Are you thankful enough? You would be at Hall of Fame, Ladakh

Come Fridays and my mind lights up a like a bulb. I get all the 51 ideas to make my life awesome, and not only the Left or the Right, but unknown sides of my brain get activated because my mind is endlessly creating lists of ‘how to make your weekends awesome’.

It doesn’t end here. I feel like a winner because I have been given the gift of time over the weekends after burning my soul and midnight oil, of course during the week. And thus, I am no short of a warrior who’s won battles and have come home a winner. I await my coronation that can happen any time during Saturdays and Sundays. While my mind is busy producing such Realistic Thoughts, the alarm clock goes off, and it’s the bloody Monday already.

I drag myself every Monday morning counting how I had lost time sleeping, binge-watching Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime. And the words of dear aunties who exist in our parents’ generation, and quite surprisingly in ours too, ring in my ears:

“You are not getting any younger.

How’s your weight loss going on?

You don’t seem right. Make up nahin kiya kya?”

All I can think of on that Monday is – looming deadlines, soured relationships, pending credit card bills, zero bank balance, dusty aspirations & dreams that don’t even come in sleep now. Nothing seems to be right in Life, and the biggest problem of the day is – the growing pimple on my Left cheek.

I can’t blame Life enough and Life couldn’t be any tougher…until I visited Hall of Fame in Ladakh which is a sneak preview into what Indian Armed Forces do for us day in, day out, how they lead their lives, how they sacrifice every day, and how they live with smiles on their faces even under unbearable stress.

Hall of Fame – Glimpses of Ladakh & Memories of Sacrifices made

As you enter Hall of Fame, you can see a mini Ladakh inside with traces of its culture, logs of it’s life, the rise of leaders, the advent of Buddhism, localities, flora, fauna, and the very soul of Ladakh – pride of India.

Take a few turns, and the narrow passages open up to take you through a trip down the memory lane when young and old, sacrificed all they had for we could live peacefully in our houses & complain happily in front of the TV while having dinner.

Take a moment to read the stories of decorated soldiers, and army men. I bet it would move you. And you won’t remember a single trouble of your Life – because you would know in that very moment- that no matter what day it is; you must relish it because someone has given their life for it.

The young man, his last thoughts & the ultimate letter

While each and every sacrifice is sacred in its own way, some stories leave an indelible mark like that of Captain Vijayant Thapar, merely 22 years old, wrote the final letter to his parents before going on war against intrusion. He asked his dad and mom to be proud of him, for he was going to commit an act of honor.

He was proud. He was happy.

He had no regrets.

If given a chance, he would have done it all over again.

The battles they fought for our today and tomorrow

We all crib. We all complain. At the slightest of disappointments, I find myself disheartened and ready to begin the journey to Nirvana. I find all troubles big, in my small, little life quite agnostic of the fact that someone, somewhere has left their parents, wife, kids behind so that he could fight for his country in the harshest of climates.