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Beyond the Call of Duty

Published on January 29, 2006 in Stories. 4 Comments

In the war that changed the world….
Victory was not achieved by one man….
But by the lives of many.

May 20, 1944
Camp Toccoa, Georgia

More long marches tomorrow. Then obstacles with Cpt. Foley and weapons training with Sgt. Moody. Everyone is dead tired.

My unit, the 506th paratrooper regiment is an all volunteer unit. Our officers drill us continuously. I’ve trained for months and I haven’t even jumped out of an airplane yet. The army has never had an airborne unit before, and that makes the brass nervous, and what makes the brass nervous makes us train even harder.

June 1, 1944
Camp Toccoa, Georgia

Cpt. Foley summoned the Baker company for a briefing. It seemed that we were finally going into the war arena.
This was the big one. Operation Overlord. Air and seaborne invasion of Normandy.
On H-hour D-day, seaborne infantry will attack 5 beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The airborne will be landing 6 hours before H-hour, before the aero-naval bombardments.
We have to catch the Douve river crossings linking Utah and Omaha and protect the flanks of Utah beach. As one of the pathfinders for my unit, I’ll be landing ahead of the main force to plant beacons for marking landing zones. At first light the main force of the invasion will hit the beaches.
If we pull this off the Germans are in for one hell of a surprise.

June 5, 1944
2330 hrs
Outskirts of St. Mere Eglise, France

It was time. I bailed out of the airplane and landed on the patch of land. I quickly removed my harness and moved ahead. I looked up. Pvt. Heath was slowly coming down in his parachute. Suddenly I heard some gunshots. I cautiously moved ahead. There was a lone German soldier ahead. I took aim with my M1A1 carbine and put a single bullet through his head.
I went ahead and around the corner. Pvt. Heath was dead. He was dangling like a puppet from his parachute which got tangled up in a tree. I saluted him and took the beacon. There was no time to waste.

I finally found the dropping zone and planted the radio beacon and waited.
I heard the drone of the planes. The main force was approaching. I saw the ironic white of the chutes opening above the heat of the battle.

The Germans too noticed this and opened fire. Luckily we had the walls in front of the houses to take cover. One guy with a MG42 machine gun was creating a lot of problem. I had to make a quick move to finish him off. I cocked my carbine, shouted to Pvt. Wier to cover me, and rolled to my right. In the middle of the roll, I fired. Luckily it hit the machine gunner. He fired his last shots as he fell down. But I had completed my roll to the next wall by then. After that, it was fairly easy to take out the remaining guards, because they were unprepared to counter this quick attack.
Cpt. Foley urged us, “Everybody move..Come on”. We went on towards the village of St. Mere Eglise.

June 6, 1944
0020 hours
St. Mere Eglise, France

Nobody seemed to have dropped where they were supposed to. I hadn’t yet seen anyone from my unit yet, but luckily I hooked up with Cpt. Foley and Pvt. Wier from Baker Company. We also had men from Able, Dog, and Fox Companies with us… what a mess.

We were getting ready to capture the village of St. Mere Eglise, about 5 miles from Utah Beach. We were approaching through a narrow trench with minefields on each side.

Captain Foley said there’s two platoons of German paratroopers in that village.
I’d say we’ve got a serious fight ahead of us.

Finally we reached the end of the trench. Cpt. Foley said, “All right guys, get set to move, On my command.
“LET’S GO. LET’S GO!!”

One by one, we jumped out of the field into the open ground. That was close to suicide, but we had no other option. The Germans were waiting for us in the buildings ahead.

“MG42′s! Hit the dirt!”, shouted Cpt. Foley, “Get suppressing fire on those 42′s.”

We suddenly heard the drone which was quickly approaching towards us.
“Incoming!”, “Mortars!”, everybody was screaming.
As if we had asked for more, the German had started mortar attack.

However, this proved a little helpful as we could now take cover behind the massive cattle which fell dead on the ground. But it still was not easy with the mortars going on. We had to keep moving forward. We get caught here, we’re dead!
We eliminated the enemies one by one and moved slowly forward, taking cover.
I heard the drone of another mortar shell, coming towards me. It dropped mortar just a few feet ahead of me. I saw Pvt. Wier’s body flying high in the air because of the impact. Another good soldier dead! I started feeling the pain. I also had got some burns and cuts from the shrapnel. We went forward, nevertheless.

“Keep your heads down!”
“Down! Damn it, stay down!”
“Watch your angles”
Cpt. Foley was firing orders. I was wondering which one had the higher rate of fire – his mouth or his SMG!!

When we got close enough to the building, Cpt. Foley ordered me, “Clear that building; toss a grenade. Then get that gunner down on the half-track and let’s go!”
Damn! Why has it to be me always?

I went closer to the window and tossed a grenade inside.
“Achtung!”
“Werfen sie ihn”
Next thing I saw was the grenade was coming back to it’s owner.

“Fire in the hole! Take cover!”
I dived just in time to escape from the grenade.

The Germans came outside by then and we could take them out easily as we were in position.

We finally cleared the building and moved ahead. Next target was the anti-aircraft gun. We took out the Germans soldiers who manned the AAG and planted an explosive.
“Good job, son! Squad, move up, GO GO GO!”, came the order from Cpt. Foley.

We cleared the area of the remaining troops. This was proving to be a bitter battle.

June 6, 1944
0410 hours
St. Mere Eglise, France

“Alright fellas, take 5, but listen up. We’ll hold this place ’til reinforced, but this is just a tiny village in a war and country full of ‘em, so our work has just begun.
“For those of you who’ve seen your first action – welcome to the Big Time. For those of you who’ve seen it before, trust me – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
“We’ll redeploy those German machine guns, setting up a defensive perimeter. Keep your guard up and your buddies in mind. Good work!”

I yearned the war to be over as the words of Cpt. Foley faded in my ears.

Courtesy: This story is inspired by the game “Call of Duty”

The Ridiculous Story

Published on September 16, 2005 in Stories. 1 Comment

This is a story I cooked up during one HR induction session in Infy. Of course, I’ve added some more details now. You may like it. You may hate it. It might make you go gaga about me. You may waste your valuable minutes on it. You have been warned.

I wanted to go on search of the Philosopher’s Stone. Just because I was curious, you know! Some fool told me it was with an alchemist.

I chuckled. Lots of al’s in Chemistry. Alchemist, alloy, allotrope, aldehyde. I went to Arabia in search of the alchemist. I found out that what I was looking for was not an alchemist; I was looking for an answer. I found out that the alchemist was not a person; it was a thing, some sort of cup. You may thing this is exactly opposite to the explanation of “Holy Grail” in “The Da Vinci Code”. I further found out that the answer was waiting in the Great wall of China.

I stole a Harley Davidson from Sheikh Yasim Khalid Al Mubarak Mahdani and rode towards China. It was a 20 mile long, single track plush ride with all you ever wanted on a ride; a long trenchcoat, a cool pair of sunglasses, (like the one Neo wears in The Matrix) Nitrous Boosters, booze and Guns…Lots of Guns. And some things which I didn’t want; I’ll mention them later.

Anyway, I was riding. I could not resist doing a “Superman” on the edge of Himalayan peaks (If you don’t know what “Superman” is, go watch X-games Dirt rides) and I fell on my ass. My “slick” slick tires are not worth crap on wet slippery surfaces of the Himalayas. I had thought “I’m dealing with a 1200cc rocket engined bike. I will just ride over it.” So I fell. Luckily it didn’t even hurt me because I had a nutter behind me who was downright pain in the ass; much bigger than the current pain in the ass.

I guzzled a bottle of beer. I figured if I was boozing it up, I might as well do it proper, so I drank further. I also had a block of Frag, the pungent cheese from Liverpool, so I gobbled up that too.

I rode for 3 more hours. I reached Great Wall. There I saw David Copperfield The Magician walking through the 20 foot thick wall there. Man…The booze was doing its job. Nobody can walk through a stone wall.

I felt dizzy. It was blurring. Then it was black.

I woke up at a Shaolin monastery. A monk was sitting near me. He said, “Yo dude! Came in search of philosopher’s stone in China? Does not exist. A fly doesn’t buzz past China without the Shaolin monks knowing it. Now scoot back to your place. You’ll find your friggin’ answer there.

I returned broken-hearted. I passed through a bamboo forest when I felt a sense of deja vu. A black cat just crossed the road. And a similar one crossed exactly like the first one. At the same time, I felt my head grow heavy. I thought, “Funny!”

I went on. I rounded a corner and there was a babe taking a rest on the side of the groomed singletrack previously mentioned. I pulled over and offered her a drink, she of course accepted. It turned out she was a pro hacker, and happened to know the whereabouts of the alchemist.

Then we went to the 5 mile long downhill segment which is a 75 degree slope. When we reached the valley, she suddenly jumped from the back of my bike. She went high up in the air. Everything was slowing down. She was going up slowly. She did a couple of somersaults at 100ft height and came back down. She landed smoothly as a cat, one leg stretched to her side.

She said, “This…Something is wrong with this…”
I said, “What the…”
Then it suddenly happened.
A giant panda jumped in front of me. It appeared that he came straight from my head. He jumped, held his skin near his adam’s apple with his right hand and shook his head twice; as if he was adjusting his tie. Wait a minute. He looked exactly like an agent. Black body looking like a black 3-piece suit. White face. And black eyes looking like a pair of cool sunglasses.

He said, “So you want the stone and the cup Mr. Anderson? What are you gonna do now? Hear the sound of inevitability???”

I replied, “I’m not Anderson, you Bunder son”. He just nodded curtly as if he was bowing before a fight.

In one smooth motion, I took my Dual Desert Eagles and started firing at him. But he kept on dodging them all. At last, I ran out of clips. I took a MP5 and started firing. He dodged them also. Then I took a Gatling gun. The rate of fire is too high for him to dodge, I thought. But he, well, dodged them as well. I threw my guns away and cried, “Trinity…Help…”, because I didn’t know the name of the dame and this was turning out to be exactly like Matrix.

The panda, as if reading my mind, started…

Why worry about the name of the dame,
When you still don’t know the name of the game,
You are lame coz you can’t take aim,
The guns, you can’t blame, it will be a big shame,
Why go after the dame who came,
When I am there, who’s so tame,
You’ll get it all the same,
And ‘t will be your claim to fame.

Then, without warning, he jumped on me. He clutched me tight however I tried to get rid of him. Even now he’s clutching me from my side. I say, “You’re not a Koala, you’re a Panda, Goddamnit!!”
Oh dear!!!

What happened to the quest of the stone??

Away went broken, the dame
And as she went, she proclaimed,
I will avenge you, O my flame!
The stone she found is now critically acclaimed!!
I lost the stone and the fame and the dame,
And I got an idiot who says he’s tame.

Big Deal

Published on September 8, 2005 in Life etc. and Stories. 4 Comments

I think…I marvel…about going out tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the day of joy; a day when I don’t need to run away from my work; because it has let me free. I walk comfortably…thinking…marvelling at the beautiful day that calls me.

I call her. I ask her out for a movie.
She denies. She slams the door. I feel…weird. No pain. I recall my strangeness in perception and behavior. I recall that I seldom understand people; and, vice versa, people seldom understand me. I imagine I just made up that slamming-the-door story. She really has some pressing work. I slap myself in the face. I feel disappointed that she’s not there. But I really want to watch that movie. Big deal if she’s not with me.

I call them one by one. Some don’t pick up the phone. I think, “What the *BEEP*!!” I smile because I realise how my vocabulary changed from my first call to the present one. I am a man with two faces. Everybody is!
Those who pick up the phone…well…they answer. Some say they have seen the movie. Others say it is a load of shit.

Nobody is with me. I feel like I have fallen into oblivion. I recover. I make up my mind. I will prove that I can be a solitary eagle. I decide to go alone. Big deal if they’re not with me.

I reach there. I see myself smack in the middle of an ocean; an ocean of humans. I find it rather weird. I wonder why. I have been in the same place under the same situation for the umpteenth time now. I spin around, again without a particular reason. I see colors…and happiness. Couples walking past holding hands, toddlers trotting around, their parents running after them, men chit-chatting in groups, women dressed in lovely clothes. Everybody is looking relaxed, talking and laughing loudly, as if there is no tomorrow for them to worry about. The entire place is effusing joy and din.

I see the guys. They say Hi. I return the wishes. They ask why I’m alone. I smirk. I say I wanted to be alone. LIAR… Somebody just says that from behind me. I turn around. Nobody seems to be there.

I enter the cinema. I don’t watch the movie. I look around. Everybody is enjoying. I feel bad. I curb my anger and sorrow and shout, “BIG DEAL”. Everybody looks at me. I feel unabashed. Big deal!

I get out. I lean against the grill to look down. Why is she not with me? Why have they abandoned me? Tears start coming in my eyes. I feel dizzy. I start falling…I keep on falling. It seems to be a lifetime. I pray to God to make my last moments painless. And painless it is. It seems like I fall on a bed of feathers. Then some divine touch on my chest. Followed by a drop of water that scorches my skin.

I wake up startled. I see her weeping beside me. I look around. I am in a hospital room. I try to get up. I can’t. I hold her hand. She looks up and smiles in the midst of tears.
“Your friends brought you here. You’ll be alright”, she says.
I force a false smile to her; a smile which could not cover guilt; guilt of misunderstanding her and them again…

I wonder, “Who invented the term “Big deal” anyway?”