This is not the kind of story you would read every day. It's based in fact but it is very personal in a sense. This piece is dedicated to my grandpa. He is a proud Army veteran and this is an innocent attempt at capturing his life as an Officer of the Indian Army and his valour as a soldier
COL K RADHAKRISHNAN
Almost every morning since the past 12 years Col Radhakrishnan religiously sits down every day with three newspapers in the veranda of his palatial house in Kerala. Of the three newspapers, one the Malayalam Manorama, a tabloid that comes with it and the Times Of India. During this time from 8-11am, he is deeply engrossed in the news events that affect the country. It almost seems like he is transported to a different world all together where nothing around him matters for that brief period. I walk out on to the veranda, still in my night clothes and my hair haywire bunched to one side. As I greet him, "Good Morning Grandpa", he briefly looks up from his newspaper, staring through his gold framed spectacles, gives me a smile and says, "Good Morning junior Princess" and goes back to reading. That wonderful feeling of being called a princess is nullified as I see him lost in his paper again. As I sit there sulking I ask, "You do realise I am here for only a few days right?" And he looks back at me and smiles. He keeps aside his paper, pushes his spectacles over his head and says, "Let's talk. "
In these 21 years of knowing my grandpa, I have seen all facets of his personality. I have seen him as an indulging grandfather, a more than loving father to his two children and an ideal husband. I have known him to be someone that has always been there even before he was needed.
Born on 1st October 1940, in a small place called Palghat in Kerala, he has been someone who has led by example. He joined the Army at the age of 19 and served a good 31 years before he finally retired to join the R &AW. As an officer in the Indian Army, Grandpa has travelled in North and East India extensively. His career in the Army has seen him through two major wars, Operation Bluestar and over 13 places where he was posted during his tenure. He retired from the Army as a Colonel in the year 1991 and joined the R &AW immediately after, without break of service. As a diplomat he was posted in Kuala Lumpur as the First secretary for Visa and Education Affairs. This duration of his life gave him the pleasant opportunity of travelling to other foreign lands like Australia and Papua New Guinea.
I sit there with him under the early morning sun and prod him further to tell me about the 1965 Indo-Pak war he participated in. He laughs and says, "There is nothing to tell. It was a war." I squint my eyes at him and rephrase my question, " Tell me what it was like to be part of the 65 war?" He reclines back into his chair and gazes into the distant sky almost as if he were reliving the entire scene. "We had suffered major casualties during the day. The Pakistani Air Force had bombed our troops in the Thar Desert. In a desert, it is very difficult to get cover you see. As a result we had suffered major casualties. We were retreating, and in the process we got scattered. In the Infantry, we realise that sticking together in times of war is not possible. Dispersion is essential. So you segregate and move to wherever you think you can find cover. I happened to move away from my troops with 4 other men who were part of my troop. The sand dunes just worsened the situation further. With me and four others, who were my juniors, waiting for a further instruction from me, I knew the situation was a little out of hand. We had lost our way and did not know which direction to go in. Luckily for us, we were up on a sand dune and the Pakistan Army, a troop of four, below us. I distinctly heard them say, Kafir ka bacha , abhi tak yahi tha, kaha chala gaya. They eventually walked further ahead and we lost them. In the meantime a civilian on a horseback came up to us. Seeing my uniform and rank he realised I was an Indian soldier. He said to me Hindustan uss taraf hai. Ye paksitan hai. Having being lost for a couple of hours before finally stepping into my country again, made me realise that God has a funny way of making his presence felt. His divine interference showed me the way and I was back to safety."
I have always known my grandpa to be an ardent believer of God. As a kid, during my visits to Kerala I would find him every evening in the temple room of the house, bathed and wrapped in a new Mundu with his head lowered much more than I've usually noticed anyone else lowering, in my family. I would wait there by the staircase, wondering what his list of demands were. And as he came out still muttering slogans under his breath I would ask, "What did you ask for, grandpa?" And he would say, "I asked God to keep all my children happy and bless them with whatever they want." I would smile gleefully and add, "Did you not pray for yourself?" And he would say, "I have you all, what more do I need."
Grandpa is like a wealth of knowledge. He has the answer to every question. And what I appreciate the most about him is that , even at this age with having undergone all the life experiences that he has, and after having seen the world in a much different light, Grandpa to this day, doesn't hesitate to say he doesn't know something. His mind is like a library and you can pick and choose what you want to know. And he, for the perfect story teller that he is, would leave everything aside to narrate his story.
Grandpa has participated in the 1971 war as well. He was posted in Allahabad at the time when he got a call saying that he needed to move immediately. " It was an Onam day. I still remember heading out with the formation towards East Pakistan now Bangladesh. We were in East Pakistan for almost a week. It wasn't easy to carry out operations there. That place back then was like Kerala. Lots of rivers, paddy fields and the roads were also limited. To add to our dismay, the Pakistani troops had heavily mined whatever little was left of the roads there. But our saviour, INS Vikrant which is an aircraft carrier, ruined the Pakistan Navy and we on the other hand were able to eliminate troops on ground." A smile comes on to his face as he talks animatedly about that time. So I ask, weren't you scared that something could happen to you and he would say, "Fauji hai. Ye sab to hota rehta hai". Grandpa is brave. He has the kind of unshakable strength I wish I could possess. His courage is unwavering. But his bravest moments came as a soldier.
Ask granny what she think of the soldier she married and she quips, "When it came to his work, nothing else was important. He put his uniform on, and everything else took a backstage . His work, his country came first, and family next. I have had my share of quarrels with him over this, but I always gave in. Because he gave me the beautiful life I still cherish. I never regretted having married an Army Officer. Because of him, I saw places, experienced cultures, saw the diversity of our nation. There is nothing I would change about the life I lived as the wife of an Army officer."
Grandpa's undying love for the nation, makes me see my country in a different light too. There is something infectious in the way he talks about his experiences as an army man that make his listeners want to be part of a similar experience. In the end, all I can say is thank you grandpa for having willed me your patriotism.