As
this year ends, the year that marks the centenary of WW1, I feel indebted to so
many people and wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for the same. This is
true story account spanning across a century and some few more years, a story
of the valiant and brave. The story that leaves me wondering what mettle were
these people made of. It is a story of the glorious military traditions that
run in the family.
The
time was the last few years of the eighteenth century when our country was
under the British rule. Times of foreign rule, suppression, political
instability, the princely states crumbling and unrest. The world was also in
chaos with ongoing conquests, fights and wars.
In
our state of Maharashtra, the young Maratha boys with warrior, agrarian background
were highly focused and committed individuals and if need be, would give up
their lives for their homeland. They were completely motivated by the
ideologies of Chhatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj. My great grandfathers (my
mother’s both grandfathers, paternal as well as maternal) belonged to these
times. They came from different villages of Maharashtra, Shri Bajirao More from
Nimsakhar and Shri Narayan Barge from Chinchner.
They
were in their teens when the first world war broke out and they joined the
British army. They crossed the shores of our motherland into unknown lands and
territories and fought fearlessly. They faced so many adversities in terms of
climate, widespread diseases and much more. Both Bajirao and Narayan met during the war and became
the greatest of friends as they shared and exchanged all the common things like
same ideals, similar family backgrounds, families and parents left behind,
friends lost in the battle, despair, dismay, heartbreaks, heartaches, grief,
sorrow and happiness, all of it. As the war came to an end, they decided to
strengthen their bond further by promising to get their children married once
they returned to their motherland safe and sound.
War
spells doom, destruction, despair but simultaneously gives hope for a better
tomorrow of greater peace and understanding. As promised, both my great
grandfathers kept their words and got their children married, Bajirao’s
daughter Mathura got married to Shivram, Narayan’s son. Shivram was a youngster,
all of 17 and Mathura was aged about 12 or so. Shivram joined the army just
after marriage and was much motivated and enthusiastic about the family army tradition.
Shivram
was inducted in the artillery and was posted to many border areas and began his
marital life with his wife staying at his native place. My eldest aunt was born
in 1938 and was followed by birth of a son who died. Hereafter, my grandfather
came on leave and my grandmother conceived my mother, and after this vacation,
my grandfather left the Indian shores for WW2, only to return after 4 years in
1945 to see his second daughter i.e. my mother who was about 3 and half years
old.
He
used to tell us hair raising tales of the war, how he lost so many of his dear friends,
how death eluded him just by hair’s breadth, how the bullet shell got lodged in
his shoulder (it was left in his shoulder forever since then till his death)
and much more. How the Polish women fell at their feet to beg them to be taken
away to India to escape the war atrocities.
He
came to India in 1945 and was posted to Peshawar. He took his family along with
and the partition in 1947 forced them to evacuate immediately to Delhi, India.
My aunt was 9 and my mother was about 5 years of age and they starkly remember
the overcrowded trains with people travelling on train tops too, all the
looting and arson as seen through the child’s eyes. My grandfather sat with a
loaded gun and had told my grandmother that in case the train was looted, he
would be killing all three of them, i.e. my grandmother, my aunt and my mother,
before he would go in for fight. Those were some trying times.
With
Almighty’s blessings, the family reached safely to Delhi. My grandfather was promoted
to officer cadre and did his course at Mhow. Later, my two younger uncles and aunt
were born. As my grandfather was transferred to various faraway places, my
uncle and aunt were admitted to school hostels for uninterrupted education. Both
my uncles joined the army as per the family traditions. My grandfather was
recalled in 1962 after retirement.
The
army traditions continued in my mother’s family with my brother joining the
army and me getting married to an army officer. We became the fourth generation.
My daughter was lucky to have played in the laps of her great grandparents and
the glorious tradition continues with my daughter being married to an army
officer. The fifth generation as I know of and my mother was every bit proud of
it.
We
have seen all these family men in action and come home successfully to their
families wherein the ladies have held the fort ably in their absence. In
earlier times, the communication was so scarce, only via post, then came in
telephones and now of course the mobile age at lightning speed. I still remember
as a 5-year-old, when my Uncle was away in 1971, the way my grandmother waited
for all news on the radio.
We
are the lucky and fortunate ones to have experienced all these tough times and
feel really grateful for our glorious family traditions.
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| Havaldar Narayanrao and Laxmibai Barge |
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| Subhedar Bajiroa More |
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| Major Shivram Narayan Barge |
