A SOLDIER FADES AWAY

I have been busier than usual in the week gone by as there were many commitments on the professional front. There were many deadlines to be met and many pending tasks to be completed. People to be met and decisions to be taken.

An average man always remains busy. If you want to work, there is a whole lot of work to be done. And it is true that a man wears off and dies ultimately but his commitments and responsibilities never finish. They finish only when the man is gone. As Joseph Stalin had said, "Death solves all problems – no man, no problem." A tragic fact but true.

I had a wonderful human as my colleague in our company, a soldier to the core and a cheerful person: Captain Ramesh Jusyal. Most unfortunately, we lost him today early morning in a fatal road accident while he was moving on duty. He did his full stint with the Electronics and Mechanical Engineers in the Indian Army and after retirement took up a field job in our company. He was a fully dedicated officer, who always placed duty before self. He was a devoted husband to his wife whom he has now left grief stricken and a loving and caring father to his three children. He was talented by any standard and was a doer. He did what others could not. The most shining trait of his personality was that he always remained in a simple state of 'high'. He was 'high' on simple pleasures of life, most of which was the ability to laugh at just about anything, including himself. How many of us can do that? Whenever I felt low, I would spend some time with him and rejuvenate myself and then go back to my work. He was an instant charger for me. Sometime, in the course of our routine work I would get upset with him but as soon as I faced him to admonish, my anger evaporated. He was such an endearing person, loved by all. I am yet to come across a person in our town who ever spoke ill of Ramesh.

Such a good human, then why did he have to go so early? Life isn't fair but then death isn't either.

I wish to tell as many people as possible that we all have weaknesses but we also continuously learn from our surroundings and I hope I can imbibe many good traits which Ramesh had and I don't have.

I salute you, my comrade, for your devotion to duty, your hard work and your eagerness to shoulder responsibilities, but above all, I salute you for your sense of humour. We will miss you but you will always live in our hearts.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the softly falling snow.

I am the gentle showers of rain, I am the field of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush, I am in the graceful rush.

Of beautiful birds in circling flight, I am the star shine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom, I am in a quite room.

I am in the birds that sing, I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die."