Our Senior Subaltern is no more !

A Remembrance

Our Senior Subaltern is no more!

Col Harinder Pal (retd) died of multiple organ failure, with his liver affected 90 percent on 17 October 2018 at his home town Patiala.

Harinder was commissioned, a direct Lieutenant as a Technical Graduate from Thapar, Patiala. He joined the family of One One Zero , Bombay Sappers in 1976 .

The young rustic lad , spoke English with a heavy Punjabi accent and his punjabiyat showed in  his every day mannerisms. A bold guy, who would not hesitate to call a spade a spade and who would always  make it a point to express his opinion  albeit in broken English.

Harinder , became my senior Lieutenant, as I only had a sparrow shit on my shoulder although I had joined the paltan before him. At Chandimandir, life was hard under the canvas. Much to the amusement of all of us Harinder did not join us alone, but came along with a young demure, pretty wife. It was love that had been waiting to fructify ever since his Thapar days. Commissioing came as a blessing and the love birds ran away from their homes to get married, with no where to go. In fact Guddi’s (Harinder’s wife) parents learnt of it much later!

Harinder was allotted a Lieutenant’s accommodation on “passionate grounds”. Bachelors were delighted to have an alternate place to visit to dine and unwind. To our surprise Guddi was without the where with all. No household things, no cookware, no crockery, no glasses (He was expected to survive on love and fresh air!) . Yet, we youngsters were comfortable with bread and eggs smashed over a single pan, cooked over an unreliable heater. Guddi and Harinder never complained and were the perfect hosts. He was fond of his Contessa rum and would place it on the table for anyone and everyone who wanted to help themselves.

One evening, Our CO whom we youngsters hardly saw, announced that he would be dining in the mess along with the first lady and that he had also invited the Bridade Commander, his wife and their pretty daughter as well. The youngsters were given instructions. A quick menu charted out and orders passed to the mess staff. The Mess secretary, asked the youngsters to behave, play light music, if possible cook up some light entertainment and be well dressed and be present before the arrival of the guests. Our mess was in a big Store tent. We moved the arrangements out with dim lighting to add to the ambience. Harinder was well on time with Guddi looking as pretty as ever.She was the junior most lady. The guests took their time to come. The evening settled down . Our CO nor the Guests had any great affinity to drinks. Soon, the light music stopped, and to our amusement Harinder’s coarse voice roared over the mike , “Gooodd Evening , Namaskar, Aadaab…..Haazreen and Nazreen!”. We could see the COs face go tense.  Harinder to his mind was certainly not the best of choices for this role. And that too in the presence of the Brigade Commander and the ladies. Our MC was not to be intimidated, as Contessa had warmed him up for the event. He rattled out an Urdu Couplet much to the amusement of everybody and applause of us youngsters trying to encourage our Senior Subaltern. Nobody, seem to understand it. Harinder followed it up with a lengthy explanation in his heavily accented English! We could feel the CO go red, but nothing would stop our show. One of the smartee, who in a co rner was trying to warm up to the young lady guest, was unceremoniously interrupted by the waiter to meet the CO. Soon, Harinder was whisked away. One stone, two birds!!

Such episodes could never dent Harinder’s spirits!

One fine day, Harinder and me were asked to report to the Brigade IO. We were asked to proceed by road from Chandimandir to  general area in Anupgarh (Rajasthan), in two self contained jeeps with trailers for the next 12 days to carry out map upgradation of jeepable tracks across dunes.This was a prelude to winter Formation exercises. We both were thrilled at the idea of travelling over 500 Kms  across States in Jeeps all by ourselves. We had no idea of the challenges that the task would pose,

We as youngsters were given the jeeps by the MTO befitting our ranks, and drivers who may have lacked in driving skills but certainly not the will to drive the Willy Jeeps. We collected a team of three each, a driver, a draughtsman and a helper. Dumped some spares,  Jerry cans  filled with Petrol,  dry Rations , maps, binoculars, compass and some tentage. We had no idea what the deserts were like except from our IMA précis. We were put on ration money, as we were not to touch any Formation stations enroute for refill, other than in the initial leg of our journey. What we were to soon realize was that we were to operate close to IB .

Both jeeps, headed in a picnic like manner, merrily cruising . I drove, as Harinder was not adept and sat in the co-driver seat. Summer Punjab heat was biting. We would drench ourselves and did most of the driving at night with halts. Ate at dhabas and enjoyed the sight of truckers whizzing. It was an uneventful smooth journey and early morning we made to our planned camp ,an Inspection Bungalow of the PHED, Rajasthan. We were amongst the dunes, colourful village folks,  camels and dhaanis.

We dumped our stuff, our helpers and set about planning for our task after a  four hour nap and a quick bath. There was no Lunch to be had, just pooris for breakfast and expect hot dinner, once back. Soon , the enormity and complexity of the task began to grip us. The jeepable tracks were so many. Each would fork off. Some would suddenly disappear across the dune. We decided to divide our areas. We had no clue where to start and after finishing for the day , getting back to the camp was an exercise in night navigation ! Camp had to be shifted after some days. We were tanned, under nourished, parched and many a times at our wits ends . But, never were we short of our anecdotes and jokes for the day. Harinder was fun to be with. His evening tot of Contessa , gave him sound snoring sleep.

One night, Harinder did not reach the RV.  I had nowhere to go, but to wait. Patience was running out. I tried venturing up and down in my jeep with his helper. It was 2 a m already, We did not have radio communication. Torch and vehicle lights were my only aides. Far away on a track I saw a dim light moving slowly across the dunes. I drove like mad to reach the light, it would soon vanish. I kept persuing, as that was my only hope. I thought the whole exercise was crazy. A while later I could clearly see the lantern light and the jingle of the camel cart.  I drove towards it. My orientation had gone for a six. As I caught up with the local camel cart, I asked the local, if he had seen an army jeep. To my utter surprise, I saw the whites of the local grinning at me. He pointed towards Harinder sleeping in his cart in just a vest and his pants. I chose the choicest words to let out my angst. Harinder’s jeep had packed off on a dune. The engine had seized. The locals helped him to tow the jeep with camel carts to a dhaani. They fed him bajra rotis, over his Contessa which he had carried in his recce bag. He made the driver and the draughtsman look after the vehicle and had the locals drop him . I got him down and after several failed attempts reached our camp at Six in the morning. I was getting better at night navigation without maps!

We aborted next days recce, as administrative worries started to overwhelm us. We drove to the dhaani, to retrieve the stranded jeep and our men.  We towed the jeep over the dunes, skidding and gliding. Adventure , it sure was to our hearts content. We laughed at our irony, cracked jokes. When we looked ourselves in the rear view mirror, we felt as if years had swept past our looks. We were sun burnt, wind swept, desert stormed with sand in every pore. Our uniforms looked as if we had borrowed from a rag picker.We looked like the Pirates of the Desert!

A quick stock taking and we knew we were low on fuel, if nothing else. Other things did not matter. We would not be able to reach the National Highway, leave alone back home. We started enquiring locals about the nearest military units. We took our last bet with our empty jerrycans to make it to a unit as informed. We staked everything at it. Wow, atlast we saw hope, a familiar surrounding, an army unit , but from the insignias on the sign boards we noticed we had crossed over to the Southern Command!

“So what, it was our Army after all, they would certainly help us”, cheered Harinder. It was dawn already, the sentry at the gates challenged us and asked for the pass word. We looked at each other. They made us raise our hands and marched us to the sentry post. We pleaded we were ……what? We looked everybit anything but  officers. We asked for the Adjutant, it was a Bihar unit. The adjutant a senior , stern looking Captain in sports kit sized us up from top to bottom. Was not quite convinced what we were doing in Southern Command having crossed over from Western Command , in an area close to IB. Even we too were not convinced with our own story, leave alone the captain. He kept threatening us. He suspected we had deserted our unit and were wanting to cross over the IB and thus wanted fuel for the jeep and that too in jerrycans! We had only our I cards to show. I tried thinking of my NDA coursemates , who had joined Bihar. I asked for Lt DK Joshi , and lo ,I had hit the bulls eye! Joshi it was in this paltan 3 Bihar!! That did the trick. Joshi was out on a course , but that did us in. We were fed in the mess, jerrycans stacked up and we profusely thanked the infantry for their magnanimity.

It was enough, we had over shot our time. We knew soon search parties would be after us , if we did not get back in next two days. We wrapped up our sketches, gathered our stuff and early morning were ready to hit the road with our majestic caravan. What a sight it was on the National Highway! It was a train !! A jeep towing another jeep , towing a loaded trailer, followed by a yet another trailer. Harinder proudly quipped, “ I am sure anyone from our unit would be proud to see our victory parade”. I was not too sure , neither amused. I drove on relentlessly. Harinder realized, I must be tired and sleepy as night fell. We ate at a Dhaba, lay sprawled across a charpoy. I was determined to drive on. Harinder agreed, as we were behind schedule. Harinder, apologized for his lack of driving skills on the NH. He said don’t worry, I shall not let you doze off while driving. We again hit the road, our juggernaut jostling through the night. Harinder would sing songs to keep me awake!

Great buddy, how memorable were those days!

I clearly recall, during the actual desert exercises, later on when unit was at CME. We had camped at a dhani and named it Poona walon ki Dhaani. We sat in our field mess for lunch, when Harinder stomped in from a recce. He brushed his shoes , wished the CO and declared he was hungry. The few of us at the table were enjoying the Continental lunch in the midst of the dunes. Baked beans, sun kissed cutlets, Russian salad and garlic bread served with butter and sauce. Our cook was an expert and took pride to prepare this fare. To our utter surprise, Harinder, no sooner had he sat down, closed his plate , dropped his napkin and got up. The CO questioned, “Whats wrong Harinder, you were so hungry and you have got up without having a bite?”

Harinder was as blunt as ever, “ Sir,I can not have Breakfast for Lunch!!”

Our last tenure together was in 1984, we hardly met thereafter. We shall miss you Harinder, remember you for your simplicity, zest for life and your Regimental spirit. We at Sadaiv Nipun would always remember our Senior Subaltern, who breathed his last on 17 October 2018. You leave behind Guddi, your two sons and their families. May God be with them !

  You shall always live in our memories!  

RIP !!

Your  buddy

Gurmeet Sethi

18 October 2018