On termination of our staff college
course in Wellington, I received my posting as a Brigade Major in Palampur, Himachal
Pradesh.
"You are going to relieve Maj
Surrinder Singh?" my friend Ami Bal asked. They were both from the same Regiment,
the famed 17 Poona Horse. "You will love to meet him", he added.
Surrinder was my senior by five years.
For some reason I was denied leave after the course - not even the mandatory joining
time was granted - and rushed straight to the duty station. On the first evening, I telephoned Surrinder
to seek his permission to skip the PT period next morning as my kit had not
fetched up. When I met him on the morrow, I came in for a mild reprimand.
"You infantry chaps will never change", he said with a smile,
"you have done enough PT in your unit. Here you have more important things
to attend to". There was no hint of superiority or sarcasm in his tone,
just a sincere counsel. "The Commander being an infantryman
himself, will of course be very happy, and in fact will expect you to do PT.
But resist it, like I have done."
That was Major Surrinder Singh. As I was to know him during the next four
days if our togetherness, a man of simple habits and tastes but who held strong
beliefs. He spoke his thoughts and his convictions. He had been the Brigade
Major during the 1971 war. The Headquarters had accumulated a plethora of
highly classified war documents. Before I arrived, he had sorted out and had
most of these destroyed. He did not leave any unwanted burden on me; his
dedication and sincerity showed eloquently through his actions. When he learnt of my denial of leave, he felt
genuinely sorry. "I wish you had written to me, I would have delayed my
departure" he said. And I knew he meant it.
When you occupy a chair vacated by an
outstanding person, it is akin to being put in the outer lane. You have to run
much harder to keep up. Remarkably,
everyone from the junior-most functionary to the Brigade Commander sang his
praises. Even the three infantry battalions spoke of his high calibre, deep
involvement and an extremely helpful nature.
There were snippets from his personal
life. He had an individual style of seldom wearing his belt and his cap. He
walked through the small cantonment holding these in either hand. Intrinsically
shy, if he saw some ladies coming in from the opposite side, he would change
his route. A junior staff also told me of his caring nature. Once he had
reached home on leave at midnight, when his mother had already gone to sleep.
Not wanting to disturb her, he sat out in the veranda till morning.
He got married in his next assignment.
I had known his in-laws. Colonel WS
Baljit Singh of 8 CAVALRY, his father-in-law, had been posted in the NDA Kharakvasla when I was a cadet. My
contact with Surrinder continued over the years. Whenever we met, which to my
regret was not often, I always came away wiser professionally and a better human being.
Surrinder was tipped to succeed General
BC Joshi as the Army Chief. Unfortunately, the latter died while still in
saddle and the succession line got changed.
Lt Gen Surrinder retired as Northern Army Commander and settled down in Chandigarh
to lead a quiet life. He passed away on 23 Oct 2015. In his demise we have truly lost an officer
and a gentleman, in every sense of the term. RIP.
Lt Gen Raj Kadyan
[Tri Services India ]
RIP Lt Gen Surrinder
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