Avalanche Express

We are Ten, Ten Bravehearts

Sentinels on the snow

We walk out on days and nights

With temperatures always so low

Minus ten is comforting to us

Below forty is when you miss your toe

Sunlight, frostbite, hypothermia

Welcome to our abode in snow

Welcome to Siachen.

We are Ten, Ten Bravehearts

Out on a special mission

To stop the raiders from across

Coming into our nation

Walking in snow so deep

When we heard a huge commotion

No, it wasn’t the guns booming

But the rumbling of snow in motion

Come later to our abode on snow

It’s too hot right now in Siachen.

We are Ten, Ten Bravehearts

Sensing our biggest killer

With nowhere to hide

Didn’t run hither & thither

T’was coming down the mountain

Crushing all beneath, this road roller

Just minutes away from us it was

We stood still, we held our hands together

Death was roaring & laughing at us

But we never let go of our hands

For us it had always been

All for One, One for All

Now this will be our abode forever

Never ever to say Goodbye Siachen.

We were Ten, Ten Bravehearts

No one else will know our names

But for our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters

And our wives, sons, daughters, friends

Who will come to know of us much later

After days when all the searches are over

They’ll never find us, for we are lost

Lost forever, together us Ten Bravehearts

Sleeping soundlessly, frozen forever.

Soon another set of  Bravehearts will take our place

Welcome to Siachen, Mates.

We were Ten, Ten Bravehearts

Who will soon be forgotten

Wiped away from your memories soon

But not for our own families

Who wait at the station to receive us

As the Avalanche Express comes chugging down

Coming with our empty coffins

Wrapped in saffron green and white

Lying ten feet below, with unfulfilled dreams

Dreams of goodness and joy

Wondering how Genesis would have described us  

From Dust to Dust or From Dust to Snow

Zara hatke, zara bachke, yeh hai Siachen meri jaan!

And in the end imagined myself singing

Hoping words of my favorite song would come true

 Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too

Imagine all the people, Living life in peace

Yo hoo oo!!

And there’ll be Siachen No More

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one.

Jai Hind!

SS