Gurdaspur diary: A soldier donning many hats

Army men, as they say, never retire. They just ‘leave’ the defence services, change directions, and with it gears, and start life afresh. For them age is only a number, a cipher for the records. For a man cannot retire from his experience. One such soldier is Col Bhupinder Singh.

The Colonel believes the best part about retirement is that you do not have to worry about getting caught for doing nothing. For him retirement is not the end of the road, it is just a bend in the road for good. “Enjoy your weekends which now go on for seven days a week,” he says. He hung his spurs in 2000 after serving for 30 years and now spends a major part of his time painting and writing books. As he says, “he hung his spurs” and “not hung his boots” for that is the prerogative of soldiers who have served in the infantry. Commissioned into the Armoured Corps he saw action in the 1971 war (operation Cactus Lily) and Operation Vijay during the 1999 Kargil War. When asked about his memories of working in the disciplined forces, he says, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments but what is woven into the hearts of others.” Now that is beautifully put. His interests are diverse and these days he is sharpening his golfing skills at the Pathankot golf course. He says, with a glint in his eye and some mischief on his face, that during Covid, while the world was fighting the virus from the isolation of homes, he developed a nine-hole course near his Pathankot residence. Among his books, there are some travelogues which require mention. The latest on the shelf is ‘Erstwhile State of Nurpur And Beyond’, co-authored with Satinder Paul Singh. He has a special affinity for Nurpur because he spent his formative years here. His travelogues go on to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that he indeed has command over the area and also over the words he uses in his writings. He is also fond of angling, music, hunting and flying. Many of these hobbies have died a natural death and now what remains are writing, painting and golf. His son, Amit Singh, works as a general manager with the Taj Group of hotels in Kerala. Speaking about the father’s latest book on Nurpur, the son pays a tribute saying “A book written that reminds us of the debt we owe to our ancestors and the ties that irrevocably bind us together.” Some of his books are taught in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools. This is indeed a tribute to his vast ocean of knowledge and writing skills. In the evening, Col sahib enjoys his golf. Using a metaphor from his army days, he says, “Golf is a game whose aim is to hit every ball into an even smaller hole with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.” Who said soldiers do not have a sense of humour?

Bureaucrat Shayari Bhandari back in action

Batala is a city pockmarked with encroachments, small, medium and big. It is common knowledge that people engaged in such encroachments have the backing of politicians.

SDM Shayari Bhandari has served time in the city early this year before she was transferred following differences with a leading Congressman. He was also a minister and used to pull strings in both the civil and police administrations. Hence, when Bhandari was shifted, there were little or no noises. Now she is back as SDM and she has also got charge of the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation. “The lady has a reputation of being a no-nonsense officer. When it comes to erasing a wrong, or for that matter removing an encroachment, she seldom listens to the political class,” said Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar, Chairman of the Gurdaspur Planning Board. Bhandari can get some much needed help from the doctor who knows which politician is responsible for which encroachment. Together they can form a formidable duo. Bhandari does not believe in giving advance warnings. She knows that if she does that the politician will wake up. She surely enjoys the backing of the residents. And that is a welcome sign.

What makes legislator Shery Kalsi angry?

Before Shery Kalsi was elected as an MLA, his hangers-on, and there are many including some known political turncoats, had made him believe that once he becomes a legislator he would become invincible. That the world will be at his feet and officers will be bending backwards to obey his command. He was also told how the cops, including senior officers, would toe his line. He definitely got elected but instead of life turning out to be a bed of roses, as his sycophants had told him, he walked into a living nightmare of sorts. Leave alone senior officers, even lower rung cops refuse to take his calls. A livid Kalsi has now lodged complaints with his seniors against almost all officers of Gurdaspur district and this includes the forward-looking Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ishfaq. The other day the MLA reached the site where traffic cops had issued a challan to a loyalist. Livid, he rubbed the cops the wrong way. The policemen did not yield to Kalsi’s pressure tactics. He was, in fact, told to mind his business. “We are doing our work, you do yours,” was the answer he got. Kalsi should take a leaf out of the book of his predecessors like Ashwani Sekhri and Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal. These leaders knew the tricks of their trade. Seldom would officials say no to them. They would be polite and at the same time knew how to pull the strings. They would be clever and cunning in the same breath. They commanded respect from the bureaucracy. Residents say it would be in the fitness of things if Kalsi takes coaching classes from the likes of Sekhri and Lodhinangal. “Mirror, mirror on the wall, what makes Kalsi the angriest of them all?” Answer: Political ineptness.

(Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal)

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