Pritam Uncle R.I.P.

A wonderful tribute to Pritam Uncle. He died like he lived, peacefully. He
was sitting out in the Delhi winter sun and then said goodbye to his
son and walked to his room, lay on his bed and breathed his last. His
spirit, his guffawing laugh, his stories and his warmth will always be
remembered. This image is what he gave me as well. Gandhiji and him.

‘Brig’ and I were both Gorkhas, though he was born in Peshawar in a Sikh Punjabi family. He was also the husband of my dear friend, aunty ‘Bim’ and father of my friends Sonia and Arjun. But it was our Gorkha kinship which led Brig and me to spend great times together. He sought my company to talk about Gorkhas and I sought his to hear of the same. Though retired in 1971, Brig kept constant track of what was happening in the Gorkha world.

Many years ago, he was very upset and called me over. A Gorkha had stood first at the prestigious Sandhurst Military School, UK, but was granted commission only in the British-Gurkhas.
He was not given a place in the other British armed forces, because the
Anglo-Saxon British officers did not want to serve under aGorkha . Brig
was livid at the discrimination and wanted me to raise a hue and cry
about it. But I was not unable to find out more details nor was I in
anyGorkha network like Beacon to raise the subject.
Brigadier Pritam Pal Singh on his 90 birthday

Brigadier Pritam Pal Singh on his 90 birthday. Click on the image to enlarge

An excellent story teller, Brig’s repertoire of Gorkha
stories was fresh and never-ending. At a later stage of his career, he
was assigned to the Research and Development wing of the army. There he
worked hard at the emancipation of theGorkha soldiers. At one time, he lobbied hard to induct Gorkha soldiers for further training. Brig was livid when told by his British senior “Why lose a first class infantry for 2nd class artillery?”

Brig
shot off indignant letters to the army honchos, earning the wrath of
his seniors which is detrimental to an officer’s career. But he cared
two hoots. Today theGorkhas are ace-shooters, thanks to the faith of officers like Brig who firmly believed that the Gorkhas were capable of handling the highest technical and intelligence skills.

Once in operation at Rawalpindi, a group of Gorkha
soldiers were awestruck at seeing a plane for the first time. They
huddled for sometime trying to figure out how that thing flew. Finally
they asked Brig. He told them “Very simple. Clap your hands and say up,
and it goes up”. They then asked “How does it come down?” He answered
“Clap your hands and say down, and it comes down”. TheGorkha soldiers had a merry laugh at this and said even our ‘Sahib’ does not know. Such was the camaraderie they shared.

Some six years ago, Brig was recuperating from a heart operation but was very keen to attend a 5th Gorkha reunion out of town. Despite the family’s trepidation, not only did he insist on going “alone without your nagging aunty” as he told me, but apparently also spent the whole night dancing there. ‘Those fellows did not know how to dance the Gorkhali way, so I taught them” was his defiant retort.
Brave Gorkhali Brigadier Pritam Pal Singh expires on the 3rd of December 2008er

Brave Gorkhali Brigadier Pritam Pal Singh expires on the 3rd of December 2008. Click on the image to enlarge

In 1947, the British asked the Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the 5th Gorkha Rifles and the embassy at Oman. According to Brig, Nehru said, “You can take the embassy of Oman, but I will not give you the 5th Gorkha Rifles”. Brig was so ever proud of his 5th Gorkhas.



Brig was a treasure house of Gorkha
stories. He was forever writing and writing. Once I said “Brig, you are
writing with a one inch pencil stub!” He said “It does not matter, my
dear, I can still fill many more pages with ” Though even older than my
father, I could not keep pace with Brig, my friend’s energy and
constant push to keep theGorkha flag flying high. He was always urging me to write on the Gorkhas. My only regret is that I did not have the time to sit with him and work out that fantastic book on the Gorkhas
. He kept time and waited for me. But with my professional and personal
engagements, Brig I am sorry I could not complete that one project with
you. I hope you have written it all down and Sonia andArjun will be magnanimous enough to share it with me.
From Here.