-‘It is said that the parents can only give good advice or put them on the right path, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. This kid Little Lilly taught me this very important fact of life to me as she was special as lilies as flowers are’
-‘ Morning half past three in the North East especially so in Manipur is a time that sun rays begin to move out of the skies splitting apart the sky as Lord Sun begins to light up the Eastern hemisphere’! The sunrise is absolutely full of innocence but that day though the start to the day was slow yet what was in the offing at mid afternoon was absolutely stunning for us!’
-‘I still remember the kid, we used to call her Little Lilly, always smiling and wobbling around as our patrol or jeep passed through the village and we made it a point that we always carried something or the other as food for her. Initially she never gave us a wave of her hand but as time went by she was there every time with a smile just for us as we entered the village!’! Lilly was just ten years old then studying in a government school just at the outskirts of Imphal as we traveled towards Kakching or Mayang Imphal and further towards Moreh on –Indo-Myanmar border!’
-‘A lot many nasty incidents have happened on these roads and that day another was about to happen but it was the ten year old who that day stood in the middle and surely that innocent kid repaid us and that too with innocent love she had for the soldiers, Little Lilly was the heroine that day! That innocent face and cute gestures I still cannot forget even today! None of us fourteen in all, have not forgotten till date!’
-‘The evening prior to the day when an event had been planned for us Lilly met us as we were on the way back to our Company location, She walked up to me and handed me a piece of paper and scrambled back to her home. That day, since morning, we had not met her but still we ensured that her pack of toffees and lollipops were delivered to her. The piece of paper remained in my pants pocket for that moment of time and what was written on it I did not read till half past twelve in the night!’ I thought that the child must have given a demand which in any case would have been met. But there was something else very special she had scribbled!’
-‘It was after I read the paper note I realized that when we behave as children we seldom think of the future. This innocence leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can. The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind. I think the time Little Lilly was writing this note she knew that she had stepped into the future’!
-‘It was at the time of the roll call in the evening when my senior JCO came and told me that the little girl had given me a piece of paper. I told him that I have not read it but the senior JCO, obviously a wise head in the company and respected immensely in the family known as the battalion just reminded me to go through what the child had written, I jokingly said ‘Subedar Sahab, she is a child, just carry extra munching bakery and lollipops, she is a kid and she would be there early in the morning! The roll call parade was broken off and I went back to my room and reading the piece of paper got out of mind!’
-‘Terrible things had happened in this part of the world and the roads and bends were notorious, and some things had happened that no one could explain. Sometimes human places create inhuman monsters. And the villages on either side of these roads had given birth to many. Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win. At that time they usually used the most brutal and ruthless ways. A month’s training in Counter insurgency and jungle warfare school at Wairangte (Mizoram) had taught me many things! The next morning that training would be helping me out I never knew but the first thing taught there was about information that we seek or we get! And at midnight I was about to read one!’
‘If I have any desire at all, it is to show the brotherhood of man.’
It was a late evening in the mess as our commanding officer loved to get more into the night hours and ‘Bay watch’ was not a kind of a soap that he could take his eyes off! He told us, ‘boys you can quit if you want but in the morning half past nine, in my office we have a date’. It was almost half past twelve when I got the call from my senior JCO and I knew what I had to read. I got to my overalls (Dungaree), I was wearing and in the right pocket was a message. On the paper a tree was drawn, above it a couple of apples hung and a person wondering about the tree and a word written ‘Beware’. I saw everything as to what beware meant?
I kept seeing the message again and again and then I wondered as to why Little Lilly had drawn this message and in a jiffy handed the same to me! I showed it to Arif, my Company officer, For a moment at half past twelve we discussed the same and we both hit the bull’s eye, ‘this was the tree where we always had our breakfast and later in the afternoon lunch. Almost the same routine was followed by the Police and the CRPF. It was only the timing that mattered and it was a tree grove, a cool place in times of humid weather!
That morning we moved out early, got into the grove and tried to locate the tree but could not find it. It was not until eight when we were sitting that I spotted Little Lilly, ‘I smiled at her but she was grim she pointed upwards and the tree branches had two claymore mines hung on them’. But as she ran away we spotted a couple of boys chasing her. We got hold of both of them as they were from the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) outfit in Manipur. But the house where they chased our little flower was her own!
The two undergrounds (as they are called in Manipur) Jhonny and Boy were caught, weapons recovered and would have been killed (which they were subsequently), I came to know about the same thirteen years later from Little Lilly of those times and now Catherine staying in Kolkata. But I did realize at that time a fact that not all angels come from above. Some are beside you or around you even as we speak. Then why can’t we see them? Because we are too busy searching for them elsewhere. We won’t find them unless we stop looking for them amongst the demons or in our prayers offered to the Gods. Open your eyes, perceive your vicinity and analyze people – only then will you find the true angels. Little Lilly was that day. One small little meaningless drawing to an ordinary eye, but she knew we were right under the hot spot! Her innocence saved us in fact fourteen of us! Today she does say, ‘brother I’m a believer. I believe in the goodness of life. I believe in the brotherhood of mankind. I believe in humanity.’ I just told Catherine you were great as a Little Lilly but now you have a garden full of them! She is the mother of three beautiful daughters, Amanda, Nikki and Emerald! That is what life is! We meet as strangers and Part as friends not knowing whether we meet again or not!
