Letter to the army | Sankalp India Foundation

Dear Sir,

Sankalp India Foundation® is a Voluntary Youth Organization. We have been serving the country on three fronts since past 4 years. We have our Voluntary Blood Donation Organization, we have been providing Disaster relief and we work to Promote Patriotic feelings among citizens. We are a 100% Voluntary Organization that has a zero funding support from anyone outside it's working team.

Background

Sankalpindia.net is our public website which we use to highlight matters that should have been of high importance and familiarity with today's youth but which have been sidelined. During the process of research on the Siachen Conflict for our website we came face to face with what our brothers are facing in Siachen. We realized the in-humane conditions in which they are guarding our motherland. During the Kashmir earthquake of October,2005 we went with a relief supply of 600 blankets to Tangdhar where we passed on this relief material to the 3 Punjab regiment posted further ahead towards the border. This one occasion gave us a chance to understand the pain that a soldier feels due to gross National apathy and disregard for the service he is rendering in the inhumane conditions that exist along our borders. Today, we feel that the people who are guarding that 80 miles long glacier should be told that we do care for them. We wish to inform them that the people of their motherland do remember them in their prayers and hold them in high regard for what they do for us.

The Plan

We the Volunteers of Sankalp® have planned to tell them that we care and send them a token of our love and appreciation by sending them some handmade postcards. We wish to write as many postcards as we can (planning one postcard for each soldier there) and send it to them so that they receive the message right in time for the Republic Day 2008. From what we understand, there are about 4000 soldiers posted at Siachen. Our target is to have a personal message for each one of them.

Choice of Postcards

We chose to send postcards for multiple reasons. From security point of view, a postcard would be the safest way to communicate. Secondly, we want the people who really feel for the soldiers to make the postcard by their own hands using their own creativity. This will make sure that there is no room for artificial emotions. Postcard is also something that they can keep individually. We can have each one of them receiving a special personalized message.

Help that we require

There are few points over which we require your help in this regard.

We wish to confirm that our plans will not create any problems for the army and the other entities involved in the process of sending postcards to the soldiers there.
We wish to know how the letters can be sent to each man posted in Siachen once we have prepared them.
We understand that we cannot be told the names of the people posted there. Is there anyway in which we can uniquely address them?
Is there a way we can confirm that the letters are finally delivered to the soldiers there?
By when should we hand the postcards over to the army so that they can reach the soldiers by 26^th January? Also, if it is not possible to arrange for the delivery of these letters by 26^th January then what should be the expected time frame?
If we work hard enough and ensure that all the postcards are prepared and sent then is it possible, can few of us be there to salute the National Flag at Siachen on 26^th January 2008? We understand that the climatic conditions will be very extreme and that it is very difficult thing to materialize, but if it can be arranged in any way, it will be a chance for us to take the message of love and care from the comforts and safety of Bangalore to the pace where people pay the price for us.

Once we are sure that the army will only be happy to help us in this matter and that our effort will only help boost the morale, and keep up the confidence and the energy of our brothers there, we will be more than glad to put in the effort it takes to spread the word about our brothers who are guarding Siachen in the silicon city of Bangalore. As, we previously mentioned we are a zero funding organization. We are not the well known and the well placed people of the society. We are the most common of the Indians here requesting for a chance to show their appreciation to the people they admire and care for from the bottom of their hearts. Our feelings towards the army are beautifully put in words by Swargiya Shree Makhan Lal Chaturvedi in his poem Pushp Ki Abhilasha:

"Chaah nahin main surbala ke

gehano mein gootha jaun,

Chaah nahin premi maala mein bindh

pyaari ko lalchaun,

Chaah nahin samraaton ke shav par

he hari daala jaun,

Chaah nahin devon ke sir par chadhun

bhaagya par ithlaun,

Mujhe thod lena ban-mali,

us path par dena tum phenk,

Matra-bhoomi par sheesh chadhane,

jis path jayen veer anek."