Author Topic: Articles By Hoshiyar Singh Bhandari - श्री होशियार सिंह भण्डारी जी के लेख  (Read 13170 times)

पंकज सिंह महर

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साथियो,
    इस थ्रेड के अन्तर्गत ले०कर्नल (अवकाश प्राप्त) होशियार सिंह भण्डारी जी अपने लेखों से हमें परिचित करायेंगे। श्री भण्डारी मूलतः उत्तराखण्ड के पिथौरागढ़ जिले के ग्राम-सुरौंण, कनालीछीना के मूल निवासी हैं, वर्तमान में वे मऊ (मध्य प्रदेश) में निवास कर रहे हैं, इनकी लेखन और विशेषतः उत्तराखण्ड के प्रति लेखन में रुचि है।

एक परिचय-
     कनालीछीना के एक गांव सुरौंण के एक सामान्य किसान और सैनिक परिवार में इनका जन्म हुआ। पिथौरागढ़ से इंटर तथा नैनीताल से परास्नातक करने के बाद ये गढ़वाल में अध्यापक हुये। २-३ साल अध्यापन करने के बाद सी०डी०एस० परीक्षा उत्तीर्ण करने के बाद इन्होंने सिग्नल रेजीमेंट में कमीशन प्राप्त किया। सेना में रहते ही इन्होंने बी०टेक और एम०टेक० की उपाधि भी प्राप्त की। अपनी लम्बी सेवा सेना को देने के बाद लेफ्टिनेंट कर्नल के पद से सेवानिवृत्त होने के बाद वर्तमान में मिलिट्री इंजीनियरिंग कालेज, मऊ, मध्य प्रदेश में ये अपनी सेवाये दे रहे हैं।

हेम पन्त

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भण्डारी जी का हमारे फोरम पर आना हमारे लिये महान हर्ष और गौरव का विषय है... उनके तकनीकी ज्ञान व लम्बे सैन्य अनुभवों से हमें भी आशीर्वाद स्वरूप कुछ सीखने का मौका मिलेगा यह हमारा सौभाग्य है...

भण्डारी जी का स्वागत है, उनके लेखों का बेसब्री से इन्तजार रहेगा..

खीमसिंह रावत

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SWAGAT CHHU BHANDARI JI KO

Lt.col.(retd)H.S. Bhandari

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A TRAVEL TOO FAR

I come from a Kumaon village. There we have only three classes. Gopal Datt is a Brahmin, Gopal Singh a Kshatriya and Gopal Ram represents Harijans. They were all Gopal Da to one generation and Gopal Ka to the next. (Dada is brother and Kaka, uncle). Brahmins did learning, Kshatriyas farming and the third group pursued crafting. They had well defined and mutually worked out roles for all social events like mandir, marriage and even funerals. It was a perfect harmony, a real example of fingers forming a fist. There was no fourth caste. Imposition of OBC by Mulayam & Co. gave birth to Uttaranchal.
It was only after I joined the Army, I learnt about Sardars, Kumars, Sharmas, Vermas and other regional or sectarian identities. But there were no caste or class differentials. Capt Yadav was never an OBC for us but just a Capt. The difference among us was only of the ‘Course’ – a ‘senior’, ‘course-mate’ or a ‘junior’. Towards the end of the training at the Academy, it was Arms, Services or Regiments we joined which mattered. In the regiments also they had mixed troops. For example Ahirs were also Kumaonis. Post-1984 the experiment of mixed troops was tried out and it worked, and I believe it is still in vogue.
But outside the ‘apolitical’ Indian Army, the politicians were playing their own game. I think it was Late Shri Jagjivan Ram who brought in the ‘employment’ angle to Army service. They introduced RMP (Recruitable Male Population) factor which enabled populous states like Bihar and UP to send more men into the Army. The words like volunteer, merit and ‘martial’ slowly receded to the background.
Population based reservations in legislation, bureaucracy and all other institutions of power-sharing (broking?) have created political power groups. They all want to cut quota corners of the cake and have 'cream' too. As a result there are divisions and dissension in the society. A backward caste leader, who has either been a kingmaker or a king himself for two decades, still claims quota for his children. Vote bank tactics is the guiding principle of coalition politics. The show goes on unquestioned for they have the levers of power in their numbers.
Since independence, we should have developed our social strengths but due to the ‘system’ it has weakened instead. While the ‘Science’ and ‘Commerce’ have done us proud the ‘Humanities’ have really failed us. These sixty years have been a travel too far – far from the avowed objective of our freedom struggle. So is my journey from a village kid to a retired Army officer. From an era and environment of integrated village to this caste-cum-community riven ‘modern’ society, the transformation has seen so many painful changes.
Every thing that happens outside the Army, affects the ‘apolitical’ soldier because every citizen may not be a soldier but every soldier is a citizen.

लेखक का पता-
Lt Col(Retd) HS Bhandari
72/10, Malwa Green
Signals Vihar
Mhow (MP)
Email; hoshiyar_bhandari58@rediff.com

Lt.col.(retd)H.S. Bhandari

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OF GENERATIONS AND GAPS

I come from a Kumaon village. Every able-bodied young man there joins the Armed Forces -- at least it was the case till the ‘RMP’ (Recruitable Male Population) was introduced and the recruitment to the armed forces was not population or region based. My father was a Second World War veteran with painful experiences of a POW (Prisoner Of War) at Singapore and yet he insisted I join the Army, and if possible, his own paltan, 4 Kumaon ( 4/19 Hyderabad). But it did not happen so and I landed in Signals.
As a young officer I was always preoccupied with my military duties and it was only during the annual leave that I visited parents. As was the practice in my village, on the day of soldier’s return to rejoin unit, everyone came to see off. Invariably, my father, in spite of his old age, used to be the last one to bless me, his son. Though unable to hold back his tears, he always sounded firm in his advice to me to be a good soldier. Since I was young, energetic and indulgent with ‘Army’ most of the time, I told him not to worry, without realizing his fatherly concerns. I loved my father the most in my life. In fact, he was my role model; a demigod. Back in the Unit, my letters to him reduced in contents and frequency, as the time passed. And unfortunately for us there was no access to STD or e-mail those days. I started believing more in practical relationship between an ex-soldier father and his soldier son. The emotional overlap started to reduce. Love and respect was strong but the expression got curtailed, somehow.
Now I have a grown-up son. I am not yet that old as my father was when I was my son’s age. He communicates with me even lesser than I did with my father. Or so I feel. May be my appreciation of the same situation is different today for I am a father myself. My son also loves me, I know for sure. He does not flaunt it. Based on my own experience I even tell him to express his feelings. He has been away from me after his schooling; four years at the engineering college followed by two years at the IIM. He is now away on to his employ abroad, in the country where his grandfather was a POW some sixty five years back.
In my younger days the generation gap existed between a father and his son. It had a measure of, say 20 to 25 years. But the things are changing so fast today that this proverbial ‘gap’ occurs every 5 to 6 years. Thus, there is a generation ‘gap’ even between two siblings; between an elder and his younger brother. And worse times are still ahead. Gaps and more gaps. How can we fill these gaps? If we can, we must. And it would be the best thing that should happen.
During my posting at Baroda, I met a young Flight Lieutenant. He was my friend’s son. I had seen him as a young ‘kid’ at Jalandhar when we were posted together. My wife had taught him at the Army School there. Naturally, I had a special equation with him. We dined in the same Mess. This youngster had recently been engaged and his fiancée was in the same town where his father lived. Being a ‘father’ in addition to his ‘brother officer’ in the Mess, I asked him how often he spoke to his father. Unmindful of what was going on in my mind, he told me that he spoke to his fiancée everyday, who in turn, conveyed his well-being to his father. One day, while celebrating his professional success, he invited me to a ‘glass of beer’. I advised him to talk to his father that night and tell him about his feat and then ring up later to his ‘love’. Next morning he came to me and profusely thanked for the advice. The ‘father’ had heard his son’s success story straight from the horse’s mouth. And then on, this boy ‘listened’ to me obediently. But then we could have this equation and understanding only because we were not the father-son duo. It would have been a moral lecture otherwise. Perhaps my son would also listen to a certain uncle.
It was here that I realized the strength of this relationship. It is universal. By the time you realized you could have been closer to your dad, you are already a father yourself. The son understands the need only after he has his own son with a ‘generation’ gap.         History repeats. The caution perhaps lies with the son. Father is always there; for him he is ‘my son’ all the time. It is so pronounced, demonstrative and all pervasive.
Can we as fathers and sons add value to this strongest family bond by becoming friends ? Gaps need bridging. The times will make the bridges only if we make them happen. We can not let these generation gaps go gaping.
For the most of us the history repeats itself. A very few may even rewrite the history but how many are there who can change the course of history?


Lt Col HS Bhandari (Retd)
72/10, Malwa Greens, Signals Vihar, Mhow
Email; hoshiyar_bhandari@rediffmail.com

Lt.col.(retd)H.S. Bhandari

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                                                    LAW OF ASSOCIATION

         I come from Uttarakhand. My association with its people and places has been very deep- rooted. It is somewhat an inseparable attachment. Whenever I read ‘Photograph’ it appears to me as ‘Pithoragarh’. I see ‘Almora’ in an ‘Almirah’ and ‘Nainital’ goes ‘National’ wherever it occurs. Also, ‘Hardware’ is often ‘Haridwar’ for me.
         After I moved to Mhow, I felt as if I have been completely uprooted. With passage of time, I have started finding ‘Indore’ in ‘Indoor’. Last month I was in Singapore. There they have this gem of an architectural marvel, a building called ‘Concourse’. Its different storeys have different layout, some projecting out, some going in and the building as a whole acquires a wavy look, with a fixed Centre of Gravity (obviously!). It   is a sixty storeyed building at the heart of the business centre. Whenever we passed by this building I couldn’t resist calling ‘Waves’. My son corrected me every time. Embarrassed, I decided to remember its name. I resorted to college- time ways of remembering headings and other features of the text through formulations. I associated this with our very Gangors (Sweets)  at Indore and pronounced readily, “Concourse”.
     Now, this could be yet another law of association!!

Lt Col (Retd) H S Bhandari
Mhow
यह लेख  टाइम्स आफ इंडिया, इंदौर में प्रकाशित हुआ है।

Lt.col.(retd)H.S. Bhandari

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                                                       OF GENERATIONS AND GAPS-2


For me, a visit to Singapore is very nostalgic. My father, as part of 4/19 Hyderabad (4 Kumaon, now) fought for the defence of Malaya/Singapore during Second World War. When the Allied surrendered, he was also taken a Prisoner of War by the Japanese. After the war he came on pension, with a 'Jangi Inam' and retired prematurely effective 6 Jun 1946. I came in this world as a free Indian in Dec 47. Singapore was not a subject of interest till my son went there on an employ and became a Permanent Resident three years ago.
My father, who passed away in 1980, did not tell me much about Singapore for he might have just been interned there and put behind barbed wires at the Changi POW camp. But what he did tell us was the tale of torture, pain, hunger and humiliation the Allied prisoners were subjected to. He also told us how Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and others of the INA regularly visited Indian POWs and lured them away with promises of India's liberation from British colonial rule. A third of the Indian POWs joined the INA. Those who deserted their units (while in captivity) and joined INA became 'freedom fighters' and later enjoyed much better perks and privileges. But my father never regretted his decision to remain a 'soldier' of the British Indian Army.
Singapore is uniquely historical. In the 1980s, in pursuit of modernity, they cleared everything that was history. But very soon they realised that if there was no history – Singapore would become a state but not a Nation. They stopped the clean sweep and started preserving the monuments and memorials. It is just a stroke of coincidence that my son resides in the Hillside condominium (Bukit Timah), where the old Ford Motor Factory is preserved as a war memorial and his office is situated in the City Centre alongside the Battle Box, another memorial. Though I do not intend detailing the events of the War as such, the Battle Box, which was HQ to the Allied Forces under General Percival, and the Ford Factory, the Command Post of the Japanese General Yamashita, can not go without mention.
'The Battle Box' was the underground bombproof bunker of Britain's HQ Malaya Command, during Second World War. Situated 9 meters beneath Fort Canning Hill, it was also the site where General Percival reached the fateful decision to surrender Singapore to the invading Japanese, on 15 Feb '42. The spirit is so historic that even today, at the Battle Box, the guide is called 'orderly', visitor's arrival is 'report for duty', ticket office is 'Guard Room', tourists are 'bona fide recruits' and the souvenir shop is a 'Quarter Master Store'. What better way to salute the martyrs !
Ford Motors (US) had established this factory just before the outbreak of the Second World War on the Malayan Railway line connecting the Malay Peninsula with Singapore Harbour for the industrial and economic convenience. Once the War broke out, the Allied took it over and planned to use its assembly line for aircrafts and accessories but it couldn't happen. Once the Japanese reached here they used the factory premises as a forward headquarters during the battle of Singapore. The historic meeting between Yamashita and Percival, took place here on 15 Feb 42, leading to the surrender of Singapore. This Factory details the sequence of events and exchange of communication between the warring commanders from 6 A.M. to 11.15 P.M. of 15 Feb. The developments of that day, as recorded, infer that the Japanese wanted Allied forces to lay down arms and sign the document at the earliest whereas the British wanted to delay it as much as possible on the plea that their troops were spread out and needed to effectively implement the cease-fire. But the Japanese couldn't afford time for it would allow British to come out of the shock and regroup. And if that happened, Japanese survival on the threatened and long maintenance line would be untenable. Therefore, the surrender was forced just before the midnight. And this defeat was the beginning of the fall of British Empire where the sun would never set – a shock from which they could never really recover. Interestingly, once the Japanese captured the Ford factory, they used its production line for Nissan vehicles till they vacated Singapore after three years of occupation. The official Japanese surrender ceremony was held in the City Hall on            12 Sep 1945.

I do not wish to detail the course of the battle or the strategies of the warring sides. I neither had access to such details nor inclination. What bothered me was the 'gaps' between my father, his son and his son. Had my father been alive today I would have taken him to the Country where he suffered the torture of his life and where his grandson was living as a resident, undoubtedly as a happy and prosperous citizen. Whichever memorial or museum I visited, I was  connected to my father, the soldier, through the history of a nation alien to me. My son can hardly remember his grandfather. Only thing he tells people in Singapore is that 'his grandfather' fought there for them.
Statues of the warring Generals at the Ford Factory
It is a connection that can not be described, illustrated or realised fully. In a way it is a story of the Unknown Soldier which only the kin know, feel and connect with. It is not a memory down the lane either. My father suffered one of the worst kinds of torture and humiliation that the Japanese inflicted upon the Allies. For my son, Singapore is a paradise on earth. And for me ? It’s just connecting generations with no connectivity except the emotions flowing through blood. I would like to live with that.



Lt Col HS Bhandari (Retd)
72/10, Malwa Green
Signals Vihar
Mhow (MP)

E-mail : hoshiyar_bhandari58@rediffmail.com

Lt.col.(retd)H.S. Bhandari

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                                                                    HAVILDAR NAIN SINGH

          ‘Number 10025, Havildar  Nain Singh, 4/19 Hyderabad’ was how he used to take pride in  introducing himself. He was a veteran of World War Two, having fought with British  Malaya Command against the Japanese. When the Allied Forces surrendered before the Japanese in 1942, his Paltan, 4/19  Hyderabad (now 4 KUMAON)  as a unit was taken  Prisoners of War and incarcerated at Changi Harbour, Singapore. They broke free only after the Japanese surrender in 1945. On return to India, like most others, Havildar Nain Singh also volunteered to discharge from service. So he left the Army on 6 June 1946 with a monthly pension of Rs.8/= plus Rs. 4/= as Jangi Inam. From the terminal gratuity and other awards (some thing to the tune of Rs. 10000/=) he pledged to help the needy in his village, some as loan and some as pure help.
           ‘ Hauldar’ was how people called him in his native village Suron, PO Kanalichhina, Patti Barabisi, Tehsil Pithoragarh, District Almora (This is how his address is recorded in the Dischage Book). He was highly respected and revered. Invariably, he was called upon to help resolve all kinds of disputes in his village and also in the neighbouring villages. He took to farming that was hardly any source of sustenance. He not only sustained and survived with his family but also succeeded in giving his children the best of grooming and education.
             He was born on Ramnavami(1908) and breathed his last on Janmasthami(1980).
             His story has been and is being lived and written by many Havildars of  Kumaon villages. They all live and die for their country and its people. Long live the spirit.

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720

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Bhandri Ji,

I am really highly impressed with your article. Your personal achievement will also definitely inspire others to excel life.

In anticipation of many such articles.

हेम पन्त

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भण्डारी जी आपके लेख उत्तराखण्ड की महान विरासत को Highlight करने के साथ ही वर्तमान देशकाल परिस्थितियों पर भी गम्भीर विचार करने के लिये मजबूर कर रहे हैं... बहुत अच्छा लगा... ऐसे ही आपका साथ मिलता रहेगा और आपके अन्य लेख भी पढने को मिलेंगे ऐसी आशा है...धन्यवाद...

हेम पन्त
ग्राम- भङकटिया
पिथौरागढ

 

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