Saturday, December
12, 1998
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By H.S. Sodhi AN ex-British officer and a Gorkha then Riflemen, now Subedar, met recently after having fought together in the same battalion during the Burma campaign of the World War II. The occasion was the reunion of the 4 Gorkha Rifles at Sabathu, and the two had served together in its 3rd battalion, which had also taken part in the Chindit operations. Sabathu, the house of 14 Gorkha Training Centre, has just hosted the reunions of the 1 and 4 Gorkha Rifles. Reunions are an occasion for nostalgia when old comrades meet after long gaps — a bonding between the old and the new, remembering that the serviceman of today is the ex-serviceman of tomorrow; a means of passing on regimental values and traditions; and continuing the very strong ties that make regiments into an extended family. These facets are unique to the Army service and bonding that transcends all time, language, culture and religion. The battle of Malaun, fought in 1815 between the British and the Gorkhas, was the start of a long and very fruitful association between the Gorkhas and the Indian authorities. The very first Gorkha unit raised was at Sabathu and now, after changing a number of designations, is the 1 Gorkha Rifles. The last Gorkha Regiment to be raised by the East India Company was the 4 Gorkha Rifles in 1857 at Pithoragarh. Under the British the two regiments found their permanent homes at Dharamsala and Bakloh, respectively, but these had to be given up after Independence due to the perceived danger from across the new border. Considering the traditional close association between the two regiments, it was decided to merge the two regimental centres, first at Dharamsala, then shifted to Chakrata and finally at Sabathu, which now houses the only regimental centre in North India, west of Lucknow. This was abundantly evident during the reunions. Opportunity for officers, serving and retired, and the jawans of the same categories, to mix and recall past events, hardships and achievements, brought a glow of recognition and pride on all faces, obscuring, for a while at least, the current problems, whatever they might be. It was so easy to slide back into old associations and attitudes, irrespective of the vintage dividing them. The participants ranged from pre-Independence British officers who had come specially for the occasion, to jawans of the same vintage, through the post-Independence to the current serving ones. Old associations do not die. There were cases of the grown-up children of past officers attending and becoming very much a part of the ambient atmosphere. The dedication and sentiments of those taking the trouble to attend has to be admired and emulated. Such close feelings can only exist where the brotherhood is knit by ties of living, eating, fighting and dying together. The regimental centre was the personification, like all cantonments, of neatness and cleanliness. A lot of development has taken place for the welfare of the jawans, including cheap shopping facilities which also provide employment to the families of the jawans. The sight of so many cheerful and ever-smiling Gorkhas of both sexes, and exchange of Jai Gorakh greetings between officers and jawans every time they meet, is indeed very stimulating and infectious. 4 Gorkhas had a contingent of 19 from Britain. Among the oldest ones attending were retired Brig B.C. Pande, 85, and the only Padama Shree of the armed forces. After the reunion some of the British officers went to Bakloh where they had served with the regiment. In all, among those attending, there were 10 Lieut-Generals, Major-Generals, 5 Brigadiers and 75 other officers. The number of JCOs and jawans attending were 680. The oldest among them was of 1935 vintage, having retired in 1950. 4 Gorkhas was known as the most travelled regiment during the British times, having seen action in Europe, China, the Middle East, Galliopli, the Caspian area, the Far East, apart, of course, from service in all parts of India. Right now its 2nd battalion is doing UN duties in the Lebanon. The regiment has produced a large number of senior officers, including the present Vice-Chief of the Army Staff. Its officers have been the first two commandants of the Indian Military Academy, Dehra Dun, and the first commandant of the Staff College, Wellington. For its strength of just five battalions, it has, perhaps, the maximum number of Staff College qualified officers. Its 3rd battalion earned many decorations in the Siachen area in 1989. Its 1st battalion took part in the link-up with Poonch in 1948 (the 50th anniversary being celebrated now) and again defended it during the 1965 war. The regiment has earned 42 battle honours. A book giving details of each gallantry award earned, along with the photo and citation, has been written by Lieut-General (retd) YMBammi and was released during the reunion. The reunion programme included the release of a special first day postal cover and other activities that gave officers and jawans plenty of opportunity to mix together. A highlight of this was the Bara Khana when they all mixed together, ate together and indulged in vigorous dancing together, with every such song/dance ending with the resounding, full throated shout of 4 Gorkha Ho Ki Hoina! Honu Hi Parcha. (is 4 Gorkhas the tops or not? Has to be!). The rapport between the officers and men, among Gorkha units especially, is always very good and it is particularly so with this regiment, thanks to it having been located in small stations where the officers and men are thrown together for recreation. Sabathu is a delightful station from all points of view. It is very close to Malaun fort which is visited by the officers Sabathu, before the advent of the railway line to Shimla, was on the route, for people going to the hill station. For this purpose a Viceregal Lodge had been built here. Only the shell of the building now remains, used as offices for the time being but to be eventually used as a holiday home for visiting officers and men of the regiments. The present officers’ mess of the centre was originally the home of the second Commanding Officer of 1 Gorkhas after the 1815 war. The mess has some historic trophies dating from the very inception and also containing a shield captured in the Bangladesh war from a Punjab battalion of the Pakistan army, which had been presented by Field Marshal Auchinleck. A fine museum is maintained containing artefacts of both the regiments, demonstrating their achievements. The reunion was also marked by the arrival of a contingent of cyclists from each battalion, leaving their respective locations independently, joining other contingents enroute, till they all arrived together at Sabathu, covering a combined distance of 3,500 km. Each battalion contingent was led by an officer. A sainik sammelan was held and addressed by Brigadier Bhasin, the Commandant, Major-Gen (retd) B.D. Kale, ex-Colonel of the regiment, Major (retd) Dickey Day, President of the British Association of the Regiment, Sub-Major (retd) Puran Singh and finally Lieut-Gen Chander Shekhar, VCOAS. They all spoke in Gorkhali. They extolled the deeds of the regiment, gave an account of the on-going welfare measures and the importance of such gatherings. Sub-Major Puran Singh aptly mentioned that the regiment was like a green tree and the retired ones are like the leaves that fall in the fullness of time to be replaced by younger and greener ones. The impulse of those
attending was well personified by Lieut-Col (retd)
Birender Mehra, originally of Amritsar, now in Geneva,
who makes it a point to attend all reunions on the plea
that who knows how many more times this would be possible
and which old friends would still be around. It is time
of memories coming alive in the form of old comrades, now
wrinkled, maybe fatter and with some teeth missing, but
still full of old tales and anecdotes, reliving past
associations on. What a glorious way to fade away. Old
soldiers never die, they just fade away. |
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By Ashok Sharma THE man who has taught yoga to more than a thousand people at the Crossroads Community Center in Bellevue and in his modest Eastside home in the USA is in the City Beautiful these days. If the state of one’s constitution, one’s memory span and one’s presence of mind is any proof of one’s age, then Irwin Chauhan is still young although he is 83 years old. A self-appointed ambassador of Indian culture, Chauhan left for America in 1980, five years after his retirement as Director, Census Department, Haryana, in 1975. Beginning his career as a junior magistrate in the Indian Administrative Services in 1940, Chauhan discharged his responsibilities in various capacities. He was also Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak. Born in Beawar (Ajmer) in Rajasthan in a Rajput family, Chauhan inherited the love for music from his maternal grandfather Raghbir Singh, who was a sitar player besides being a mystic. He developed a strong liking for music at the age of nine, and thereafter there was no looking back. By 18, he had his own 15-piece band and string quartet. Though surrounded by Hindu culture, Chauhan was drawn towards western classical and modern music. Not only did he play the violin, guitar, piano and other stringed instruments, but he also became a world-wide concert artiste. This feat was made possible with his American wife Jean who is a flute player. The two performed in different parts of the world. Together, they staged five Indo-American festivals in the Crossroad neighbourhood, an area they chose because of its mixed cultures. Jean, who took Chauhan to Bellevue, had come in contact with him during her one-decade stay in India in the early seventies. It was Chauhan’s love for music which made him work with the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. It was for the same reason that he came in close contact with General Cariappa after composing a few marching tunes for the Indian army. He composed a number of march-scores which, he claims, are popular even today in the Army. Again, it was music that took Chauhan to the distant folds of the Himalayas on an assignment to study the music and tribal songs of Kinnaur. Later, a book on music of Kinnaur was published by the Government of India. This venture enabled him to specialise in ethnomusicology. A gold-medalist biologist, Chauhan has studied yoga and its therapeutic aspects which, he says, transcend all systems of western medicine. As a teenager, he was attracted towards yoga after listening to Swami Sivananda’s lecture. During his research study tour in Kinnaur, Chauhan talked to sages in temples and caves in the Himalayas to gain a deeper understanding of yoga, which he later disseminated to his students in America. Among his students, he has Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans. From the West, he had Germans, Czech, Polish, British, Italian, Ukranians besides Indians living in America who were already familiar with yoga. Greatly inspired by Swami Vivekananda, Chauhan taught Indian philosophy and religion too. He gave lectures to the American public on Upanishadas. He is of the strong view that the Vedas need to be introduced world-wide in modern terminology, as the wisdom present in the Vedas can be the greatest saviour of the sinking humanity. At the Bellevue Community College, Chauhan and his wife taught yoga, music, Indian cooking and other aspects of the Indian civilisation. Both Vedantists, converted many Americans into vegetarians and inspired them to follow the Indian way of life. Though not seen in traditional robes with rosaries around his neck and incense floating around him, Chauhan is a mystic. Though nearly blind with
diabetes, Chauhan, in the evening of his life, is not
exhausted; rather energetically he carries on his mission
here by interacting with people via discourses, and yoga
and meditation camps. |
By R. N. Malik THE prophecies of the famous clairvoyant of 16th century France Nostradamus, will be talked more and more as the month of July in the year 1999 draws near. He had made 36 prophecies depicting war and famine-like situations. But he did not indicate the year and month except in the two reproduced below: In the year 1999 and
seven months, The other important prophecies are also reproduced below: The sun in twenty
degrees of Taurus, there will be a great earthquake, The question debated most is the probability of the prophecy of July, 1999, going wrong or right. Nostradamus was a clairvoyant and not an astrologer. That the astrologers mostly go wrong is a hard fact. For example, the Tunisian astrologer who predicted Diana’s death. (The Tribune Sept, 1997) also predicted Pope Paul’s death in August, 1998. It went wrong. Hardly any astrologer could predict that Indira Gandhi would win the 1980 elections with a thumping majority. But clairvoyance is a different matter altogether. There is a lady in village Aleva-Khanda (Jind) who draws a complete picture of events which take place miles away. It appears as if she has a third eye. Nostradamus had a kind of third eye to peep into the future. After recording all the prophecies, he wrote to his son on March 1, 1555 that these prophecies covered the period up to the year 3797 AD. He further reiterated that he could even tell exact place, date and names of events but was deliberately avoiding it as it would not serve any useful purpose. He was, therefore, predicting then in a circumlocutory manner. Among all prophecies, he has selected this to be identified with month and the year — July, 1999. This shows something untoward may happen in the year 1999. The track record of his prophecies going right is very assuring so far. If July, 1999, passes
peacefully with normal rainfall, the prophecies of
Nostradamus will never be believed and they will go into
oblivion after thriving for 436 years. |
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