This fortnightly feature was published on November 22

Ex-soldiers, a national asset
By K.S. Bajwa

THE mood is reminiscent and nostalgic. It is 19 years since I left the Army. During the nearly 35 years I was in it, life had acquired a flow, a sense of a sustained forward impulsion. Every morning I woke up with a feeling of an onward momentum to life. And what were my feelings when the day came to throw up the final salute and turn my back on this much loved way of life? A few months before that traumatic change, someone very close to me said rather wistfully: "It is perhaps the last time I would see you in uniform." This was right and wrong both at the same time. While no smart draperies set me apart from my people, at heart I have remained a soldier amongst them. The olive green has no longer been my prison, holding me a mute and anguished witness to the rape of all that was noble in my land of enchanting diversity, woven around the universal human core.

Even though I had tasted freedom, I knew all too well that I had to grow in conviction and acceptance out of the rather sheltered confines of active soldiering to serve my people on a wider plane. Nevertheless, the basic flow of my life did encounter a whirlpool, but the forward momentum was soon restored to seek new directions. I was lucky. I had not only retained my capacity to dream, but also to shape fresh hopes and initiatives. The rich gifts of my own evolution that I had received in a service that operates very close to dynamics of human achievement in the ever present shadow of life and death, had invested me with the capacity to adjust and accommodate.

In both mind and body, there had developed a basic capability to choose and pursue a new direction to sustained relevance both within me and outside amongst my people. After a successful foray into industry, I have chosen to go back to the land where my roots lie. I also took up the pen to bring the soldiers closer to the people.

Many of the soldiers are not so well placed. A majority of those who come out of the ranks have to seek gainful work to survive. In the earlier decades, when the soldier hailed from the hardy peasant stock and joint families ruled the roost, most of them easily slipped back into the functioning family rhythm. The situation has changed drastically over the years. Land holdings have shrunk. Joint families are not even a shell of what these used to be. Aspirations and expectations are much higher. Pensions, even though much better now, are nowhere enough to assure a lifestyle of expectancy and need to be supplemented. Even more important than the monetary gains is to retain a sense of relevance in life.

Perhaps the nation perceives the relevance of its soldiers only as long as they are decked out in their smart uniforms. The usefulness of a soldier should not cease when he sheds the uniform. It would be sad if he merely faded away in the popular romantic tradition of medieval Europe. Organised and disciplined in mind and body, a well-developed endurance for sustained effort and an outlook tempered with the moral values of courage, devotion and sacrifice are assets that could not be thrown away. But the reality falls short of the promise. Years of living a sheltered life, where most of the immediate necessities are provided for and in many cases bulk of the decisions that affect life are made by someone else take a toll of personal initiative. It is an opiate that induces its own somnambulism. Then there is the drive for conformity, often mindless in content and the suppression of dissent enforced under various handles like loyalty, "izzat" of the unit and discipline, that act to clip the wings. To many of the ex-servicemen, liberty from the restraints of uniform is like a heady whiff, but they know not how to take wing. Who could blame them in this country of sand castles being constantly blown away by strong gusts of economic banditry, parasitism and ruthless exploitation? Just to exist and to be, absorbs most of their endeavours.

Service men are conditioned by the pre-eminence of a well-defined military purpose, and its driving force. In order that their minds and energies remain focussed on a very demanding professional theme, the service concentrates on maximising personal care and career security. Limitations bred by this powerful influence leaves soldiers generally ill-prepared to pick up fresh directions when the time comes for them to hang up their spurs. Most of them gravitate to the shelter of the gilded cage of a job. A sizeable chunk falls back on their rural roots and shoulders the ploughshare again. Butter, eggs and bees beckon some but only in rare cases any significant financial success has emerged. Most ex-soldiers shy away from the realm of entrepreneurship and gainful self-employment. There are nevertheless exceptions, which are beacon lights for the others.

Gurdip Singh retired from the artillery, and in early eighties came to work as a share cropper on my family farm near Chandigarh. In this decade-and-a-half, he has worked diligently to establish himself. He now owns five acres of land, a sprawling farmhouse, a dairy and a tractor. He still sharecrops 30 acres of land. His two sons and a daughter are married. The sons share his ethos of hard and honest work. Gurdip and his family prove the ancient Indian philosophy of "Kirat-Karam" — work shapes fate.