Brave Hearts

The people of India, living in the country peacefully with solace because of the services and sacrifices of courageous soldiers securing at borders. This is a small tribute to the soldiers guarding at a war zone which is at an altitude of 5400 meters and covered densely by snow.
"Quartered in snow , Silent to remain , when the Bugle calls they shall raise and march again." These are the words that are engraved on the stone memorial at the Indian army base camp in the world's most extremely highest, coldest, toughest and deadliest war zone - SIACHEN, largest non polar glacier.
Indian Army is deployed in world's highest battle ground for years. They have mastered the art of survival and battle in the dead land. In Siachen Indian army spends as much as 80% of its time preparing soldiers of deployment.

Soldiers in this war zone serve amidst a temperature ranging from -50° to -60° Celsius.
In Siachen, the weather is too harsh that you are at the risk of getting a deadly frostbite if your bare skin touches the gun trigger for just over 10 seconds. Annual snowfall in this region is over 36 feet. The normal oxygen level in this war zone is just about 10% of the oxygen level in plains. Most of the soldiers die due to extreme weather conditions rather than the cross firing and many more who serving in this area suffer from sleep deprivation, memory loss, severe and sudden weight loss, speech loss etc.,

For Indian forces deployed in Siachen, it is less of a challenge to watch out for the frail Pakistani forces but to just stay atop this 76 kilometers long glacier at 5, 400 meters altitude (nearly twice the altitude of Ladakh and Kargil) in itself means you have to defy all of your physical, mental and spiritual limits.
They use strict protocols while serving in Siachen. Ice is boiled to get the daily use water. Food and ammunition supply is done through Air support where fresh food is something you cannot even dream. IAF and Army Aviation Corps are responsible for the logistics support for the troops. Parachute are used to drop food packets if there is no scope for a helicopter landing. Many times they have just 20-30 seconds for the aerial drop as they may see open gun fires from Pakistan. Rifles and machine guns are defrosted immediately in boiling water to prevent from jamming.
Physical exercise and lack of appetite is a common scenario for our brave soldiers. Yet they get use to it. Kerosene is the primary fuel used by the soldiers. A 121km pipeline was installed from Siachen base camp to the glacier. Alcohol use is prohibited while serving in Siachen. Specialy designed suits and boots from DRDO are used in duty.
In the last 30 years, 846 soldiers have sacrificed their lives in Siachen. Death of these soldiers are declared as war casualties although they die due to severe climate and not because of war.
Despite of these extreme hostilities, the Indian Army has never experienced shortage of soldier volunteers to serve in Siachen region.
Indian Armed forces are always ready for any challenge. It's not a office job where they look for comfort. Its about serving motherland at any cost.
We can proudly say that we are in safe hands and we must pay a heartfelt salute to the brave hearts guarding INDIA at frontiers.
JAI HIND

First Attempt In Learning

This is a very rare failure story of a person who doesn't need any adjectives to describe his exemplary contributions to  India's space and defense missions , no adjectives  are enough to highlight the humility and generosity  of former first citizen of India , popularly known as Missile Man of India , who has won the every Indian's heart and called as People's President , a perfect embodiment of success, he is none other than Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.

 Mr Kalam's dearest and deepest desire is to become a pilot in Indian Air Force, but he failed in interview. Interview was held by Indian Air force for 8 pilot posts , 25 members attended that interview in which Kalam bagged 9th position , the reason behind it is that the interviewers are looking for some kind of smartness in the personality of candidate along with the qualifications and engineering knowledge. At that time he was in a deep disappointment, which took him some time to comprehend that the opportunity to join the Air Force was slipped from his hand.
In his words he wrote like this, " I had failed to realize my dream of becoming an Air Force pilot. " in his autobiography with Arun Tiwari , WINGS OF FIRE.

Later he was selected in the interview of DTD&P(Air) [ Directorate of Technical Development & Production ] as Senior Scientific Assistant.

Not only that, he faced many unsuccessful attempts in his most successful voyage from Paper boy in a small coastal town to President of largest democratic country in the world.
Finally Kalam defined FAIL as "First Attempt In Learning".