A soldier you dont know
[Applause]
eminent speakers
invities ladies and gentlemen
and my dear student friends
it seems like just yesterday but in
reality it was
way back in 1969 when i entered
the academy for pre-commission training
as a gentleman cadet
why gentlemen get it because army
believes
that there got to be a gentleman first
and then an officer
and for the next 34 years i don’t the
olive greens and the camouflaged battle
fatigues
and
began my career as a young left
lieutenant commanding a body of 30
tough commandos and over the years i got
graduated
into commanding a rifle company of 120
rifle soldiers
and then went on to become a battalion
commander commanding about 800 plus
seasoned men and went on to come on the
brigade
of little over 5000 men and eyeball to
eyeball deployment in
isikim
i served all these graduation happened
in
far-off and tough places
most of them about 14 000 feet
the snowfall varying between 12 to 24
feet
and the temperature hovering around zero
to minus 38 degrees celsius
and god was kind enough and he blessed
me
and gave me an opportunity to look into
the eyes of death
smile and at times bite the bullet
and survive and come back and tell the
tales
fortunately i never knew the meaning of
fear
but exactly after 50 years in the year
2019
other day a smart lady staff member from
this college
srila is her name she somehow convinced
me
and catapulted me onto this stage now
looking at this
intellectual crowd i know the meaning of
fear
thank you for for putting that fear of
god in me
as i said earlier i lived with these men
shared their food lived with them and
along with them i fought the battle in
71 war
in one night while pushing the
pakistanis across
ravi river i lost 41 men
in one night and more than 90 men were
injured
later on in nagaland
the deadly terrible malarial mosquitoes
killed more men than the bullets
and i went to sri lanka fought with the
tamil tigers of ltt
and though deadly ied explosions
i was blown off and given up as dead but
survived to tell the tale
after spending three months in icu and
another three months undergoing
surgeries
then i fought with the mercenaries
foreign trained mercenaries
in the northernmost borders next to
gilgit and skardu
in a place known as guraj
and then during this period
besides i lost many men in avalanches
i dug them out from the buried snow
this very painful experience my dear
friends to lose your soldiers die
in your arms but more painful is
to meet those old parents
and the young widows and those
little toddlers all these years
i’ve been trying to decode a infantry
soldier
front line combat soldier the more i
tried
more enigmatic he became and more
endearing he became
so much so that after 15 years of
retired life
every day when i light the lamp and burn
the instant stick
i pray for them pray for their
well-being
in 69 when i entered the portals of the
hallowed
portals of academy a beautiful onyx
granite wall greeted me with the famous
quotes
it says the safety
honor welfare and welfare of your
country come
first always and every time
the honor welfare and comfort of the men
you command come next
your own
safe safety comfort and safety comes
lost
always and every time
ladies and gentlemen these are the
inaugural speech
extracts of the inaugural speech of
failed martial sir philip chatwood then
the erstwhile commander of the
british indian army he was addressing
the
first batch of the cadets who were
undergoing training to become
army officers in in india
and incidentally field marshal shfj
monik shows in this
first batch in 1938 now this word
has become a credo for the indian army
officers
a credo means a statement of belief
we believe in every word in this
it is 81 years the indian army officer
has become a role model
for the other armies every day you hear
in tvs
or every week you hear in tvs encounter
between
security forces and the terrorists
two terrorists killed one major
martyred but nobody asked why one major
got martyred
he has got 120 men under him to fight
it is because of this credo your own
ease comfort and safety come last always
and every time
the major puts the safety of
men first and the foremost that’s why
in kargil the ratio of officers who got
killed
is much higher than the number of men
who got killed
that is the credo of the indian army
with this i am reminded of a famous
quote of
abraham lincoln he said i like to see a
man proud of the place in which he lives
i like to see a man live so that his
place will be
proud of him ladies and gentlemen just
close your eyes for a minute
think of those people think of those
professionals who will make you proud
and say i am indian and think of those
who must live for that the india the
nation is proud of them and if a soldier
figures in that list
i am glad that i took up this profession
as i said i’ve kept decoding
a soldier what’s the soldier made of
very difficult to find out when you
listen to our leaders
it’s very painful to hear them talk so
loosely
just the other day one gentleman said
a soldier joins the army just to get two
square meals a day
other day when fulham happened another
senseless
leader said so what they are paid to die
if a soldier joins the indian army for
two square meals a day and if he’s paid
to die
let me assure you ladies and gentlemen
he will
not dare to look into the eyes of death
and smile
he’ll never take a bullet in his teeth
he’ll try to live for another day
and earn another square meal
if he does that you and me will not be
able to sleep
in our comforts of the home
peacefully then who’s the soldier
come travel with me to northern border
states like
rajasthan punjab haryana himachal
pradesh
which are the main feeder states for the
combat soldiers
most of these boys they join the army
movement they cross the age limit of 18
that is the
that is the benchmark and every house
from where the soldier comes either he
is the third or
fourth generation soldier to join the
army from the same house
his great grandfather grandfather father
they have been
in the armed forces
if a house doesn’t provide a man into
the
army it’s considered as a sense of shame
for the head of the family these are the
people who join these so-called martial
regiments known as the rajputs the sikh
regiment sikh light infantry
dogras kumanis and gadwal rifles
gurukas so on and so forth
now this man joins the army at the age
of 18.
imagine your son at home who’s 18
going to join the armed forces
after one and a half years of one and
one year of tough training
we convert them into adults
we make him go through the initiation of
the warrior code
the warrior code says i am a warrior
fighting is my dharma i will train my
mind
body and spirit to fight i will excel in
all devices and weapons of war
present and future i will always
protect the weak i will be truthful to
bluntness
i will be humane cultured and
compassionate
i will fight and embrace the
consequences
and he concludes by requesting the god
god give me strength that i ask
you of nothing just give me courage
most of these words are drawn from the
famous quotes
and motivational songs of gurus for
example
in my regiment guru govind singh he was
the
tenth and the last guru who was a
motivator
there’s a song which says
that means brave is he who fights for
the weaker section despite being cut
into pieces
thou shall not leave the battlefield
that’s what he says i will i will always
protect the weak
and by the time he is 19 and a half or
so
he attests he attends the
attestation parade it’s a ceremony
occasion
where his proud parents come lined up in
a ceremonial parade ground
he stands up in his full ceremonial
regalia
his right hand places his hands on the
holy book
it can be a gita quran bible
or a grandson which is kept on a
national flag
he swears his allegiance to the nation
and pledges
everything for the nation it is like
giving a blank check
pay to my motherland
an amount of everything including my
life
signed bhajan singh
and this check has no expiry date
probably my check is still lying
somewhere there
for you and me that boy who is 19 and a
half year old
is just externally a tough muscle kid
after training otherwise he’s half
man half boy
he is not yet old enough to buy a glass
of beer
but he’s old enough to give his life to
the nation that is the irony
he probably has a girlfriend who has
either broke with him
or a wise one has promised to wait for
him
in the other half of the world
he goes to his regiment
which is in the valley
or the loc or in a high altitude
or in seating
he has grown up physically spiritually
and emotionally
and my dear friends
some of them don’t get to celebrate
their 20th birthday
despite this
why our nation doesn’t know what a
soldier is
you know what a veteran said
we the unforgiven led by the unknown
have done the impossible for the
ungrateful it’s partly true
even as we stand here at this moment
go back to seating the highest
battlefield in the world
at 21 000 feet
mercury drops down to minus 58 degrees
celsius
the wind howls at the speed of 80 to 120
kilometers that is a good weather
at this moment at 21 000 feet
the highest helipad in the world a
alh drew helicopter flown by a young
captain and a major
from the army aviation corps are trying
their best to
hover balancedly balancing and land on a
small piece of helipad
believe me no one in the world today
whether is the american gi or those
great heroes you see in the hollywood
movies
flies at 21 000 feet
no helicopters in the world fly at 21
000
feet they are made in india alh through
helicopters
and flown by the indian pilot
at the same time
one of these young soldiers who’s in
twenties
he’s driving a truck truck
wheels fitted with the non-skid chains a
radiator filled with
anti-freeze mixture you know where is he
driving
the world’s highest motorable pass at
seventeen thousand five hundred
and seventy feet kardongla
negotiating negotiating that pass and
trying to go to the administrative base
taking essential supplies to the
his comrades if this is earning two
square meals a day
he can as well drive a truck from
bangalore to bombay in bombay to delhi
that is two square meals a day this is
not two square meals a day
that helicopter pilot can join any other
private companies and it
need not fly at 21 000 feet and risk is
every day is life it’s not a one day
business
now this is what is two square meals a
day
getting his daily wages let’s go to
our indian history post independent
indian history is replete with
courage of story of courage
and bravery i don’t know why our school
syllabus are not teaching them to the
children
october 1962
chinese invasion a company a rifle
company of
13 kumar location
and past known as resangla height
sixteen thousand feet exact area
is sikkim
minus forty eight degree celsius
equipped with old vintage second world
war bullet action rifles
wearing leather boots wearing cotton
dresses
wearing worn out jersey pullovers
at minus 48 degree celsius they are
surrounded by the chinese
they repulse waves after waves of
chinese
they exhaust their ammunition then they
use their bayonets
then they some of them wrestle with the
chinese
and every one more than 110
soldiers die in
rajangla fight till the last man and
last bullet
there are no other examples in history
where
more than 110 soldiers died fighting
together
why aren’t we teaching this to our
children
to top it the name of the company
commander
major shaitaan singh what a name
you got a paranoid chakra no doubt but
those 110 men and their bodies are still
buried
in rajangla in 1983
i was a major serving down below
rajangla is a forbidden territory it is
under chinese occupation
i took calculated risk and took a strong
petrol and went there
to collect some memorabilia for our
heart of remembrance and going there
i saw because the rarified atmosphere
the 62
items are still as fresh in 83.
can we shoes leather boots cotton
uniform items i was wearing
snow boots and covered from top to
bottom in the latest
winter clothing and i was shivering i
had tears in my eyes
how come these men have fought in this
place
and their home their family members
don’t know where their son’s body is
cremated where it is buried
these are the soldiers they don’t fight
for their salary or for their two square
meals a day
when we talk of these martyrs
go do the war memorial in kohima
why do they fight they fight for the
ashes of our forefathers
of our gods and for this precious piece
of land
so that you and your children can enjoy
for the generations to come let us
remember their sacrifices
and as we go to if you ever go to
nagaland
don’t forget to visit the symmetry of
war cemetery of koema and the visitor
after going around as you leave the
cemetery
the beautiful granite wall where
these martyrs address you
saying that when you go home tell them
of us
for their tomorrow we gave our today
let us remember them with a sense of
deep sense of gratitude
and as i close this talk
i have a small slide for you
it says relationship
relationship breaks breakups family
disputes
trust issues professional stress
clueless future
life is more than this
the reality is that life is
more simple more peaceful more beautiful
and very very less materialistic
but the way to realize this is to
either be a soldier or be with one
be a soldier or be with one the value of
trust
love unity confidence
goal and more importantly hope
this is what you learn from them it is
what makes them
brave
sorry
no yeah request that you’re living and
remember the following
thank you ladies and gentlemen i hope
you didn’t
i get bored with my small talk
what what i have to say i must also
thank this young lady rakshita who
helped me in
last two three days and she got so
motivated
now she has decided to be with the
soldier now so
i she assured me that she’ll marry a
indian army officer that is one of the
motivating levels
thank you very much