You Have A Holiday On I-Day But The Brave Jawaans At Attari Have A Busy One - Doing Their Duty

This is now our third day on the road. When it comes to the distance we've driven we're nowhere close to the end of our tethers (while I write this we have done 770 kms only). But what we have managed to see has been indescribably amazing. I saw the first Indian border fence of my life, Abhishek has seen it in Tanot before though.

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While nothing very eventful happened on our first driving day (apart from the world's best kebabs at Beera's Chicken in Amritsar), the real action for #Frontlines started only on Day 2.?

Driving past Amritsar's India Gate (it's nothing like the real thing except for the scale), we met Deputy Commandant Sunil Yadav of the BSF and then Inspector Negi also of the BSF. It was Inspector Negi who rushed us to the gate for the Samjhota Express' crossing over into India. Something which sounds fairly simple, filmy even (after all, you did see this in Bajrangi Bhaijaan) but it is anything but that.

We'd missed this in our planning so we raced to the spot through a small off-road patch that our Maruti Suzuki Ertriga hungrily ate up. We arrived just in time to see a locomotive across the black iron gate erratically belching clouds of black smoke. The Samjhota Express was awaiting clearance for the BSF soldiers to open the imposing black gates that serve as an entry point into India.

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The train was eventually signaled through, surrounded by a team of INSAS and Beretta carrying BSF guards. Once it's halfway through the border, it stops. The goods carriages are searched by Indian Customs Officers and only then does the train move on towards Attari station. Once the train does move on, Armed BSF Mounted Jawans escort the train to the station under their watchful eye. They're not hostile, no one is hostile today, not the guards, not the people on the train, nor 50-year-old Liaqat Ali from Lahore who's driving the train or 25-year-old Harjinder Singh who's on the lookout for contraband, weapons or drugs which could be thrown out of the train. The train, as the BSF describes it, is completely 'raw' for them. The entire practice takes between 30-45 minutes. The train will return shortly from Attari station carrying passengers for Pakistan.

The gate opens both sides

While the entire process sounds simple and mechanised, it is anything but that. The black imposing gate in India's multi-layered fencing is also opened to let in villagers who's lands lie on the other side of the fence. The fence is 100-150 mts inside India's International Border and also in a straight line while the territory itself is jagged. This has meant that, at many places, people have wheat and maize fields between the fence and India's border pillars. The BSF guards (both on-ground) and in the watch towers are also additionally responsible for making sure these kisaans are safe while at the same time making sure no intruders sneak into India. Something that a Jawan on duty in a 30-ft watch tower tells us requires a lot of concentration considering there is no way to distinguish between Indian and Pakistani kisaans. "Thankfully, they don't seem as interested in agriculture as Indians," a jawaan laughs.?

This is the life of the jawans on this border. Some like a 53-year-old Beretta toting Jawan would be posted on the border for up to 3 months. According to him, the BSF is at its highest alert during the rains and fog, and what makes it harder to keep the border safe is the fact that in many places, Pakistani rangers have let elephant grass grow up to 8-10 ft.?

We climb up to a bare-boned watchtower 30 ft up and the Jawan on duty points out the posts of the Pakistan Army. 'That one is lazy, just shows up, eats and sleeps,' he says, pointing to a square hole in a mud embankment. In the 20 minutes we spend with him, he points out four more posts using his binoculars. He does remind us about 5 times to not let the strap slip, Independence Day is coming, he is on high alert and can't afford to have them broken. He's in his late 20s, I take a picture of him at work, he makes me promise I'd find him on FB and send it to him. We're not friends but it's something deeper - we are the protector and the protectee - men standing on the edge of our country, curious but careful of what lies ahead. The CO is also a sharp, alert man in his 20s, aware of the sensitivity of his posting but nothing but hostile. There is hostility in war time, right now it's just two men on either side of the border doing their duty, he tells us.

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But it's our gentleman jawan who takes us for a walk along the border. He points out India's border pillars and laughs when we tell him, India seems to be more vigilant on the border than the other side. "They don't have anything to be afraid of, they're happy knowing India is watching out."

We ask them what their plans for 15th August are, they laugh, "Our plan is to be on high alert" "Someone has to be another one chimes in." Do their families miss them when they are at the border? "Time to miss us is gone, one of them laughs." But it's a senior official who sums up the "does your family miss you" question. "You guys are still imagining the sandesas on the border scene, but there's now Whatsapp." The jawans of the BSF are young, modern, with it and nowhere close to war-mongering as many of us would imagine a jawan on the border to be like.?

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There's no mention of enemy, of hostility, but there is a tinge of sadness.

While we drive away from the spot towards the Attari-Wagah Border where the aggressive Beating Retreat ceremony happens, the words of one BSF officer stay with us - we are here for our duty, and will continue doing it, but most of India doesn't even know we exist. They think it's the army that guards the border when it's the BSF which is the first line of defence on a majority of India's borders. A group of MPs visited recently and were surprised why they weren't being hosted by the Army.?

This is our first dispatch from the Attari border, there'll be two more dispatches. We were also blown away to find out that the BSF has had women in combat roles since 2008, in which they do everything from foot border patrols to boat patrols and sentry duty. That's what our next dispatch focuses on.