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
1:31 PM
Gurmeet Sethi
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