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SENTRY
.... Major Varun Bajpai.

Life often comes knocking at my door
for a casual appraisal of our daily chore
It chides me often for wasting it away
for drifting with me and loosing myself in its sway


The other day i stood sentry after last light
when life came visiting at the sentry post site
It gave me a strange look and then remarked
how can you be sentry for the life's better part


I looked at life and smiled at its loving concern
and said, "from a soldier, you have a lot to learn"
Gazing at the horizon and then yonder
I was ready with a reply, after a brief ponder


Life, you often spend your life without
a worthwhile cause
Today you must think and give yourself
a brief pause....


life was taken aback, to be astonished
she was surprised, and she was astonished


When a sentry stands guard in his
battle fatigues dressed
He is the one , who is doubly blessed
Blesses him God, for the harsh duty he stands
Blesses him all people for safety to them
and their lands


When i stand sentry, i enable the children to read
to grow up tomorrow and give us the lead
When i stand sentry, the farmers till their land
They churn out rich crops from the grains of sand


When i stand sentry, the doctors save your progeny
they toil to carry out life saving surgery
When i stand sentry, factories work day and night
contributing in no small measure to the nation's might


When i stand sentry, in comfort works the scientific minds
to reinvent science and making us proud with their new find
When i stand sentry, in peace the people sleep
to awaken the next day, ready for a giant leap


When i stand sentry, on the alter of duty i pray
tell me life of all, who is the luckiest today
My duty is GOD, my duty is DIVINE
Whats better than life in the duty's line

something about me....for all of you

"Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be white as snow” Isaiah.

All I see is Red!!!

I wish I could paint the sky red.

Well almost
I have loved the color red forever. It has been a part of my life ever since. Red has been a definitive choice, right from choosing my first crayon to the new silk scarf around my neck. But it’s not its beauty that I am hooked to. It’s the duality of the color that attracts me.

Fallen seductresses to the high priestess are all clad in red. They say that red scatters the least and thus never deviates. All danger lights are colored Red...and somehow, the color started misspelling danger. . Ecstasy, passion, strength, honor, energy, fire, sex, love, lust, romance, excitement, speed, heat, arrogance, ambition, temptation, leadership, masculinity, vigor, power, danger, gaudiness, blood, war, anger, revolution, radicalism, Communism, aggression, respect, pride, martyrs, the Holy Spirit, conservatism ,Liberalism , wealth and marriage all are but colored red. One stroke of red and the image changes for ever.

Red strikes a chord with more cultures than any other color because of its intensity, passion and invocation of an inherent physiological response. Red is the color of celebration and good luck (China), purity and integrity (India), and mourning (South Africa). When used with a wide brush, red typically makes whatever it’s painted on look larger, whether it’s a torso or wingback chair. The color is bold and audacious, so it usually dilutes the colors around it. For this reason it’s used to accent and highlight objects of importance.

Studies show that red can have physical effects; including increasing the rate of respiration, raising blood pressure and thus making the heart beat faster. Red is said to make people hungry .Red is also the color of the devil in modern Western culture.

The word red comes from the Old English rēad. This is the only color word which has been traced to an Indo-European root. In Sanskrit, the word rudra means red. After the rise of socialism in the mid-19th century, red was to describe revolutionary movements. The word is also obviously associated with anything of the color occupying the lower end of the visible light spectrum, such as red hair or red soil.

The more I read about it, the more I become red. I walk the tight rope between the saint and the sinner. Anything in between, seems faded. I don’t deviate, like red, and warn people of approaching hazards…sadly enough, I soon become a hazard.

I am not misunderstood, but like red, I need to be understood more. To me, red is the beginning and the end. It’s the alpha and the omega.

And to me, I am red.

Aham Brahmasmi .

The inspirations: Robert Frost and Varun Bajpai

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.... ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

well Varun is not the poet but Major Varun Bajpai, did serve the Indian Army in many difficult terrains In J&K and the north east...sometimes not reachable for months..

Please talk to him/ us on the blog now..

The roads less travelled

“Have you ever held the moments, and given them a pause,
To think of the soldiers, and the one who was.
Come with us on a journey, of agony and ecstasy,
Come see our harsh reality, and our dreams of fantasy

Visit the history of soldiering, past the endless past,
As we endeavor to reach, the very last.
Digging through the godforsaken terrain and dusty pages
And going through its roller coaster stages”

The book “Road less Traveled” Is the out come of an emotional sojourn along the annals of time. The above mentioned lines are a small description in a poetic form. We intend to bring to fore spirit of soldering and the unnerving spirit that comes along with it. The book is inspired by the satiety cradled pain, separation, physical and mental challenges, lots of emotions and various melancholic moods that a soldier faces while guarding us. It’s also a tribute to thousands of the unknown, unsung hero’s who have made the supreme sacrifice on the call of duty.

“The Roads less Travelled” is the first and one of its kind attempts to bring to light, the thrill of a glorious and tough Military life. The book aims to put across the tough life of a soldier and the rigors of life that he undergoes, without compromising the security aspect. The endeavor is to showcase in simplicity the achievements and the efforts that the men in uniform put towards the Nation's Security and Sovereignty and also the achievement that cannot be converted into bonds and stocks and of love that calls for sacrifice.


The Objective:

The project is the creation of a coffee table book, with emphasis as much on the content as to the visual appeal. The objective is that the book shall be the first hand account of difficult terrains of the Indian armed forces. In a first of its kind effort it shall try to feature, through the length and breadth of the country, the real faces of the armed forces, cheerful in extremely difficult situations. It is not a project based on operations, nor only to glorification. It is an attempt to bridge the gap between the armed forces and the rest of the country. It objects to present the more ‘Humane’ face of the former. However, the intent is to present the possibility of such a life to the youth as not impossible but something they can probably relate with.
This is also an attempt, to reach out to the brave braving such places, and say ‘WE CARE'.


The Project guidelines

The book shall be divided into sections and will have visuals, text, interviews, and write ups from the defense personnel. The following shall be the sections:

1. The early days (an account of the different academies)
The section shall be created with live interviews and shoot in NDA, IMA, the naval academy Ezhimala and the Air force Academy Hyderabad.

2. The Army as it is. (the difficult terrains of the Army)

3. The Air Force as it is (the difficult terrains of the Air force)

4. The Navy as it is (the difficult terrains of the navy)

5. The process intact (the trainings, acclimatization etc.)
Trainings are an integral part of the armed forces. To survive difficult altitudes, acclimatization is crucial. In this section we shall throw light on these through pictures and write-ups.

6. All in a day’s work (the lighter moments and celebrations)
The heart of the Armed forces. The section shall present different ceremonies and celebrations.

7. An ounce of nostalgia.
In this section we remember the heroes. We cover a bit of history and profile the brave. It shall also include interviews of veterans of armed forces still with us. The United service institution of India has agreed to partner with us for the creation of this section.

8. A million voices
This section shall have contributions from the defense personnel. They can share personal picture collections, memoirs, write-ups, poems etc.


Please feel free to ask us more. Please write to us at

shormishtha@theroadslesstraveled.co.in

varun@theroadslesstraveled.co.in

also visit us at:
www.theroadslesstraveled.co.in

The journey before the first milestone.

Never failing to carry my bottle of mineral water every time I stepped out of the house, I almost got a physical shock when Varun told me, that many a places he served in J&K, the source of drinking water for months was melted snow…

My name is Shormishtha. I am trying to co- present a coffee table book to you with my dear friend and co traveler, Major Varun. Neither I nor Varun is an acclaimed writer or a photographer. So before you, a reader in some part of the world asks me...I shall answer you the question...the question that everyone has asked me last month and half:

WHY ARE YOU DOING IT?

Why have we gone for this extremely difficult project of creating this book? Why did I put down my papers from a well paying corporate job in raging recession? Why Varun sacrificed the pleasure of a home posting after 7 years of service? The answer to all this is the strength gathered from an emotional discussion and the urge to showcase and bring to fore a subject that was never touched upon and was supposedly perceived difficult. It drew strength from the experiences gathered while serving in all those inhospitable terrain and the inability of a loved one to find the other ‘just a call away’.

We humans, as a species are born intelligent and hence arrogant. We display placards saying ‘save the planet’ in large gatherings. It’s funny because we actually cannot do anything to ‘save the planet’. The planet is absolutely capable of saving itself…Should we humans continue to be the nuisance we are today, the planet shall only get rid of us and carry on with the rest estimated 20 million species. So as the beginning…the book is a tribute to the all powerful yet gentle, wild, mysterious, innocent, destructive, constructive, stubborn, loving…and much more, the forces of nature.

It shall take you along with us to the frozen tips of mountains to the barren burning sands. You shall travel with us from the deepest of the blues to the never ending waters from heaven. And you shall meet; meet like you have known them all your life, the people...

Yes, for this book is about people. The people, the men and the women, who comprise the armed forces of this nation. They serve the nation, they do their jobs, they laugh and they complain. They are happy, and not so happy at times. But what they do the best, is they teach us, how to befriend the great forces of nature. How to never say die and believe life to be a miracle from conception to end. How to live as if this was the last day of yours...

We would spend months with them. Living, talking and sharing their moments with them. And we would bring to you, the stories! Stories of how children growing up with fathers getting confused because last when they saw them, they looked different. Of how the fate of entire troops and the country changed from loss to victory because all but one of them refused to give up, Of what is real leadership and what it takes to be on the edge and yet take care of the subordinates. You will come close to understanding how it feels when a twelve feet high wave hits a sailor on face and how one does cooks a meal on an electrical hot plate, on an ever rolling ship. You shall fly with us to understand how a degree to the north and not to the west creates terrible disturbances and how sometimes, on a rescue mission the pilot cries harder than the one he just saved. It’s a journey showcasing virtues like grit, determination, courage and commitment. It’s also a journey in the minds of all those innumerable soldiers, and of that human who puts every aspect of his being on the call of duty.

We are all together in this. And so one afternoon, me and Varun, decided to do this. And as rightly said: all that is needed is the first step. For after that, help came in abundance.

A mention to our team who believed on this project…

Ahtushi and Anju would take over as the photographers. Neeraj will design it for us; he would do the website as well. A real talent there. Nitin promises help with the writing and editing and Ravi with the photo editing.This is how we would put the book together.

I hope we complete it as projected and you like it. I hope so very much. I hope so because, what we represent, is a part of all of us. We represent the soldier, the warrior the fighter in all of us.

So finally, it’s for you, all my dear readers that I, along with my few friends have decided to brave the odds. We decided to do it so that you may never loose hope and faith. So that whenever in life you feel, you have got a raw deal, think of the man guarding you at -25degrees, you immediately shall see that when you feel disappointed, he looses a battle there.

For more info, visit us at:

www.theroadslesstraveled.co.in.