Sam Bahadur ko Salaam

Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw is no more.

Commander Vijay Kumar, a retired Navy officer and a friend of mine, sent in this mail in memory of the great soldier…

“Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw popularly known as SAM Bahadur or simply SAM is no more. He passed away today. Even after 35 yrs since he hung his uniform he still remains the most admired Army Chief from India. Vigour, Dash and Elan - typical traits of a great soldier , he had them all.

I had the occasion of interacting with him for about 10 mts during one of the cocktails when I was in Staff College. That time he was about ” 80 ” yrs of age , still standing erect like a ram rod and enjoying his “Dimple” drink. He was bubbly , candid and retained a terrific sense of humour even at 80. His professional views were interspersed with some wise cracks and some suttle pondy stuffs which threw us into laughter but the ladies could only blush… Boy ! mus say the ol man had a fair collection of it.

Here are excerpts of a high level Cabinet meeting held to take stock of emerging situation in East Pakistan in Apr ‘ 71 as brought out in the NIC website of Indian Navy

QUOTE

General Manekshaw, in an interview to the naval magazine “Quarterdeck 1996″ stated:

“Sometime in April, there was a cabinet meeting to which I was summoned. Smt Gandhi was terribly angry and terribly upset because refugees were pouring into West Bengal, into Assam and into Tripura. She said to me `Look at this - so many are coming in - there is a telegram from the Chief Minister of Assam, a telegram from ……….., what are you doing about it ?’

I said “Nothing. What has it to do with me ?”

She said `Can’t you do something ? Why don’t you do something ? I want you to march in !’

I said `That means war’ and she said `I don’t mind if it is war’.

So I sat down and I said `Have you read the Bible?’

Sardar Swaran Singh said `What has the Bible got to do with it ?’

`In the first book, the first chapter, the first paragraph of the Bible, God said “Let there be light and there was light” - so you feel that “Let there be war and there is war”. Are you ready ? I certainly am not ready.’

Then I said, `I will tell you what is happening. It is now the end of April. In a few days time, 15 to 20 days time, the monsoon will break and in East Pakistan when it rains, the rivers become like oceans. If you stand on one side you can’t see the other. I would be confined to the roads. The Air Force would not be able to support me and the Pakistanis would thrash me - that’s one.

`Secondly my armoured division is in the Babina area, another division is in the Secunderabad area. We are now harvesting. I will require every vehicle, every truck, all the road space, all the railway space to move my soldiers and you will not be able to move your crops and I turned to Shri Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, the Agriculture Minister and said `if there is a famine in India, they will blame you. I won’t be there to take the blame’. Then I turned around and said `My armoured division which is supposed to be my strike force has got twelve tanks which are operational out of the whole lot’.

YB Chavan asked, `Sam, why only twelve ?’

`I said `Sir, because you are the Finance Minister. I have been asking, been pleading, for months. You said you have got no money that’s why.’

`Then I said “Prime Minister, if in 1962, your father had asked me as the Army Chief and not Gen Thapar and your father had said “Throw the Chinese out”, I would have turned around and told him “Look, these are the problems”. Now I am telling you what the problems are. If you still want me to go ahead, Prime Minister, I guarantee you 100 percent defeat. Now, you give me your orders.’

Then Jagjivan Ram said `Sam, maan jao na’.

I said `I have given my professional view, now the Government must take a decision’.

The Prime Minister didn’t say anything. She was red in the face and said “Achccha, cabinet char baje milenge’. Everybody walked out. I being the juniormost, was the last to leave and I smiled at her.

`Chief, sit down’.

So I said `Prime Minister, before you open your mouth, do you want me to send in my resignation on the grounds of mental health or physical ?’

She said `Oh, sit down Sam. Everything you told me is true ?’

`Yes. Look its my job to fight. It is my job to fight to win. Are you ready ? Have you internally got everything ready ? Internationally, have you got everything ready ? I don’t think so. I know what you want, but I must do it in my own time and I guarantee you 100 percent success. But I want to make it quite clear. There must be one Commander. I don’t mind, I will work under the BSF, the CRPF, under anybody you like. But I will not have a Soviet telling me what to do and I must have one political master who will give me instructions, I don’t want the refugee ministry, home ministry, defence ministry all telling me. Now, make up your mind’.

She said “All right Sam, nobody will interfere, you will be in command.”

`Thank you. I guarantee you accomplishment’.

UNQUOTE

Rest is History. Now , was’nt he truely a great military leader.

SAM Bahadur Sir, your mortal remains may now go the way of Parsee crematorium, fed to birds, but we all know ——” Great Soldiers don’t Die , they only merge into History “

Good Bye Sir!

Vijay

Swami Ramanananda, Samadhi - Photo Feature 4

Along with chants of ‘Arunachala Siva’, the body is lowered into the pit.  

 

A sanyasi leads the rituals of Samadhi.

People crowd around the samadhi area, jostling to participate. The samadhi pit is filled with different items…Salt, vibhooti (ash), camphor, flower petals….

Heres another picture.

 

It is really a crush of people out there. The video-photographer from across the seven seas manages to somehow find a place to shoot from.

 

In the pit, the yoga-danda (the stick) of Sanyasa is erected alongside the body of Swami Ramanananda. Brahmachari boys from the Ashram Patashala chant Veda Mantras. The pit is filled. Stone slabs are brought and laid on top of the pit. Final flowers are offered, before the last slab-cover is placed.

 Thus ends the solemn occasion of the samadhi of Swami Ramanananda, the nephew of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Signing off, here’s a picture taken outside the room where he used to reside.

Two beautiful birds, one symbolizing life, and the other, it’s twin, death, stand on this side of a chasm. On the other side of the chasm, is the Arunachala mountain. The structures that you see in the picture are samadhi (burial) spots of great sages like Muruganaar, Vishwanatha Swami etc, who have crossed over this chasm of life and death…Just like this third bird is doing. Can you spot the third bird? (You can see it walking on the pipe-bridge, near the base of the tree)…

The first two birds, can not proceed boyond the chasm. The third bird, quite non-descript, having renounced wing and vanity,  quietly walks across on the simple and straight bridge of Atma-vichaara, and attains Arunachala.

Like Swami Ramanananda did. 

Swami Ramanananda, Samadhi - Photo Feature 3

Time is past 3 pm.

A crush of people have gathered around the body, to see the rituals being carried out. Its a bit of a neck-stretch if you havent got a good place to watch from. I decide to stretch my legs instead, and walk across to the eastern side of the Ashrama, where the Veda Patashala and Goshala (cow pen) is.

Here is a picture of the Goshala.

The Ashram manager told me once that there are a few cows here that are from “Cow Lakshmi’s” line.

**

I then walk across to the Samadhi site. Better to be early and get a vantage view. The site is now cemented and done. Here’s a picture.

Little Brahmachari boys from the Veda Patashala are waiting near the Samadhi pit, on the left. 

Notice the elderly man, wearing a shade of ochre, in the left of the picture above. I sit down next to him, and we chat. He is an ‘oduvaar’, singer of Tamizh songs of Naayanmaar saints. He sings in the Seshadri Swami Ashram next door. He tells me that Swami Ramanananda liked hearing him sing these songs of Siva.

I request him to sing a few songs..

“Namachivaya vazhga, Nadhan thal vazhga immaippozhuduhum ennenjil ninggadhan thal vazhga”, he begins… What a song! (”Long live the God’s name - Namasivaya! Long live the holy feet of God! The feet that do not leave my heart even for a moment, long live those holy feet!).

For the next half an hour or so, I listen to him songs of the prime-four Naayanmaars. 

And then he asks me, “ippo Pattinathaarukku povoma?” (”Shall we now move on to Saint Pattinathaar?”). I beam my assent. He sings a Pattinathaar song. Then I ask him - “Swami…Arunagiri…”, requesting him to sing a song of the great saint Arunagirinathar, who hailed from Arunachala. He sings with joy.

What a blessing! Sitting in front of Arunachala, listening to the songs of the great Tamizh saints, sung by a traditional oduvaar….

And when he rounded off his songs, Vedic chants could be heard, as the priests proceeded with the rituals that had to be done with the body of Swami Ramananda before it could be interred.

And then they brought the body to the Samadhi site.

**

                                                     To be contd….

Swami Ramanananda, Samadhi - Photo Feature 2

Time is around 1 pm.

I am told that the formal Samadhi ceremony will commence at around 3 pm.

I decide to go into the town to visit Sri K Natesan. Sri Natesan is a contemporary of Swami Ramanananda. He is in his nineties as well, and is perhaps a few months elder to Swami. Sri Natesan has been a long time resident of Ramanashramam, and is a disciple of Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni. Indeed it would not be an overstatement that he has Ananya-Bhakti to Bhagavan and Nayana alone. And it is to him that we owe the debt of receiving the complete works of Nayana. He has spent a lifetime of effort tracing all of Nayana’s writings, and has undertaken the Herculean task of bringing them all to print. The complete works of Ganapati Muni will be over 12 volumes. Of this nine have been published so far - all by Sri Ramanashramam. It may be said that the training in proof reading that Sri Natesan got under the eye of Sri Ramana, has made him a nonpareil editor of Sanskrit writing. Indeed, one of his most shining moments was, when as  a youngster, he found a proof-error in a manuscript that had been earlier proof-read by Sri Ramana! Ramana Maharshi is said to have given him a look of affectionate wondrous appreciation!

Sri Nateshan stays now in his brothers residence, a hundred year old house near the great Arunachaleshwara temple. It is a house that has heard the resonating chant of Vedas for all these hundred years. I find Sri Nateshan in his room, in the terrace. He is happy to see me, as am I to see him. He is not keeping the best of health and is convalescing here. We have a long chat.

Heres a picture that I took of him reading out a Tamizh verse of Muruganaar, to me.

**

Returning from his house, I stop for a moment to take this picture of the hill.

 

The arch seen in the picture leads to Agni Teertham, the pond that is near Agni Lingam. Someone once mentioned to me that the water here comes from the spring near Skandashramam, and goes from here to the water tank in the Arunachaleshwara temple.

**

I reach the Ashram at around 3 pm. The Samadhi ceremony has commenced.

The body of Swami Ramanananda, in Padmasana posture, is kept outside Sri Ramaneshwara Mahalingam hall, in the open. A crowd has gathered, and Swami’s poorvashrama kin are gathered next to the body. Priests chant sanskrit shlokas and the rituals are performed.

Heres a picture.

**

                                                                To be contd….
 

Swami Ramanananda, Samadhi - Photo Feature 1

One of the things you would notice if you walked into the spartan room of Swami Ramananda was that the room was full of pictures. Many of which were taken by Swami himself. Yes, Swami Ramanananda loved photography. He loved explaining his pictures. And he himself was very photogenic. He had radiance, presence.

And so, I thought that it would be appropriate if I could do a little photo feature about his Samadhi day - the day his body was interred into the final resting place.

Here goes.

**

I reached the Ashram at about 11 AM.

 

Its a nice, warm day. Notice the top of Arunachala in the backdrop of the Ashram above.

**

I am told that Swamis body has been kept in state in his residence-room. Going past Cow Lakshmi’s samadhi in the back of the Ashram, one reaches the Swamijis room. Small queue of people entering the room. Quiet atmosphere.

Swamiji’s body is seated in Padmasana. He seems completely absorbed in meditation. (In case you are wondering ‘where is Swami in this picture’…thats the person in ‘ochre’ dress).

Notice the pictures in the room, and Mahatma Gandhi’s bust on top of the cupboard. Swamiji had the highest regard for Mahatma.

I am told by his family members that his end was quick. He had been quite fine on the day of Bhagavan’s jayanti, on 25th December. He was his usual happy self, and was seen participating in the pooja and functions. Next day, on 26th, sometime in the evening, he felt uneasy, and within fifteen minutes, he shuffled his mortal coil, and was absorbed in Arunachala. 

**

I step out of the room.

Heres the view outside Swamijis quarters.

Notice the peacock on the parapet wall.

**

I walk back to the front of the Ashram, and come to the site that is being prepared for Swami’s samadhi.

It is a pit around 8 feet or so deep. Ground water is oozing from the bottom. A small brick wall is being raised around it. I have the privilege of laying a brick. Sure feel blessed.

 **

                                                     To be contd….

  

Swami Ramanananda

Got the news that Swami Ramanananda was absorbed in Arunachala last night.

Known as Sri TN Venkatraman in his poorvashrama, he was a pure expression of the energy of goodness, and has been one of the key instruments in the service of Sri Ramanashramam. He was in his 90s, and took sanyasa some years ago.

Among countless others, I too have been a recipient of his spontaneous affection and blessings.  I will always cherish memories of his wholesome greeting “Arunachala!”, his smiling and radiant face.

He was the nephew of the sage of Arunachala, Sri Ramana Maharshi.

  

Wave transformation

Remember, when we were kids, and the evening game of cricket or I-spy or Pittoo or kho-kho or whetever neared its end, when the Sun, despite its soft-corner for children, was no longer able to remain in high-office and plunged behind the trees or whatever was in the horizon…

And  we being kids, and life being magic, would somehow squeeze some light out of the darkness and continue playing, the game itself taking a surreal dimension, with much drama and emotion churned in those extra twilight minutes….

And then finally, when either the ball was lost, or some other natural inhibitor (angry parents, some kid injured, or some house window broken) happened to happen, the game came to a natural halt…

And with a last whooop, the kids would wave each other a big “BYE” and run in different directions, in a rush to reach home,  have lots and lots of water from a ‘mutka’ or ’suraai’ and settle down for some pretense of study / homework and wait for dinner….

All this came back to me suddenly yesterday, when I was driving past a sub-urban locale outside Bangalore, a place of modest means…a place where the local school had a small building and a big playground (when was the last time you saw such a one in the city?),where one could see old play-fixtures like monkey-ladders, and groups of kids playing soccer, cricket and a few other games in the same field.

And I wondered about the kids of the metro. Where is the place to play? When was the last time they could have an evening of outdoor games and wave “Tata, Bye-bye-cheerio” at end to friends?

Maybe, today, one still does see the jerky “bye-bye” wave where the hand is kept in front of one’s chest…but that in comparison to the old-time above the shoulder full-hand wave of TATA, is like comparing house-fly buzz to the flight of the falcon…

Time’s trucker has gobbled up that sky-wave of ‘Tata’. That truck of India, which has displayed a very industrial constancy of purpose…The truck that blares the horn, and pushes you off the road as it rattles past you, it’s smoke-spewing backside sporting a skull-and-bones sign and the proclamation “Burey nazar waaley, tera muh kaala” (Oh you of evil eye, may your face be blackened) and the other one “OK TATA”…

When the Sun is your dial…

Sometime in the 1920s, a young boy from a village in South India, landed up in Delhi and made it his home. Being one of the first ‘Madrasees’ of Delhi, his was an extended family that was a kind of first-stop guest-house / waiting-room, for any number of acquaintances dropping in from South India for whatever reason. His own family was nice and large, three sons and six daughters…Working for the Government, he went on to become Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, and retired sometime around 1960…

Before he retired he bought a Rolex watch.

That and his Navaratna ring were on his hand every day, as long as he lived. The ring went to his youngest son…

This post is about the watch. 

His eldest son’s son (let us call him ‘Ram’), who did inherit some of the ambition and drive of his grandfather, has worked his way up in life ( and is high and climbing still), has changed several jobs, seen many continents….Drives a beauty of a Toyota….

For many years now, Ram’s mind has been recalling his granddad’s Rolex and he started making discreet enquiries….Some years ago, he came to know that it was with one of his Uncles, who was in USA. Ram, during his many trips to US, met up with his uncle and made several attempts to acquire that watch. But the Uncle, for his own good reasons, was unwilling to part with it, for love or for money….’It is my family heirloom’, he said and didnt even bring out the watch from whatever safe he had locked it in…

It may be mentioned that Ram never wore a watch. For some reason, any wrist-watch that he wore, stopped working….He has no idea why….And so he never wore a wrist watch…

But the Rolex in his mind clicked on….

As destiny would have it, his boss (in his current job) recently bought a nice expensive watch when he went to Singapore….He is a man of taste and does this kind of thing often… 

Last month Ram went to USA….In the stopover at Dubai, he paused at a duty-free shop at the airport….Looking at the display of high-class watches, he spotted a Rolex that was the very same model as the one his Granddad had had….He tried it on….It felt perfect…He asked the shopman to pack it…The shopman wasnt sure he had heard it right, and looked up unsurely at this ‘Indian’….’It is 16000 Dirhams Sir’, he said, which is a few hundred thousand Indian rupees….’Yeah, that’s fine’ said Ram, and gave his credit-card, rather like the Maharaja of yore who went to London and bought a Rolls Royce when he went out shopping one evening….

Ram walked out of that shop wearing his Rolex…

Ram’s wrist has found it’s watch. This one has been working just fine….

When he was back after his trip, his boss jumped out of his skin when he noticed Ram wearing that watch….He just dropped whatever official stuff that they were discussing, recovered his poise, and heartily complemented Ram on his peice of Sun….For a while the two of them left the gravitational pull of work and business, and simply space walked….

 There are a few things that are beyond time….

Coming back to college….

The world of internet  has enabled people all over the world to discover and reconnect with their high school and college chums….And the egroups that get formed do have a goldrush kind of process….(of that in some other post…)…

But at some stage, the gang does get together for a major reunion…like my college classmates did, to mark silver jubilee of our completing our graduate degrees….Having studied in a residential institute, we had put in five years of our lives, living in the same campus, twenty five years or more ago….And then we met, after all these years, in the same campus….Heres a shot at a ‘pome’ that tries to ’say it’, as it happened.

Hello!
 
A batch of sixty co-students
            All guys,
Got together again
twenty five years after
And gaped.
 
The athlete of the college
Had run faster than the clock.
The lean one
Nicknamed ’stick’
            (Who was rumoured  to have flown away
            That year of the cyclone)
Had put on a hundred kilos.
And the fat one
Had shed a ton of weight.
 
The Miss World face
Had grown a macho mouche
The bush haired
Had become bald
The old-fashioned, orthodox, spectacled one
Was now dashing, debonair, nude eyed,
Wearing see-through contact lenses.
 
Fat jowls
Hid the once smoke-sunk-cheeks of one
And a designer beard
The baby-bums face of another.
 
The roughneck of yore
Looked now, like Gautama
The Buddha.
 
Time teased
            Grinned
                        Laughed.
 
It was not as if they gaped for a long time.
 
It all happened kind of together,
They gaped, gasped, smiled, spoke…
 And it was when they started speaking
That they hit gold.
 
I tell you differently.
 
Eyes didn’t help recognize.
 
Ears did,
For voices had not changed.
 
And so, recognize me?
 
Hello! Hello! Hello!

Games we used to play….

Went back to a different time this time when I was in flight.

The flight entertainment menu consisted of many video and audio options - and one of those was a RK Narayanan episode based on the book ‘Swami and friends’….

Swami, some may recall, was a young student of Albert Mission School, Malgudi…a young boy who hated word problems, and didnt know whether to multiply, divide, add or substract when faced with a problem that went like, say, “Ramu went to market to buy mangoes. One mango cost 8 Rupees. Ramu wanted to buy five…” etc….He was more concerned whether the mango was ripe or not….

The movie clip was an abridged version, and showed just one episode….that of Swami, his Dada classmate Raju, and the other classmate Mani, the son of the local Deputy Superintendent of Police….Lovely picturisation…

One of the scenes I really liked was one that showed Swami pick up a half torn page of ’Malgudi Times’ newspaper from the ground…make a paper boat with it….and let it float down a little stream. He then sees a school of ants, picks up one, and ever so gently places it in the boat…and then suddenly there is a rapid in the stream, and the boat rushes into a deep, and capsizes….And Swami searches high and low for the ant, worries ever so much that it may have died, and mouths a silent prayer….Little Swami, with a vibhooti on his forehead….

Reminded me of the times when kids actually played with paper boats. I could make two types of paper boats, one a plain boat, and the other with a knifelike extension jutting out of the bottom - the better to cut ones way through the waters…..”katthi-boat” (knife boat) it was called….

Simple toys…paper airplanes, rockets….balls made from rubber strips cut out of a discarded rubber tyre-tube of a cycle….

These games still survive….The other day I noticed a gang of kids outside their little slum home, sitting and playing some game with just a pile of stones….It was a real intense game that they played….or that time in Goa, when I saw this kid, running down the road, rolling a tyre, beating it forward with a stick…Simple games….Games that need just basic stuff…Maybe a chalk to draw a board on the ground, some stones, maybe a ball, a used tyre…

I remember a game called seven-six that we used to play….Needs a ball, and a wall….and you can play for hours….

The stick-and-bail game, Gulli-danda, is mentioned in the Mahabharata….

Wonder how many kids nowadays know any of these games….What with electronics, computers and such having taken a stranglehold in the world of games….There ain’t no free games any more….

Snakes and Ladders anybody?