Cont 12

May 21st, 2011:
I had to share my few hours of interaction with the locals at the "Chor" Bazaar, I call it. Some of the items were legitimate but a lot of them were fake. Like the 10 dollars I spent on a watch which was pretty much giving away my hard earned money. Oh well, I learnt to suck it up. I bought whole bunch of gifts for my family, especially for my wife.

It was super easy for me to communicate with these people because they all spoke urdu. Some pretended they didn't speak it but as soon as I mentioned my interest in their product it clearly jumped out of his skin.

What I learnt from one of the very young vendors (Daulat Khan) was that these people start lining up by the gate of KAF around 3AM and wait until given permission to come in and set up their products for sale. I saw boys from very young ages of 4 and 7 years old, some of the little ones were awfully cute.  It made me want to talk to these kids and ask them "do you go to school", The answer was, " Yes Sir, we study in a school at Kandahar". It made me wonder if these school were Madrasas or a proper school which offers education in a few different subjects. There were no females with these vendors, all men.

It makes the bargaining a little hard when one sees poverty stuck people asking for money. For some reason the whole "Bad Talibans" goes down the drain. It is for sure this kind of poverty which pushes these people to accept the money Talibans have to offer to them to blow themselves up or shoot a rocket at an American Base.  I saw many Americans and NATO soldiers buying a lot of things from these vendors and they interacted with afghans in a very respectable manner.

One more interaction with a kid who wanted me to buy one of his hand made bracelets. He asked me in Urdu,"Are you from India", I said yes and no. He clearly got the idea and replied back, it must be nice in United States. I didn't say anything and he asked me another question,"What are you doing in Afghanistan", he asked me that question in a tone that, America is such a nice country and why was I in Afghanistan. I replied, "to serve the humanity". I felt good about that answer and paid the kid a dollar for his hand made bracelet. 

Cont 11

May 18th, 2011:  Life in an environment like Kandahar is very interesting. One will get bored if there are no other things to look up to. I decided a long time ago to get the most out of this deployment. I accepted another assignment at Camp/FOB Pasab and will be heading that way in a few days. Also, there is an Afghan hospital just a little outside the wire (Camp Hero). I will be traveling there in a few days it will be a good opportunity to mentor Afghan dentist.

I am kind of looking forward to my new assignment at Camp Pasab. The living might be a little primitive as compared to KAF but it can't be so bad. I will be sharing Alaskan tents and running a Dental Clinic all by myself.  The best thing is I will be earning my 3rd combat patch "10th Mountain Patch" Yehhhh.

Another negative is I wouldn't  be able to chat with my beautiful wife as much as I do now. Oh by the way when she found out that I planned to go to that afghan hospital she freaked out and got mad at me. Dude, my love,  if I don't plan to do these extra activities I will go nuts in this sand pit. Its been a little over month and a half and I feel that I have learnt so much in my profession and will continue to learn more and more.

Yesterday I treated a SM and he mentioned that other NCO's saw be working out in the gym with my PT's and my black bandana. They were not happy with my outfit and myself in general. This SM explained to them that I was within the Army standards. What I fail to understand is that some of these NCO's have nothing better do to than complain and I am actually working very hard to make soldiers happy.

I dont really have anything else...........will write more soon

Cont 10

May 13^th 2011:  I believe if job demands dedication, hard work and lots of time then I should be excused for not posting anything in the last few days.  I want to make this very clear to the readers that this blog is my day to day emotions I am writing about.

Todays blog will somehow reflect on the amount of work necessary by the Sikh community in order to win some hearts and minds of fellow Americans.  I earned my combat patch today after having boots on ground for more than 30 days in theatre. Everyday is a mixed feelings of roller-coaster, it took me a long time to win hearts and minds of individuals working with and around me but unfortunately in theatre people rotate and soldiers change. It is overwhelming sometimes to see new faces and their reaction towards my existence as a fellow soldier. The feelings range from “What The Fuck” to whispers of “Is this guy legitimate”. Some refers to my existence in the military as the guy with relaxed grooming standards.

Let me take a step back, I do run into handful of soldiers who are very well read and they are excited to meet me as one of the only practicing Sikhs in the Army. It is very hard to control and I consider myself as “A master of Patience by being in theatre”. I think of my beautiful wife and my parents and keep my mouth shut if any remarks are passed towards me.

As an American I believe our current strategy “COIN” is not very effective. We are trying to win the hearts and minds of local nationals. I kind of want to laugh about that because if the military is having hard time with a Sikh who is working his tale of to spread goodwill, how in the world are we going to be successful in winning the hearts and minds of Afghanis.

I will definitely blame my own community for this problem. A few days ago yahoo released a story out of Queens, NY regarding the fighting in the Sikh Temple. I believe I am one of the only people who can feel the heat of that news because while spreading a good name for the Sikhs, many question were raised. I spend a lot of energy trying to explain a lot of things I had no clue about.

How can I explain to the people the golden history of Sikhs being a martial race when there are stories of fights in the temple published on the front page.  I send out an open warning to my community out there that we still have time to spread the word. It has to be done in a very strategic manner where a few people need to put their heads together possibly the younger generation and start living our lives with a Code of Conduct.

9 cont: hate to be treated like a 2nd class citizen

5-6-2011: I just found out that I need another letter of Accomodation in order for me to continue my next assignments when i get back to States. The deployment was never mentioned in my letter and nobody made a fuss when i deployed but now since i have to get to my next assignment I need a new letter. It is frustrating to manage all the internal and external elements of deployment and you know sometimes I feel like a 2nd class citizen.  Enough said about that.......steam released.

I miss my family........1 down 5 to go.......

Cont 8:

5-3-2011: Its not exactly a month yet but there is one thing for sure, time flies fast if you are busy. I was able to get in the OR and assist in some of the surgeries. Very neat and valuable experience especially when I know thats all I will be doing in future.

I would say I was born before some of the killings occurred in the name of religion in the world and it happened repeatedly. At the time, when killings were happening in the name of religion, in India, I was very young. I never understood why people cannot live happily at that age but it seems picture is becoming more and more clearer. It was the hatred between the Hindus and Muslims during my younger years and now its between Muslims and Christians. The hatred is such that its starting to look like war of religions where muslims abuse the profit of christians and vice versa. I mean there are people out there who never implement the principles of these religions in their life and take every teaching in a radicalized manner.

I heard one of the Chaplains discussing the negatives in the faith of the enemy but he failed to understand the hatred he might be spreading among our own soldiers by discussing it loudly. May be I am failing to understand that the chaplains are also human beings and expecting a lot more than they can offer. The war in Afghanistan is a tough one because we are dealing with completely uneducated people of villages who have no way of knowing whats right and whats wrong. Thats where the Imams/Mullahs take advantage of the situation and recruit their Jihadis. The only way to win the hearts and minds of these brainwashed souls is by showing them our kind gestures. Like what we are doing in our hospitals and care centers. Medical providers are working very hard to provide the very needed services.


just a personal opinion, it might change as my time progresses in Afghanistan.