of me, the love that mother carries for her child, the emotions of fraternity that let us stand united,the shores that collect sand from endless times,the freshness that a newborn's cheek bears,the shine in his eyes.All speak of God as evermore benignant ,smiling that affectionate smile.I see everything as one.Oneness of the universe fitting perfectly in my one soul,oneness of nature's love and compassion adjusting immaculately  in my one heart.Everything essoterically and exoterically becoming one.All one created by the one.A thousand questions having different doorways but leading ultimately to the one!The beautiful one!The ever so forgiving one who calls us for repentance everytime we lose our track.The caring one who guarantees His love as seventy times more than that of a mother's. Who laughs at our mistakes and says 'its ok'come come again'. Who is still optimistic to be sustaining the world despite all the wickedness of mankind.
I felt buoyant,enthralled by the very implications of this knowledge.The world seemed brighter to explore,life felt real and joyous.My soul felt freer than ever before.Free and open to fly high. But then there was another whisper.an answer to the freedom of soul.

'They don't want your soul to be free,they want their hold over your soul and the society's too..'

So it dawned upon me as to why the great philosophy of life always faced the wrath of clerics and leaders of times. Philosophy gave the answers to finding God in your soul and setting your soul free. Clerics ,on the other hand,justified their superiority and hold over societies by depicting only the wrath of the Almighty.This concept let the male dominated societies to manipulate our faith with the man-made traditions,filled with fear of becoming a victim to God's anger and punishment, to keep their say and hold over our souls.
God has made each soul independently,God has put before us the whole universe that speaks so audibly of his kindness and patience,His clemency and magnanimity. Searching our souls for the answers thus would jeapordize the very credibility and impact of our religious leaders.Setting souls free would break us of all the worldly traditions that keep us entangled in the complexities and rules of society.Finding the truth,the ultimate truth,would let us feel no more afraid of the materialistic concepts about God.

What more clear message can God give to human beings when even through His worship,He is trying to teach us to do good with fellow humans.Prayers help us shun vanity and realize that despite the worldy luxuries we are still answerable to Him.Men of all classes standing in prayers shoulder by shoulder clearly a sign from God that He sees all with the same love.Giving alms makes our soul pious and ramadan builds patience in our anxious worried selves.When God clearly says that i can forgive you for everything but the evil you have done with other human beings,that can only be forgiven by the respective soul. Naive and small as we are,we feel exalted and enlightened over the ones who dont worship.who dont offer prayers. How can we even judge any other soul when the power of judgement lies in God's hands.

But ignoring the human characters rusted with hypocrisy,I see this strange new expression of God.It was there all this time in my very own heart yet my eyes couldnt see before.This God who had always been the most merciful and the most benificent,the GOd whose love for His creations seems as endless as the universe itself.The GOd who inspires us to dare set our souls free of worldly traditions and finding him embracing and rewarding our souls with freedom and paradise.I see the real God as the most understanding one.And it all sparks hope in my very blood.hope of great times to come.hope of becoming as innocent as a neonate,again, with time.hope of repenting over my sins and i close my eyes and feel His miracles in my mind and i dare ask Him one question.
'MERAY GUNAH ZIADA HAIN YA TERI REHMAT
  KAREEM TU HI BATA DE HISAAB KAR KE '
His reply opens up new paths in my JOURNEY TO ETERNITY...

FAITH vs SURVIVAL

Among the great creations of God, human brain catches our eyes the most. It’s got the higher center called cortex that is responsible for what we call a civilized way of living. Where thoughts and emotions reside. Where faith dwells to run an evil free society. Where unconditional love resides .love for fellow beings. The thoughts of sacrifice and living for others. It’s the humane part of the brain that justifies living a good life and having faith in good.

               

But the human brain with all its magnificence has still got in its core, a primitive part that acts more like an icon of survival. It’s got the instincts of an animal.

They say when starvation takes the better of man, it first consumes your fats and muscles and later shuts down all the unwanted organs. Still further it reaches your brain where lights go out in the higher centers (the humane centers) leaving only the primitive core part working. That’s when the self-proclaimed bestest of creature that we see in a human being takes the form of animal. History is rich with stories of noble men on voyages where starvation for months turned them into monsters eating flesh of their own kind for survival. So why this paradox. To run a society u need religion and faith and beliefs but when it comes to self-survival and escaping death your humane brain fires away and leaves the game in the hands of primitive animal core??

Growing up and completing 25 years of my life has been a great journey for me. There were times when faith would shine in all its colours and glamour. When I believed that the only true happiness and satisfaction lied in making others around me happy. The belief that good always wins no matter how powerful the evil is. But time passively teaches you certain realities that you avoid facing. Too ashamed you feel to confront such harsh truths. When at times of trial, faithlessness paving its way inside your mind makes you see only the demise and destruction of all the things you stand for. Logic and omens run away and you are left with only 'you’. Nothing to stand for and nothing to fall for..

Just like those sailors lost in the sea, I was lost in the aimless life. They had starvation to shut down their humane brain. I had faithlessness to do likewise. Their wild primitive core made them cannibals. Mine, well, mine made me realise that the key to survival in this world lies in good bargains. Bargains in faith, beliefs, even in love. I realised that things taught to me in the past had little weightage in practical life. That friendships come with compromises. That love is unconditional only in books. That in order to become a successful man one needs to do good business. That happiness lies in giving only but survival lies in taking  too. Life with all its perplexed events can never truly bring faith and survival on the same page.

What i am starting to think..What i am starting to realise..is that maybe our humane brain part never really was the biggest wonder. That maybe it’s this primitive old ignored part of the brain, the only common in man and animal ..Maybe this part is the essential of life.

'fight for survival' and 'survival of the fittest’...No wonder why Darwin is considered faithless atheist. It’s because he was indeed the devil's advocate...