ALSphere Foundation
Balwant looked at the oak tree at the main gate. The tree had shed its leaves. There were no langoors. It was 8.15 am. It was still early for them to venture into the campus.
Balwant had joined as the security officer of this prestigious institute after his retirement from paramilitary forces. As a BSF jawan throughout his career he had protected the country’s borders from infiltrators.
“Not a year ago, I was driving away illegal trespassers, spies, and undercover agents. Now I have to chase away these mere langoors,” he sighed.
All his life Balwant had felt immense pride and contentment in protecting his motherland. But since last night, he had been full of self-doubts. He recalled his conversation with his grandchild Aman.
After dinner, as usual, he was narrating a story of bravery at the border to Aman.
“Daddu, who protects our border between UP and Haryana?” Aman asked out of the blue.
“No one,” Balwant replied.
“Why?”
“Simple. Because both UP and Haryana are part of India.”
“But aren’t we all part of the world?”
“Well… we are different countries, different governments.”
“My science teacher says we humans are 99.9% identical. Daddi also says that the world is one family.”
“Yes, yes, they are right. But, there is some complexity. You will understand when you grow older.”
Balwant had stopped the conversation there. However, he was not convinced by his own responses. Since then, several questions had been gnawing at him.
‘If one and half billion people can cohabit without any internal border security force, why can’t all eight billion?’
‘If having a government at the national level prevents wars at the provincial level, why can’t we have a government at the world level to save us from wars among countries?’
‘If building institutes could stop wars, why didn’t we do that? Did we simply forget to create a world government?’
The pride Balwant once took in his work was beginning to crumble. He was starting to realize that defence forces were mere pawns in someone else’s grand design. These forces existed so that arms could be sold. Powerful, yet harmful agencies, in connivance with crooked political leaders perpetuated the status quo for their own commercial interests. They hypnotized the people with slogans about protecting the motherland.
‘What’s a motherland? Isn’t Mother Earth the true motherland?’
His colleagues in the army, in the line of duty, killed enemy soldiers without remorse to protect their country. But the same held true for their opponents—who were doing the exact same thing for their own country.
“Chasing langoors may be far better. At least one does not take away someone’s life for an artificial pride,” he thought.
He looked at the oak tree again. New leaves had started to sprout.
