Old soldiers don't die. They simply fade away. After nearly four decades of active military service the temptation to get away from it all was becoming too great to resist. Except that while I was pondering over the matter my mind kept going back to the time, not long after Independence, when I opted for a career in the Army. I was very young when I made the decision. The Republic of India even younger. What I do recall from those days was that the famous words about "India keeping its tryst with destiny", spoken from the ramparts of the Red Fort a few years earlier, still redounded in our young ears.

As I hung up my spurs I failed to detect even the faintest echo of that stirring oration amongst the political milieu of the country - the leaders who would take India into the next millennium. Our dreams lay shattered. Strife was rife. Poverty and hunger stalked the land. The sadhus and fakirs had also forsaken religion and joined the fray. The land of Budha, Mahavira and the Mahatma could rejoice to Ram or Rahim but not to Ram & Rahim.

I was deeply troubled by the sight of what I beheld.

What follows is a compilation of thoughts, talks, articles and essays from an old warrior who decided to soldier on.