THE FORGOTTEN CHIVALRY

Knock on the door.

‘Jai Hind Sahab, Gadi le ke aaya sahab’

‘Haan thik hai Yadav.. Aa raha hoon’

He looks in the mirror. Uniform is ok. Shoes are ok. He finishes the morning glass of milk that his buddy had been instructed to bring daily, puts on his camo cap, picks up his jacket and walks out of his room.

‘Yadav, mera ek sleeping bag aur ek ruck sack darwaze par hi rakha hai’

‘Ji sahab’

The driver gets his luggage and puts it at the back of the gypsy. He did not plan to stay overnight, but he knew that in these mountains, anyone can get stuck anywhere.
While the driver turns around the vehicle, he takes a look at his abode. It was a shed, made of mud walls, with tin sheets covering it to make the inverted V. He reflected back to yesterday’s conversation with his Commanding Officer.

‘Morning Sir’, he salutes his smartest.

‘Morning Ankur, come in, take a seat’

While doing it, he was wondering about the task that lay ahead of him. He loved the unpredictability of his profession.

‘Do you know that the communication at Tangsong La Pass is down to only the permanent line?’

So that was it. It would be a fine challenge. It excited him. Tangsong La Pass is the one of the highest motorable passes in the world. Height being close to 18000 ft. An important pass as it was, it was held by the army. Apart from fighting, for which all of us were trained, his unit was also responsible to provide communication to all places where army goes. Be it inside the enemy territory.

‘Yes Sir, I do.’
‘Take a team of two ORs with you to Tangsong La tomorrow, and install the new terminal equipment that we have just received from the higher headquarters.’

Due to bad weather conditions at the pass, and the failure of terminal equipment installed at the pass, the communication was down at Tangsong La. But not completely. The evergreen, though out-dated permanent line on poles which provides only one telephone line was still active, but it was not enough. The troops at Tangsong La deserved more.

‘Roger Sir, I will do that.’

His gypsy started climbing the fierce mountains. As he reached 15000 ft, he observed that the weather changed and it started snowing.

‘Gadi dheere chalana Yadav’, He said after he saw a memorial stone at one dangerous turn with the name of an officer and his driver engraved on it.

But he realized soon enough that there was no need for him to say so. The snowfall had turned into a snow blizzard, and the visibility had fallen down to 20 m. Yadav could not drive at more than 10 Kmph.

When they reached Tangsong La, and they reached with great difficulty, it was heartening to see a JCO and two jawans coming out in the cold to receive them. They were taken to a Bukhari warmed up room and served hot tea and dry fruits. After that, they immediately went on work.

The Army doctors say that one should not stay at Tangsong La for more than 15 minutes if he has not acclimitized. Their work could take more than 3 hours.

When one hour had passed, and he was inside the communication shed and ensuring the installation, the JCO incharge at Tangsong La came inside.

‘Sahab Bahar kuch civilian tourists aaye hain’

‘Yahan pe?? Civilians??’ He went outside and saw two guys and a girl standing near two pulsars. They were all roughly his age. And they were shivering like anything.

‘Hello sir, could we get some fire anywhere here, my sister here specially is feeling very cold’.

‘Yeah sure, come inside this shed’ They went inside, and he asked them to remove their shoes in front of the Bukhari. They complied. As he expected, their feet were soaked.

‘Sahab inke liye chai banwaiye. Whatever in the world are you guys doing out here?’

‘Sir, we were on an adventure trip. We guessed that in the middle of August we wont face much trouble here. We crossed this pass only day before yesterday, then ‘to’ it was completely fine.’

‘Pl don’t address me as Sir. Call me Capt Ankur. Yeah I know, you should never trust these mountains. They behave funny. And even if you were on an adventure trip, you ought to have hired enfields atleast. These pulsars cant do you any good here.’

‘Yes.. uh.. Capt, we realized that now. The damned bikes are getting stuck in the snow everywhere. And everytime we have to get down and push. That’s why our feet are so drenched. We need to reach back to Leh today only, till how far down is this snow?’

‘About 20 more Kms. And I would advise you not to stay here for more than 15 minutes. The oxygen content at this height is really low. Will you be able to keep going?’ He looked towards the girl.

He could see that the girl was having a very rough time. She was wearing a fashionable but a thin jacket, which he assumed could not even resist slight rainfall, let alone a snow blizzard. She was white with cold, She was shivering so much that she could hardly speak anything, and she kept rubbing her hands, that too feebly.

‘Sir that’s what I wanted to ask. Is there any mode of transportation here for her. I mean any 4 wheeler. We could the take bikes down.’

She could come in his gypsy, he thought. But he knew that his work would not get over before another 2 hours. He could not possibly make them wait for so long here. He also could not send his driver down with the lone girl, and stay put himself for the night at the pass. He had to get back to his unit today only.
The troops at Tangsong La could survive one more day with one telephone connection. However, he knew that it would be very very difficult for her to survive this day without falling sick. Hell, people without proper precautions and clothing had died out here.

But what would he tell this JCO here, who was so eagerly waiting for his one call to his home. Worse, what would he tell his Commanding Officer, who had been given a specific time by his seniors to establish communication at this place? It took a while before he could come up with an answer.
The truth.

‘ She can come in my gypsy if that’s not a problem. We’ll leave in 10 mins.

‘Thank you sir, that would be great. Thank you so much.’

It could either ruin or enhance his image in the eyes of his commander. But it would definitely devastate his image in his own eyes if he decides not to help this girl and something happens to her later.

‘You guys will drive your bikes ahead of me, and keep it in the first or second gear in the downslope.’

‘Ok.’

When the girl came out of the shed, she started furiously trembling and clattering her teeth. He offered his ‘made for siachen’ Jacket and gloves to her. Seeing this, his driver offered him his jacket but he said that your feeling comfortable is more important on these dangerous tracks. He started feeling cold in a while. He remembered the time in IMA, when in the middle of the night in Dehradun’s december cold, they were made to strip down to swimming trunks and pour icy cold water on themselves. Slowly. He had ordered his body to take it. Like a trained soldier, this time again, he ordered his body to take it.

They reached Leh in about four hours. The whole while he was feeling tense about the repercussions of not following the commander’s orders. The girl could sense that he was disturbed about something. She did not utter a single word the entire way. While getting down in front of the hotel they were putting up at, she handed a small piece of paper in his hand. After tons of thanks by both the guys, the girl smiled very very weakly and said only one thing to him as he was driven away.

‘Hats off to Indian Army Officers….’

And that teared out all the fear from his heart.

Disclaimer: The story is a mixture of truth and more of fiction. There is no pass named Tangsong La. All the things about communication being down and terminal eqpt being installed are imaginary. I had gone there for an entirely different purpose. And what was written on the piece of paper is none of your business.