Independence Day

I shall never forget this day. 15th August 2007 I gained my freedom. I gained my freedom just like India did 60 years ago.
India was anything but the confidant and strong nation that it is today. It was born crippled with communal tensions and aggressive neighbours. It survived. The nation survived. It went on to make something of itself.

True steel is tested not at time of war but at time of peace. How does it weather the peace? Will it rust into a powder? Will it shine again in times of war? War is but a blink of an eye between two intervals of peace. A mere interlude.

It is in peacetime when future wars are won and lost. As a famous quote tells us:

"At times of peace prepare for war".

War doesn't come upon you after lengthy debates every time. Often it creeps up on cat's paws as you sleep the sweet sleep of life. It stands upon your bed. Looking down upon your face. Relishing in its black heart the pain and shock it is going to cause you. The twist it is going to give your life.

Coming back to India. We find ourselves again in a time of peace. But the next war is always around the corner. The next period of struggle is just over the horizon. Are we prepared? Do the shopping malls and the presence of luxury brands indicate preparation for future struggles or do they indicate the removal of stones from the protective wall to build buildings of pleasure?

Do we, as humans, deserve any peace in our lives? Or are we cursed forever to look out for what is around the bend and best prepare ourselves for it, keeping in mind, that most probably, we will be overwhelmed? There will have to be a certain non-zero percentage of 'acceptable loss'?

This 'acceptable loss' is the price of freedom. It is what allows us to sleep at night as soldiers and civilians alike are killed across India. We know, others die so that we can live, we can buy our cars and our watches and our televisions. But what we don't realise is the fact that as the acceptable losses start eating away at our base, without preparation one day soon, we shall find ourselves being counted in that percentage.

On an unrelated note, I wonder how big a percentage loss is 1cm diameter piece of our body?
Is it an 'acceptable loss'? Strangely enough the 9mm bullet (one of the common calibres) is about 1cm in diameter (since 1cm = 10mm).