THE GARUD STRIKES (30 page)

THE

HOMECOMING

A young battalion comprising really young officers had gone to war. The youngest was nineteen-year-old Medappa. In the real world, he would have just stopped wearing braces and barely have been given a driver’s license. In this gory world, he found himself leading thirty-eight men (two for every year of his life) through a nightmare of mud, slush, machine gun fire and artillery shelling. Paunchy, the second-in-command, was twenty-eight, and in between them lay the other fourteen officers. Himmeth, who commanded this motley group, was forty-three, twenty-one years of which had been spent in uniform.

Officers and JCOs of 4 Guards

Seated (L-R):
Major S. Marwah, Panditjee, Major Gus Debu,
S. M. Man Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Himmeth Singh, Lieutenant Colonel K.M. Muthanna, Subedar Rawat Singh, Major Chandra Kant, JCO Dogra.

Standing (L-R):
Subedar Gurvachan Singh, Ramji Lal, Raghubir, --------, Lieutenants Yadav and Jaiveer with the regimental colours, Captain V. K. Dewan, Tibat Singh, Ramlochan, Naib Subedar Basti Ram.

Standing last row (L-R):
Bishan Singh, Kashmir Singh, Dhuri Ram,--------, Subedar Makhan Lal, Tirath Singh, Desram, Edu. JCO, Naib Subedar Subhash Chander.

In the aftermath, like the slowly fading rush of adrenaline, came the reality of what we call normal life. The change was surreal; perhaps completely unreal. Each one of the men handled it differently. Some felt there was nothing else the Army could offer them, and left. Some shed the uniform, feeling hurt and betrayed, by a nation that chose to forget them. Some, career-oriented soldiers who could not envisage a life less ordinary, stayed on.

Himmeth Singh rose through the ranks till he became a Lieutnant General and was awarded the PVSM (Param Vishisth Seva Medal). He served as GOC 10 Corps, Commandant IMA, and Commandant NDC, after which he retired on 30 June 1987. Post retirement, he served as advisor to His Excellency, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the then Defence Minister and now the Emir of Qatar. Himmeth passed away on 3 January 2000.

Himmeth bids farewell to fellow officers

Paunchy (Major Chandrakant), who was awarded the Vir Chakra for his role in this war, and Tuffy (Major S. P. Marwah), the Sena Medal, both took premature retirement and are now self employed.

Major V. K. Dewan received a ‘Mention in Dispatches’, served his full term in the Army and is now self employed.

Major Kharbanda, also awarded the Vir Chakra, stayed on in service till his retirement as a Lieutnant Colonel. He expired soon after, on 18 April 1998.

Granthi (Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Singh) and Lieutenant Colonel K. S. Yadav, both commanded 4 Guards eventually, and after retirement are now self employed.

"The ones that nation forget--widows
veterans."

Front row:
Honorary Captain Pati Ram, Pushpa Devi, W/o.Giranth Singh, Shanti Devi W/o.Hans Ram, Guardsman Brij Nandan, Guardsman Ramnath, ---------.

Second row:
Naik Shri Kishan, Guardsman Subedar, Guardsman Ujagar Lal, Guardsman Ram Sarthi,--------, Guardsman Suresh Singh, Guardsman Ramdin, Guardsman Ram Saran.

Third row:
Guardsman Ram Prakash, Guardsman Jiva Lal, Major Chandrakant VrC., Guardsman Raghubir Singh, Guardsman Salik Ram, -------

Major L. M. Singh, Lieutenant Colonel Amar Singh Chauhan, Lieutenant Colonel B. B. Midha, Lieutenant S. Karmarkar, Captain Sahani, Major Vijay Uppal and Brigadier Medappa also completed their Army tenures, and are now self employed.

Captain RAK
'
Maneck retired as a Lieutnant Colonel and is now the regional head of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, of the
Mumbai-based Securitrans India Private Limited, a cash-in-transit company.

Lieutnant General Shamsher Mehta (Armoured Corps), PVSM, AVSM and Bar, VSM, retired after serving as GOC-in-C (General Officer Commanding in Chief) Western Command, and is now settled in Pune.

Major Rajendra Mohan (Armoured Corps) took voluntary retirement and once he had recovered from his horrific burn wounds, served as an Executive Director with ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited).

Of the JCOs, NCOs and Other Ranks, I wish I could give a detailed listing of each one of them, since they were heroes, each one of them. And have been forgotten by the country, as soldiers are wont to be.

However, I do not think this story would be complete without mentioning at least a few of them, and their widows.

It was the near fanatic dedication of Mrs Jane Himmeth Singh that brought to light the stories of the veterans of this war and their widows, who would have been well nigh impossible to find otherwise. But I am glad they were found and I can share these stories with you. It will help you realize the plight of the loved ones of those who gave their lives for the country.

Bhind and Morena, in the badlands of the Chambal ravines, are one of the traditional recruitment areas for the Guards regiment. The hundred-kilometre ride to the Bhind Sainik Kalyan Board, on a dusty, bumpy road, took almost five hours.

Another half-an-hour’s drive through the narrow lanes of Bhind brings one to the Shaheed (Martyr’s) Colony, built by the government for war widows of the Indian Army. Contrary to the grand name, the colony is just a cluster of terribly dilapidated huts, not very different from the slums in Delhi, however without the TV antennae or any other signs of modernity or prosperity. Navigating past unplastered and unfinished red brick houses, narrow unpaved lanes, and uncovered drains finally led us to the house of Kailashi, the widow of Guardsman Jagdish Prasad.

Kailashi was sixteen when she received the telegram informing her of her husband’s death. She was living with her in-laws and had been married only a few months earlier, when Jagdish had come on leave. That was the first and the last time she saw him. She does not remember what he looked like for she had no photograph of his. In due course, she was informed that she was entitled to a special family pension of 132 rupees per month, which would continue only till the time she did not marry again, unless she married the brother of Jagdish.

Pushpa Devi, widow of
Guardsman Giranth Singh

Kailashi, widow of Guardsman Jagdish Prasad, with Mrs. Jane Himmeth Singh

Next to the house of Kailashi is the house of Lakhpath Singh of Alpha Company, who, whilst wounded at Kodda, had been deliberately run over by a Pakistani tank. Lakhpath’s wife was eighteen on the day he died. And she was pregnant then. Shortly after giving birth, she passed away, leaving the boy to be brought up by his grandparents.

Not much further away from them, in Fatehgarh district, lives Pushpa Devi, the widow of Guardsmen Giranth Singh. She was married to him when she was all of thirteen years old, and he, a grand sixteen. One year later, she joined him at his home, and in the five years that followed, bore him two sons and a daughter.