Uttarakhand Updates > Articles By Esteemed Guests of Uttarakhand - विशेष आमंत्रित अतिथियों के लेख

Articles By Hoshiyar Singh Bhandari - श्री होशियार सिंह भण्डारी जी के लेख

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पंकज सिंह महर:
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:
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:
SWAGAT CHHU BHANDARI JI KO

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

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