serving of food within half an hour or so.
with the food habits of the Hindus. Anyway,
and beef-free fare. Food on the ship was
generally of a very high quality.
action. The senior most officer in charge told
notice our ship and turned to attack.
and went on its way. That night the ship
dinner to celebrate the occasion.
TIME VARIATION
We never thought we will be confronted
with the geographical truth in actual life. It
so happened that breakfast time on the ship
being 8 a.m., I together with some other
friends reached the dining hall on the dot, but
we were in for a shock. Below the clock, which
showed 7 a.m., it was boldly written that
watches should be put back by one hour since
we had travelled West. There was nothing to
do but to wait hungrily for the clock to tick
through another 60 minutes. This simple natural
phenomena dawned on us only on the ship
way back in the year 1944.
BATHING TAPS/ SHAVER OUTLETS
Next morning when I went to take bath I
was very happy to see a 40 mm tap beside
the usual IO mm tap. I decided at once to
have a sort of flood bath and turned on the
40 mm tap over my head. Yet another shock,
the water that gushed out of the giant tap
was saltish sea water. For the life of me, I
could not understand this joke of providing sea
water in the bath room. Now on second thought,
I feel that it was precisely meant for washing
the bathroom or even the deck. Fresh water
on the ship is considered very precious and
everybody is supposed to use it with restraint.
The third night had another surprise in
store. At midnight, the ship began to roll and
pitch. It had entered the Persian Gulf which is
usually rough in winter. My friend, who
happened to be a Goanese advised me to keep
on lying to avoid sea-sickness. I did
accordingly and in the morning hurriedly did
the bathing rituals and was back in the cabin
to resume my horizontal position. It is strictly
prohibited to bring food articles but my friend,
the Goanese, got some sandwiches for me at
lunch time.
DISEMBARKATION
On the fifth day we reached Margil port
early in the morning and were straightway
taken to the Elzubair Transit Camp, where we
remained for about 15 days or so. Elzubair
camp was a transit as well as acclimatisation
camp. An interesting thing happened when on
the next morning a doctor came to every tent
asking everyone to take off all our the clothes.
After this he closely examined the taken off
clothes for signs of presence of lice, thankfully
lice was not there in any of the clothes. The
doctor went off after warning us about it and
telling us to keep ourselves clean, otherwise
we could get an attack of Typhus which in
those days was supposed to be fatal. We acted
on his advice and were spared the attack of
Typhus.
PERMANENT POSTING
Orders for permanent posting to Ahwaz in
South Iran in No. 2 E/M company came on the
16th day and along came the heavy vehicle to
take us to the headquarters. I reached my
unit the same evening. I was given a
underground bunker and the working hours were
8 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Ahwaz town was about
one and a half kilometer away from our unit
site and we often went to the town in the
evenings. On one of my visits I saw an Indian
movie. My job was the maintenance of three
ice plants and one big cold store where roughly
200 tons of beef was to be kept at – 16 degree
F. temperature, for the army. But anyway the
ice plants were shut down for the winter and
only the cold store worked till the end of
October, 1945. In the meantime War had come
to an end when Germany surrendered in April,
1945 and Japan did the same on 10th August,
1945 after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki on 6th and 8th August, 1945.
LEAVE CAMP/REST CAMP
Our then Officer Commanding, Major
Barrage, thought that I had worked hard during
summer and on his own, arranged to send me
to a Rest camp. Since everyone else in the
group was a European, I requested the O.C.
to allow another S.D.C., Mr. Amar Nath Surma
by name, to accompany, for keeping my
company at the Rest Camp. He agreed and
we both left for Beirut (Lebanon) with the
convoy on 15th December, 1945. It took us
six days to reach Beirut by road. The Leave
camp was very well organized and we were
given a vehicle daily for sight seeing of various
places of interest.
JERUSALEM
After one week’s stay at Beirut we decided
on our own to visit Jerusalem, which was about
12 hours journey by train. We got the
necessary permission and reached Jerusalem
the next day after an overnight stay at Haifa.
I had a camera and I took various photographs,
mainly of the places of historical interest. An
interesting event took place at Jerusalem. I
must tell you that as civilian employees of
M.E.S. department we had to give a written
undertaking that in case of war breaking out
we will be asked to serve in Field area alongwith
regular army whenever and wherever
necessary. Now as civilians on deputation with
Army we had to put on the required uniforms
and were given all facilities entitled to V.C.O’s.
I was considered equivalent to a Subedar
Major, but we were not allowed to wear Pips
(badges of rank) on our uniform shoulder flaps.
Other units like Infantry or Artillery had no
knowledge of this and they were averse to
accord us such facilities other than those
meant for Non-Commissioned Officers and
other ranks (soldiers). This happened when
we reached the leave camp at Jerusalem. The
officer- in charge refused to give us boarding
and lodging in the V.C.O Section (Viceroy
Commissioned Officers) and asked us to go to
O.R. (Other Ranks) Section. Anyway, the things
were sorted out by the intervention of the
army Welfare Officer and we enjoyed the rest
of our stay there.
Jaresalem is a very old city full of ancient
monuments pertaining to three major religions
in particular –Christians, Muslims and Jews.
To go round the different places we engaged
a guide, and if I remember correctly he was
Daud, by name. The old city is walled all around
and is populated by Muslims only. Like all old
cities of India, the walled Jerusalem has a
labyrinth of lanes with poor sanitation and is
quite filthy. Ladies within the walled Jerusalem
invariably wear Burka, while going out. All said
and done, people here were more conservative
and quite backward.
CAIRO
After Jerusalem we were sent to Cairo
where the Officer Commanding was well
conversant with the M.E.S. personnel and we
were given the proper treatment. The first
thing we did on reaching Cairo was to procure
the shouder pips of the rank of Subedar Major.
This was illegal and it amounted to
impersonation, but I did it to avoid the
experience of being treated as Other Ranks
again, as was done at Jerusalem. I wore those
rank pips till I returned to my unit, after the
expiry of leave. As for impersonation, I had
perforce to do it to visit all important and
historical places of worship of the Muslims at
Jerusalem. I had to pose as being a Muslim to
gain entry, free of cost, into the Muslim shrines.
A heavy fee was even then extracted from
the non-Muslims. There was not much of fuss
in gaining an entry into various churches. During
the period of leave I visited different countries
and never had any problem with getting
currency of that particular country from the
Field Cashiers of the British Army (they had
their outlets at every leave/transit/rest camps).
BETHELHAM
The place where Christ was born and it is
approximately 30 kilometers from Jerusalem,
the very place now houses a huge church.
The Manger in which he was born is still there.
The Church is well decorated and had scores
of gold and silver lanterns hanging from the
very high roof. In fact, the church is inside a
very big cave where the Manger existed. A
marble tombstone signifies the place were
Christ was buried after his crucifixion. Some
sort of memento is given to the pilgrims who
visit this church, myself being not a Christian
was not denied that.
MUSLIM HISTORICAL PLACES
As for Muslims, their most ancient
monument is the El Aska mosque where Hazrat
Mohammad is stated to have prayed. I had to
pose as a Muslim to be allowed to go inside.
To testify of my being a Muslim, I recited the
Muslim Kalima and did Sajda etc. There are a
number of other Muslim mosques which I visited
including the one called Dome of the Rock.
The Jews have only one monument which
to them is the holiest of the holy, it is the
Wailing Wall. This is the only portion of a big
place of worship called Synagogue which was
demolished by the Muslim rulers. In place of
the Synagogue the Muslims built a mosque.
Jews therefore pray every Friday at this Wall,
being a part of their once holy place of
worship. Photographing is prohibited but a rich
Muslim living opposite the Mosque helped me
to photograph this monument. Then black and
white photography was the order of the day,
hence the results were not very good.
CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE
This is the place where Chirst was crucified
after he was declared guilty of arousing people
against the Roman rulers by a court which
was presided over by Pontius Pilate, the then
Roman Governor of Jerusalem and he was
assisted by a number of local Jews who were
the members of the Jury. Though Pontius Pilate
himself was not convinced of Christ being
guilty, still he had to respect the award given
by the Jury i.e. the capital punishment. After
some sort of ceremony of washing his hands,
thereby telling others that he has washed off
the sin of causing death to an innocent man
he is said to have left the court. Christ was
thereafter made to carry a heavy wooden Cross
through the streets of Jerusalem and finally
he was nailed to the same Cross, which he
carried. The interior of the Church is decorated
with gold and silver lamps. A marble grave
(empty) has been constructed at the spot of
crucifixion, a portion of whose cover was
broken and crushed and mixed with a large
quantity of wax. The pilgrims who visit this
church are given a bit of wax, whether you
are a Christian or not.
JEWS DEMAND FOR HOMELAND
For a long time Jews were hated and were
isolated in Ghettos in a majority of countries
of Europe, and Middle East. Laws were also
enacted against granting them full citizenship
rights. During World War II millions of German
Jews were deported to prison camps where
they were tortured and systematically killed
in gas chambers by Hitler and his cohorts.
This struggle of Jews for homeland continued
till 1948 when the U.N.O. with majority vote
granted formation of Israel out of Palestine
and thus created a homeland for Jews.
I was in Jerusalem on leave at the end of
December, 1945 when fresh trouble erupted.
All those on leave living in Leave Camps were
ordered to report to Station Headquarters and
were asked to leave Jerusalem the very next
day. At the station everyone was asked about
his destination. In some sort of confusion
instead of saying Ahwaz, I said Cairo and was
accordingly issued a travel pass to Cairo. That
is how I landed in Cairo. I reached Cairo on the
Ist of January, 1946 and was accommodated
in a hotel which was meant especially for those
who came to stay in Cairo for rest and for
those on leave from active duty. I and my friend
Mr. Surma shared one room.
CAIRO AGAIN
As we were free from active duty, next
morning we set out on a sight seeing tour and
decided to visit Giza which is about IO Km.
from Cairo. There was a train service between
Cairo and Giza and the train passed a bridge
over the river Nile. Earlier before reaching Cairo
we had crossed over Suez Canal during our
train journey. In a matter of minutes the train
takes you from one Continent to the other.
The Suez Canal is between Asia and the African
continents and joins Red Sea with
Mediterranean. I indeed felt exhilarated at
having got the opportunity to see a thing of
such geographical and historical importance.
Giza, is the place where the Ist wonder of
the ancient period, namely the Pyramids of
Egypt are located. These are three in number,
close to them is the Sphnix, which too is a
wonder in itself. It is a human faced lion carved
out of a single rock, 60 feet high and IOO feet
long. There are 3 or 4 smaller pyramids but
the colossal ones are just Three. These
pyramids are 481 feet high and were built 4000
years ago when there were no machines or
machinery and the entire work was done
manually. It is difficult to imagine how such
heavy stones were taken for construction of
these steep pyramids, built entirely with
stones of the same size and with such
precision. The Great Pyramid is made of 2.5
million stone blocks, that is what is written in
the Dictionaries. These Pyramids contain the
mortal remains of some of the Pharaohs (Kings)
of Egypt who ruled the country between 4000
and 2000 B.C. India’s culture and civilization
is also supposed to be older than it, but, I
think, there are not many archeological or other
proofs of its one-time existence.
The ancient land of Egypt was overrun by
the Romans during the time human civilization
came to dominate Europe and the Middle East.
The last dynasty of Pharaohs was replaced
by the Romans who ruled over it for a
considerable length of time. After the body of
the Pharaoh had been embalmed it was taken
inside the Pyramid through an entrance. One
room housed the coffins only while the royal
treasure and all official documents were kept
in the other room. This second room also
housed the mummified bodies of the pet animals
of the kings. After doing the needful the
workers left the Pyramids through the only
entrance and then this only entrance was
sealed meticulously. The British explorers then,
who discovered the Pyramids were not able
to locate the original opening. Later on at the
end of twentieth century some explorers have
succeeded in locating it, that is what we have
come to know from watching the History
Channel. I went inside the Pyramid of Cheops
(one of the Pyramids) and saw the two rooms.
The coffin was empty since the body of
Pharaoh, during World War II had been
removed to a safer place outside Egypt. All
the jewellery and other articles in the second
room are now kept in Cairo Museum. I saw
these articles closely and inferred that the
design of jewellery worn by women 4000-5000
years ago and the type of jewellery in vogue
in the 1940s, was not much different.
THE CURSE OF TUTANKHAMEN
(King of Egypt 1361-1352 B.C.)
Some of the facts which appeared recently
in a section of Indian press recently (2008)
were told to me by the guide in quite a lopsided
manner. The truth is what has appeared in
the Press. Tutankhamen, or better known as
King Tut, was a pharaoh who accomplished
little in life. Scientists have revealed a
significant clue that he was not murdered (at
the age of 19) as has been spoken of earlier,
but instead his death was caused by falling
from a fast moving chariot while hunting in
the desert. It is said that the wife of
Tutankhamen got a good number of persons,
whom she thought to be the conspirators of
Tutankhamun’s murder. She got them killed in
a banquet which she arranged, especially for
this purpose. For more than 3,000 years, King
Tut’s mummy was kept in a tomb at an
unknown place and nobody tried to find it as
people believed it was cursed. And after the
discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the curse of the
mummy began, Many terrible events started
occurring. This is so because mummies
(legends has it ) have been associated with
magical powers throughout history. It all began
when Lord Carnarvon, in 1923, the person who
funded the discovery of King Tut’s Tomb, died
shortly after the discovery. His death came
just a couple of weeks after a public warning
by novelist Marie Corelli that there would be
dire consequences for anyone who entered
the sealed tomb.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), the
creator of Sherlock Holmes and a believer in
the occult, announced that Carnarvon’s death
could have been the result of a ‘Pharaoh’s
curse’. The curse was further fuelled by more
deaths. So the project was abandoned and
the Head Office in London decided to postpone
further exploration.
General Rommel of the German army and
the allied forces were fighting fiercely in Libya
at that time and it was feared that German
forces might capture Egypt any time. For the
same reason the Sphnix, a part of the Pyramid
complex was covered up with sand to prevent
any damage being done by the artillery fire or
bombing.
PYRAMID (CHEOPS)
After seeing the inside of the Pyramid, I
and my friend Surma decided to try to climb
from the outside to the top of the Pyramid.
Some people warned us because of its height
(450 ft. or so) but we persisted in our effort,
and we started climbing. There were no proper
steps and we had to do a sort of leap-frog
upwards. Now I do not remember how long we
took to reach the top, but we did reach it. To
commemorate the event I got down to inscribing
on one of the stone with the help of a
multipurpose army knife, my name and the date
of climbing and that was 3rd of January, 1946.
If you are ever so lucky to visit Cairo and manage
to climb to the top of the Pyramid you might
still find the inscription of my name (S.K.N.)
which I was able to make half an inch deep.
THE CAIRO MUSEUM
It houses the invaluable treasure both in
terms of gold and silver and other valuable
articles, giving a clear view of life and living
style of the people inhabiting that country
and the adjoining state of Mesopotamia in the
pre A.D. era. Hieroglyphics was the script of
ancient Egyptians and from a study of it, it
appears that they had a keen sense of history.
They recorded all types of events and this
very recorded history was preserved in the
royal tombs in Giza Pyramids and also in the
tombs in the places now known as the Valley
of Kings. Tombs were dug into solid rocks and
the bodies of the dead kings and queens were
placed inside after embalming, to prevent
decomposition and deterioration. The science
of embalming died with the old civilization of
Egypt and is not known to anyone now, that
is what I think.
Hieroglyphics was totally undecipherable till
early 20th century, but for the accidental
discovery of the key to hieroglyphics script and
the language in the form of so-called ‘Black
Stone’ – the vast treasures of the written record
of that period would have remained a closed
book to the modern world, just as in the case
of Indus Valley Civilization. A Black Stone
installed by the Roman rulers for proclamation
of certain edicts was inscribed in three different
scripts and language – Greek, Roman and
Hieroglyphics, was accidentally found lying near
the sea shore. The experts found that Greek
and Roman edicts were exact translation of
each other and it was presumed that
hieroglyphics too must be a translation of these.
With great patience and perseverance they
were able to decipher each and every word
and thus were able to learn the complete
language of the ancient Egyptians and their
script. The entire record found in the Royal
graves in the Pyramids and the Valley of the
Kings has been translated into English and
French and perhaps some other languages of
Europe by now.
ALEXANDRIA
I stayed in Cairo for about a week and
then alongwith my friend Surma went to
Alexandria for two days. While I, my friend
Surma and another VCO were sitting inside
the train waiting for it to depart, my two
companions suddenly felt the need to have a
cup of tea. I tried to dissuade them but they
were bent on defying my every warning. It
was 6 a.m. and a thick fog had descended on
the city of Cairo. Standing on the platform
one could not see the train, so thick was the
fog. Suddenly the train started moving and
they were all lost in the fog. I started cursing
them as now I would have to unload their
luggage and carry it to the hotel. Anyway
they got another train, but after four hours or
so they reached the hotel. By that time I had
done a lot of sight seeing, in and around
Alexandria. An incident which is etched on my
mind is about how I saved my watch from
ruffians while I was roaming around the sea
shore. A few boys not much younger than me
came to me and asked me, what time it was,
and just as I was about to tell them the time,
they all pounced on me but I was able to
keep them at bay and ran inside YMCA building
close by where I sat for half an hour or so and
then came out all intact with my wrist watch.
JOURNEY BACK
From Alexandria we went back to Cairo and
then on to Baghdad and Beirut by train. On
reaching Beirut we were told to go back to
Ahwaz via Damascus. I welcomed the idea as
this would mean visiting yet another capital of
one of the Middle East countries i.e. Syria. Next
day we entrained for Damascus early in the
morning. At noon we got hungry and got down
at one of the stations to get some eatables.
But we were saved from the ordeal when we
met somebody from the railway station canteen
enquiring about us to give us the proper lunch
reserved for the VCO’s. There was a wireless
message from the R.T.O. Beirut. This incident
tells of the concern of the British administration
for their personnel. We reached Damascus at
about 8.30 p.m. and were taken to the
Damascus Rest Camp in a vehicle. We were
accommodated in a very cosy room having all
the amenities. It being January, 1946 and
Damascus during winters is very cold, the night
temperatures dropping to -4 to -6 dgrees.
Next morning, we went to the RTO,
Damascus asking him to arrange for our return
journey to Ahwaz. Then he told us that we had
come to a wrong place and the correct place
for the return visa was Haifa in Palestine (now
Israel), but he anyway promised to send us
back to Ahwaz, without a detour to Hiafa. He
further asked us to take it easy and do some
sight-seeing in Damascus for three or four days,
the time he thought it would take to arrange all
that. There was a carnival in the city during
those days and every evening we spent three
to four hours there. I used to wear my bogus
pips of the Subedar Major and at Carnivals there
was the game of firing skill. So I purchased 5
bullet and started the game, I was able to hit
the target three times and was complimented
by the security Subedar for my marksmanship.
He could not detect that I was not the real
Subedar Major, because by that time I had
started believing myself to be a real Subedar
Major and I did not betray any nervousness to
draw the security people’s attention.
On the fifth day we were picked up from
the rest camp by a bus bound for Baghdad,
with the movement order for further travelling
up to Ahwaz by train. We reached Baghdad at
about 10 p.m. and next day we entrained for
Ahwaz. We reached there by 2 p.m. the Officer
Commanding, instead of being angry with me
for having left the leave party at Jerusalem
and visit so many places which were not in
the schedule. There were some plans of my
visit to move to Cyprus but that never
happened, due to one reason or the other.
And this brings me to the end of my odyssey
in Iran/Iraq during and also in the aftermath
of World War II.
QUETTA EARTHQUAKE (30TH MAY, 1935)
The earthquake of Quetta was the worst
of its kind then. Somehow I was a witness to
all that destruction during the night of 29th
May, 1935. I had to return to Karachi from
Quetta the next day for my classes (I was an
Engineering student and in the Second Year).
Karachi was the capital of Sind (now Pakistan).
But as luck would have it, all my friends who
had come alongwith me from Karachi perished
in the earthquake, the same night. My father,
Lala Karam Chand Nangia was friends with Lala
Het Ram and Lala Rijhu Ram Bahl. They were
so close to each other that they decided to
build their houses side by side. These houses
were identical in nature and when the time
came to shift into the houses it was decided
by a lottery. The first house in the line went
to Lala Rijhu Ram, second to Lala Het Ram
and the third one to my father. Around the
back lane lived the Hazara Muslims (migrated
from Persia). The back wall was made six feet
high for safety sake. Quetta being very cold
during winters, so a provision was made to
have some open space in the centre to have
some sunlight during winter months, to avoid
dampness. The bed rooms at the back of the
house were instrumental in saving a number
of lives on the day of the earthquake.
My elder brother was also at home for
spending the holidays. He had done his
Engineering and was about to join a job in
Karachi. During the earthquake my mother was
at the hospital helping a lady in distress, the
lady happened to be Mrs. Rijhu Ram. Ever since
Lala Heta Ram got me a watch as a gift from
him I had always had it on my wrist even at
night. The only day I removed it was on the
night of 29th May, 1935 and it got lost in the
debris of the earthquake. Even to this day, I
have never removed my watch, not even at
night. Some habits are hard to die.
After the earthquake we started
digging the earth with whatever we could lay
our hands on, to look for our relatives and
friends. My elder brother did have a
providential escape while he was sleeping in
the store room of the house. Lala Heta Ram’s
family and my family did not suffer any
casualties but Lala Rijhu Ram’s family was not
so lucky. Quite a few deaths happened in his
family. We did help him in recovering the dead
bodies from the debris. While we were looking
for the dead bodies, a young lady came to tell
us that only the previous night she got married
and this day (30th May) she has become a
widow as she had lost her husband in the
earthquake. But we were all in a hurry to go
to a safer place (The Gymkhana Grounds) so
nobody thought of helping her in her distress.
To this day I regret as to why we become so
callous towards others when we ourselves are
caught in the frenzy of disaster-like situations.
The earthquake of Quetta was the very
scene of despair, death and destruction. There
was a large contingent of the army at Quetta
and it very quickly went into action and saw
to it that everyone whether victim of the
earthquake or not is provided for his minimum
daily needs. They were able to do the needful
by providing food and other necessary items
to the needy. On the third day of the
earthquake we left for Lahore by train and
during the train journey I lost my shoes or
someone must have walked away with them.
When we got down at Lahore railway station
I told my mother about my loss of shoes but
she never gave any ear to my pleadings about
getting me a new pair of shoes, then and there.
After alighting from the train we went to a
relative’s house. My father had stayed back
to serve the suffering people, a few years
after the earthquake he died (i.e. in 1942).
PARTITION OF INDIA
(AUGUST 15, 1947)
Exodus it was, bigger than the biggest so
far in human history, with lakhs of people, men,
women and children moving eastwards towards
India, fleeing from their hearths and homes of
generations. Fleeing from the country of their
forefathers, from death in their country, now
called Pakistan. There were not many options
available, except conversion to Islam or death.
Thousands, if not lakhs lost contact with their
families and got captured by those professing
a different faith than their own and then they
were tortured or slaughtered in the most
rutheless manner. Many young girls and young
women preferred death to dishonour and so
gave their lives by jumping into wells of their
houses. Bhisham Sahni’s novel ‘Tamas’ comes
to the mind. He has presented all in a graphic
manner. Many other novels on Partition have
appeared in English and Hindi and even Punjabi.
The quite famous ones are Khushwant Singh’s
Train To Pakistan, Chaman Nahal’s Azadi and
Yash Pal’s Hindi novel ‘Jhootha Sach’. In all, it
was a displacement and in the process the
rich of the undivided India became paupers
overnight, but somehow or the other they saved
their lives and came over to India as refugees.
I was one of those who travelled to India
quite safely as did my wife Vidya and my then
40 days old daughter Aruna. Vidya’s cousin
Mr. Dina Nath Pahuja had managed to get one
seat in a plane bound for Delhi from Quetta,
where they reached safely. As for myself, I
was stationed at Fort Sandeman, a small town
located near the Afghanistan border (about
320 Km. from Quetta). On hearing the news
of killings and arson at Quetta on the very
night of August 14, 15, 1947, I decided to
rush to Quetta, where my whole family was
then stationed.
QUETTA
A few words about Quetta. It was the
capital city of Baluchistan. Life was quite
peaceful and plentiful but this was disturbed
when Lord Radcliff made the Partition line
between India and Pakistan, thereby dividing
not just towns and villages but also families.
In those days nuclear families were unheard
of, it was only joint families everywhere and
unfortunately members of one family or the
other were forced to flee into either of the
two countries, just due to the line drawn
between the two countries. I was then serving
in the Military Engineering Service. In order to
be close to my joint family, I went to my
immediate boss but he would not allow me to
leave the station.
I then approached my military Station Staff
Officer, a Maratha Major to allow me to go in
the convoy of 50 trucks going to Quetta. When
I went to his house with this request of mine,
first I met his wife and she listened to my
plight patiently, when her husband came after
a couple of minutes (those few minutes seemed
an eternity) I repeated my request and also
the seriousness of the matter. Somehow, he
agreed to help me and he personally
approached the officer leading the convoy to
take me to Quetta, without any written orders
of leave from the Garrison Engineer, I think,
sympathy overtook rules. Rules were broken
to help people like me to reach their families
and be with their kith and kin. I travelled on
the roof of a lorry carrying the household
effects of the Police Commissioner, and being
an Englishman he was going back to England.
Alongwith me there were six Pathan employees
on the roof of the lorry. Anyway I reached
Quetta and directly reported to the C.W.E.
Quetta. I explained the circumstances of my
leaving Fort Sandeman without getting a
written permission.
My explanation was duly accepted by the
Garrison Engineer and I was taken on the office
strength temporarily. Then I went out to
search for my family (they had already moved
out of their houses). I was very fortunate to
locate my family at the Gymkhana Race Course
Ground. Next morning when I went from the
Gymkhana ground to the C.W.E. office, there
I met Major Malinoshi (a Polish), my Garrison
Engineer of Fort Sandman waiting to take me
back to the Fort with him. I frankly told him
that unless and until I am able to send my
family to India, I will not budge from Quetta,
so I quietly walked up to my bicycle and came
away to the Gymkhana Ground. Next day I
managed to send all the members of my family
with 20 trunks full of costly belongings
alongwith some family friends by the Karachi
Mail to Hyderabad (Sind), and from there to
catch another train to Jodhpur, My younger
brother took the charge of the family as I was
not given leave to go India.
As told to me later on, my brother and
family reached Hyderabad all intact but to go
further they had to wait for two days to get
the tickets. A chance happening, the son of
Seth Taib Ali sighted them (Taib Ali, the senior
was a very good friend of my father and also
of my elder brother). Taib Ali juniour then
contacted his father and then the whole family
was taken to his house to stay till the time
they managed to get the train tickets for
Jodhpur. Within two days they managed to
get the tickets and the family heaved a sigh
of relief.
After a gap of 2-3 days, on reaching
Karachi, I tried to get some news of the
whereabouts of my family. Some acquaintance
of mine told me that he had met my younger
brother at Hyderabad. So I surmised that at
Hyderabad they must have met Seth Taib Ali
and from him I would come to know about
them. So immediately I left Karachi by train
for Hyderabad (Sind). On arrival at Hyderabad
I went straight to Seth Taib Ali’s office and at
the office his son told me that his father has
gone to the railway station to see off the
whole family. So I rushed to the railway station
and was quite in time to board the train,
though there was no ticket for me. Even though
there was utter chaos, but no one dared to
travel without tickets and what is more, even
the ticket checkers were doing their work
religiously. Since we were short of one ticket
we decided that Krishna, my younger sister
would hide in the toilet when the collector
came to check the tickets. In those good old
days even the toilets were checked for
stowaways, but only of Third Class
compartments. Our tickets were for the
Second Class. Because of the unprecedented
rush and luckily for all of us the Ticket Checker
only counted the number of tickets and the
number of persons present in the compartment
(Krishna was of course in the toilet during all
this checking). Krishna, however, never knew
what had happened in the compartment when
she was sent to the toilet. All our belongings
began to vanish one by one because we were
too busy in being together and talking at length
about our various travails.
So we all travelled together in that difficult
situation and at last reached Delhi. In times
of need everybody tries to locate some near
and dear one to help them. So on railway
platform I thought about my cousin, Sh. Narain
Das Nangia who worked in the Lakshmi
Insurance Company at Lahore, but now his
company was there in Delhi, having shifted
before the Partition. Not knowing the exact
address of the Insurance Company, I wrote a
Post Card to my Cousin, care of Lakshmi
Insurance Company conveying to him about
our arrival and stay at the railway station,
without any belongings or even change of
clothes. I was quite sure that he would get
the letter because ‘hope springs eternal in the
human breast’ so said the poet Alexander
Pope. So on the Post Card, I just mentioned
Platform 7, where we all were putting up. I
am all praise for the postal authorities in those
disturbed days for their efficiency. My letter
posted in the evening was delivered the next
day and my cousin came down to the railway
station and took all of us to his house in
Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi. From thereon started
our efforts to face the vicissitudes of life in
the independent India.
SOME MEMORABLE
STRAY INCIDENTS
QUETTA – 1918 – BABU-MOHALLA
I have a very vague recollection of the
first ever narrow escape in my very early life.
It is surprising that I remember it quite clearly,
I was just 2 years old then and now I am 90-
year plus. It was late in the evening when my
mother put me to sleep on the bed. She lighted
a hurricane lamp and then lowered the wick
and put the lamp under my bed and sat down
to wait for my father’s return home. She must
have dozed off by the time my father returned,
quite late at night, the bed had caught fire.
He immediately shifted me to another bed and
somehow doused the fire by pouring bucketfulls
of water. My father was the President of Arya
Samaj, Quetta and he remained quite busy in
its affairs, Coming home late in the evenings
was routine affair for him.
FORT SANDEMAN (1937)
I vividly remember the accident which took
place while we were on way to a picnic spot
Kapeep (about 12 miles from Fort Sandeman).
Kapeep had a natural fountain which met the
entire requirement of Fort Sandeman town
and the Cantonment. The three S.D.O.’s had
lent their vehicle for carrying all of us to
the picnic spot and back. There were Five of
us in a car. While going over a 200ft long
bridge the car skidded and fell into a dry bed
of the stream roughly 50 feet below and turned
turtle. Miraculously, none of us received
any serious injury, though the car got damaged
beyond repair. It was indeed a hair breadth
escape.
QUETTA – MAY 1940
Mamaji (Mr. Lok Nath) and I used to go
together to office on our cycles in the morning.
The office timings being 0730 to 1330 hours.
We used to go via Kandhari Bazaar. At one
end of this Bazaar was the Meat Market and
outside, there was the Tonga Stand. One day
as we were going on our cycles we suddenly
heard people shouting and gesticulating at us
to get off the road as the horse of a tonga
had gone berserk and was running at quite a
high speed behind us. We turned to look
back and saw the tonga when it was only
10 feet or so away from us. Mamaji
managed to get aside in time but I couldn’t
and I stood rooted to the spot alongwith
my cycle. Fortunately the tonga passed
by my side, almost grazing me. People
rushed towards me and congratulated me
for being lucky to have escaped unhurt. Such
is life, we pass through so many accidents
and come out unscathed due to luck or
Providence.
DALBANDIN (AFGHANISTAN)APRIL 1944
Once while travelling in a one ton
vehicle from Dalbandin to Quetta on official
duty, an accident which could have been very
serious but got averted by itself (by my taking
control of the steering wheel and directing
the vehicle into a different direction). It so
happened that I was sitting on the front seat
sandwiched between the driver and the
Tehsildar of Kalat. I casually asked the driver
to drive cautiously. But the driver happened
to be of a boastful nature and he enjoyed
wilful driving.
Labourers were working in a trench across
the whole width of the road without displaying
any ‘Road Under Repairs’ sign. On seeing our
vehicle coming at a good speed they suddenly
stood up together, all five of them, like ghosts
or supernatural beings apprehensive of the
possibility of being hit by the vehicle, so they
were gesticulating with all their strength for
the vehicle to stop. Seeing all this the driver
lost his nerve and turned the vehicle in the
wrong direction- heading towards a ditch.
Seeing his nervousness, I immediately caught
hold of the steering wheel and seeing a bridge
manoeuvered the vehicle on to the narrow
bridge. At certain points the left front wheel
of the vehicle was almost at the outer edge of
the bridge. All this time the driver’s foot was
pressed against the accelerator, as I had
barely managed to get hold of the steering
wheel. It was a most miraculous escape
as the ground level from the bridge was
more than 100 feet deep of course, it was a
close shave.
DALBANDIN, NOVEMBER -1944
Travelling on the same road a few months
ago I had a brush with death. Now while
driving the jeep on the same road the rod of
the jeep broke just as I approached the hilly
part after the end of the desert area at a
height of 6000 feet above sea level near the
Bolan Pass (It was the same Pass which
Alexander, the Great is said to have crossed
while entering India from Iran in 326 B.C.). on
the left side of the road the Milestone read
London – 6000 Miles. As I was the only
occupant of the jeep and with one tie rod
intact, I somehow managed to reach my
M.E.S. unit which was at the top of the
mountain. Luck was on my side and another
miraculous escape, anything could have
happened.
BUNDER SHAHPUR (PERSIAN GULF)
MAY, 1944
It was a small port in the Persian Gulf
where loading and unloading was done at a
distance of about 300 feet from the shore,
which was not deep enough for ships to
come. The land portion comprised of just
about three dozen houses and a few shops
on a 100 yard or so wide piece of land jutting
into the sea. There was train service from
Ahwaz town to this port. I had to go there to
set right the generation of electricity of
the Power House, which had stopped
functioning. It took me sometime to set the
fault right and the power house started
functioning by the afternoon.
Having nothing much to do, I loitered along
the shore where I found a number of army
boats. A big ship was also anchored there
about 200 feet away. Without getting
permission from the Port authorities I untied a
boat and started rowing. After about half an
hour or so I found I had come a long was from
the shore, the sun was also about to set, so I
decided to row back. Unfortunately for me
the tidal waves had started pushing me away
from the shore, however hard I tried. I
struggled hard for about 50 minutes and at
last managed to bring the boat back, much
against the wishes of the high velocity winds.
By that time a few persons had collected at
the shore and had seen me struggle with the
boat, but none came forward to help me. It
seemed to them that I had not taken
permission to enter the Persian Gulf, which is
necessary as towards the evening the tidal
waves tend to get greatly violent. After I tied
the boat I looked at my hands which were full
of blisters and blood was oozing out, but now
I realize, it was an adventure of sorts but I,
made a hasty retreat from there to avoid a
volley of questions from the bystanders.
BABINA- JHANSI – JULY, 1959
This was indeed a touch and go event, in
a way. Just five seconds more on the railway
track and I could have been a dead man. In
search of herbs for my mother’s treatment on
a particular Sunday in July, I decided to go
across rivers Betwa which forms a border
between U.P. and M.P. in search of a specific
herb root which was stated to be very
effective in curing the joint arthiritis, I took
with me on the pillion of my scooter a
subordinate of mine. There is a bridge over
the Betwa river. The bridge was just meant
for the plying of trains and there was no space
for the pedestrians on either side of the bridge.
The width between the two rails was covered
with corrugated sheets. The two wheelers, in
case some one wanted to drive had to go
over the corrugated sheets and that too at a
snail’s pace. The railway gate was closed when
we reached the bridge. Labourers working on
the bridge told us that the train had just
passed but the gatekeeper had yet to come
to open the gate. They offered to lift my
scooter over the gate and onto the bridge.
They very readily did that and we too jumped
over the gate and started going towards the
M.P. side of the bridge on the scooter. When
we were a little about half way, my companion
on the pillion shouted that the signal had been
downed for another train to pass. We got
scared and raised the speed of the scooter to
almost the maximum. Perspiring profusely we
managed to reach the other side and somehow
got the scooter off the track. In a matter of
moments the train whizzed past us. It was
almost a shake hand with death at my young
age of 43.
ALONG (ARUNACHAL) – OCTOBER 1960
After disbursing payment to the workers
at Along, I went back to the improvised airfield.
Earlier in the morning I had flown into Along
by a Dakota. There was a regular flight between
Dibrugarh and Along and also between
Dibrugarh and Jorhat. So hurriedly I went
towards the aeroplane which was ready to
take off and I quickly climbed up the
ladder and sat down on a seat. The pilot then
came to check my Movement Order for
the flight and then informed me politely that I
had got on the wrong plane. That plane was
bound for Jorhat and not to Along.
Realising my mistake, I at once ran to the
door to quickly climb down. But by that time
the ladder had been removed. The pilot would
have arranged for the ladder, but in my
nervous state of mind I did not ask him and
also not realizing the great height which does
not look much to the naked eye, I jumped
out. Luckily I landed on my two feet. The
other passengers in the Dakota must have
roared with laughter at my this blunder.
Thinking of it now (2008), I think I had
outdone the stunts now indulged in by the
stunt directors for the movie stars.
INDO-PAK WAR (3RD -14 DECEMBER, 1971)
During the War I was stationed at Ferozpur.
Myself alongwith with my daughter Manju and
son Ashwini had gone to the market to do
some shopping. Aruna, the elder sister of Manju
was then in Delhi studying medicine. While in
the market I heard a lot of noise and a solid
rumour that Pakistan had attacked India at
the Hussainiwala border. The time was about
5.30 p.m. and the date 3rd December, 1971
and further on that Pakistan had also attacked
at various other places alongwith other Indo-
Pak borders. We quickly bought the things we
required but in the meanwhile the whole of
the market started shutting their shops very
quickly. Another shouting was heard that
Pakistanis were about to enter the city very
shortly.
We quickly came back to our house and I
switched on the radio, but there was no such
announcement about the War. When I switched
on B.B.C. news channel, it very clearly
mentioned that war between India and Pakistan
had indeed broken out.
India was very much in the know of all the
preparations by Pakistan and were quite
prepared for the action, but the time and date
of attack had remained a mystery to India.
On 3rd December the Army Day Celebrations
were in full swing and there was a certain
party-mood all over the city full of army
personnel. Nobody expected that War would
start so soon. The whole of the evening and
the night somehow passed but there was
continuous strafing. This was like you see a
comet in the sky, the bombs were seen going
across the sky overhead. All the arrangements
of covering the glass panes with thick brown
papers had already been done by everybody,
even candles were kept in readiness alongwith
watches and torches in some sort of bunkers
in every house. The whole of my family spent
the night in the bunker and around I a.m. I
was able to get a driver of a jeep who took us
up to the Halwara airport (Ludhiana) and from
there my family took the train to Dehradun
where my elder brother lived with his family. I
returned to Ferozpur and was questioned by
the Officer Incharge as to how I took the
government vehicle without permission. The
rest is all history now, but I did have a terrible
time during those days of war but my courage
and perseverance prevailed over all the
troubles.
JOURNEY – BOMBAY TO DEHRA DUN 1992
While waiting for my turn to fill the water
bottle at some wayside station in Gujarat, the
man ahead of me suddenly dashed off towards
the train which was about to puff off. Suddenly
I saw my train in motion and I dashed towards
the moving train (age 77) at that time. I was
not able to get into my compartment but got
hold of a handle of the Ist class bogey. I held
on to it with all my strength and staggered
into the compartment. I was lucky enough to
survive that dare-delivery act. On the next
stop which came after about three hours I
went to my compartment to the comfort of
my agitated wife, who all these hours must
have been thinking of so many things, including
my not catching the train or having been left
stranded on a railway platform.
Since dictating what I remember of my life
of 90 years or so, my past seems to be coming
before my very eyes quite off and on and I
recollect things which I have been trying to
remember for the past many years/ months.
My father, had a very good friend and he was
a Muslim. In those good old days nobody
thought much about it. We all addressed him
as Shah Sahib. Last night June (2008) I saw
in my dream my house in Quetta and I saw
myself standing there when from nowhere a
small boy comes running at a good speed and
says – you do not remember his name, his
name is Asgar Ali Shah- and he disappears. I
wake up, realizing the name I had been trying
to recollect was indeed Asgar Ali Shah.
Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand …..
See all not be afraid
Robert Browning
