A sad spectacle!

I'd written on the subject earlier too. But I'm repeating my anguish after seeing the unwanted negative coverage, the services seem to be getting in the media, over the past few days. There has been a spate of confessions, trading of charges and countercharges after the Armed Forces' tribunal's favourite verdict on Brig(Retd) Davinder Singh's appeal. While one way to look at these happenings in a positive manner is to believe that the muck, collected over the years, will get cleared once for all. But what would eventually happen is that pettiness would overrule sane thinking and saner voices consequent to which every individual would like to blurt out all the 'unfair' happenings of his service life and bring the entire institution of the 'armed forces' into disrepute eventually bring it down in the common man's esteem!
The oft repeated saying that "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away" is pregnant with a poignant meaning. A soldier is a gentleman, always and everytime, and he never carries any grudge despite the injustices he has had to face in the course of his professional growth, as it was accepted as an essential aspect of life! And he lives up to the saying, "If you are a gentleman, nothing else matters. If you are not a gentleman, still nothing matters", despite all odds which, essentially is what's meant by the strength of character - tempered with practice and self discipline!!