A REUNION TO REMEMBER by Brig SURINDER SINGH
PROLOGUE What makes IIT Delhi the Dream-destination of Millions of our Under-graduates What is it that makes IITs what they are? Is it the brilliant faculty, or their laboratories? Or, are the aspirants enamored by the highly subsidized fee structure? If you ask me, all these factors are relevant, but the most significant cause is the image built …
‘BAHURANI’ by ‘COLLS’ and ‘MANZIL’ by Prof MOHAN SINGH
‘BAHURANI’ by ‘COLLS’ and ‘MANZIL’ by MOHAN SINGH ‘Colls’ (Col SK Kohli, XV Course, Easy Sqn, EME) NDA, January 1958. Colls was four courses senior to me and we were in the same Squadron. In our second term, he was our Sergeant Major, and so our relations should have been highly officious. But I do not know what happened during …
FIVE GOLDEN RULES By PROF MOHAN SINGH
A Tribute to Prof Mohan Singh (1905-78) FIVE GOLDEN RULES FOR WRITERS If you would not be forgotten As soon as you are dead and rotten Either write something worth reading Or do something worth the writing By Benjamin Franklin A Prelude 1956. I had turned fifteen, and the first signs of manhood had just appeared. As if I …
24, THE MALL, DELHI CANTT IN 1953, AND NOW
24, THE MALL, DELHI CANTT…NOW, and in 1953-55 Gatecrash! The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it… As we were driving past 24, The Mall in Delhi Cantt, I had an irrepressible urge to enter the house, uninvited and unannounced. It was a bright Sunday morning, and occupants of the house were entitled to …
‘AN INSPECTION IN THE LAND OF THE KANCHENJUGA’ By Brig KN HARIKUMAR
An Introduction to ‘Peace-time Soldiering’ The Second World War (1939 – 45) went on for so long, that when, at long last it ended, the soldiers had forgotten their peace-time routine. And then one day, a commander called all his officers and said, “Well, gentlemen, now that the war has ended, let us get down to some serious soldiering!” He …
AG KHAN : AN UNKNOWN POET
Prologue My one regret is that I cannot read the Persian script in which Urdu is traditionally written. I had learnt the alphabet, but before I could get a grip on ‘right-to-left’ language, the Punjab was partitioned, and Urdu became a language of our arch enemy. We were told not to use Urdu words in Hindi which was to become our official …
MY FRIEND – “BATS” By MAHAVIR JAGDEV
Editor’s Note Mahavir was born on 18 Sep 1955, and was amongst the youngest students, when he joined IIT Kharagpur in 1971. As he entered the portals of this great institute of technology, the cult of the awesome campus entered into his psyche, and became an integral part of his personality. He is also a prolific writer, and has sent a couple of pieces to us. It gives …
MUSINGS OF A MILITARY MAVERICK- FROM CRADLE TO COMMISSIONING
MUSINGS OF A MILITARY MAVERICK- FROM CRADLE TO COMMISSIONING by Lt Gen YN Sharma It was a special day at the engineer’s residence, in the premises of the power house. A son—the first-born of the first-wife of the power parivar—had been born. Few newborns can hope for a better beginning; a celebrity father (publicly anointed as the Sun of Muzaffarabad), …
IN SEARCH OF MY MOTHER TONGUE
30th April 1997 Seventeen years ago, on the last day of April, our mother, whom we called ‘Jhaiji’ passed away. She died the way she had lived; at complete peace with herself, and without becoming a burden or inconvenience for any one, even for a single moment. She was diagnosed of cancer a few weeks before her demise, and she was with us …
The QWERTY Keyboard
April 1971 After completing the Advance Course on Radars, I was posted to West Bengal to command a Workshop Company. I had just earned my ‘Nine year long service medal’ and that made me feel pretty senior. My unit was located in a place called Kanchrapara, which was 48 kilometers north of Calcutta. When I landed up, I discovered that …
