Remembering the Bombay Blasts of 1993
Their effect was only slightly more pronounced than the effect of seeing a visibly shaken Narsimnha Rao fumbling with his face-off with the TV crews on the evening of 06 Dec 9, 1993. He was at a complete loss for the proper words to announce to a bewildered nation; and me having a lonely sun-downer all by myself, in the Embarkation Headquarters Officer’s Mess in Colaba, Cantonment, Mumbai; that frenzied mobs had pulled down the Babri Masjid, with their bare-hands mostly.
Those days, 2/4 Gorkha Rifles was billeted in the cantonment. It was being commanded by Col Arun Yadava. He often told me over rakshi-sodas that his paltan was primarily only meant for ‘aid to civil authority’. I never took that seriously, and told him that he should tell that to the marines as my grandmother had raised no stupid kids, because, in living memory there never had been any need for aid to civil authorities in Bombay, by the post-Independence Indian Army.
I, for one; therefore, used to repeatedly pull the CO’s leg, but he was always dead serious, despite the rum and the bonhomie of evenings with me, who was an old friend of his father’s, who was none other than Brigadier Hukam Singh ‘Kim’ Yadav (Retd); one-time ADC to Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma, the last British Viceroy of the Dominion of India. Kim wed Mountbatten’s English PRO, Ann Louisa Connorton. He was my first Brigade Commander; 68 (Independent) Infantry Brigade Group, that time located in Samba in the winters; and Khreuh in the Srinagar Valley the rest of the time. These frequent relocating had earned it the sobriquet of the ‘Bakarwal Brigade’ Hukum Singh was getting this formation to do a ‘chindits’; behind the Chinese Lines in The Aksai Chin, like Brigadier Orde Wingate did with his twice, in Japanese occupied Burma, behind theirs. General Sam Maneckshaw; MC (won fighting the Japanese in Burma) that time GOC in-C Western Command; used to visit us to ginger up our lot. He also happened to be the President of the Gorkha Brigade Club, hence, his visits were looked forward to on the Gurkha net. For this visit, the over zealous Adjutant; James Chanda; made my Commando Platoon, fall in ‘chindit-order’ every two hours for the whole night till we got it just right enough for him. This was to enable our ‘Old Man’, Lt Col R K Duleep Sinh of Rajpipla; who had been Mentioned-in-Dispatches, whilst serving with the ephemeral and wispy Jeep Recee Group in the face of the advancing Imperial Japanese 15 Army in the First Burma Campaign of the Second World War; to present us as piece de resistance, the following morning !
As I was saying, the effect was astounding. I was in my office on the fourth floor of the NCC Building in the Bombay Civil Courts Compound. The Gothic clock on the Rajabai Tower had just struck 2 p m, I think, and I was giving dictation to Mrs Kasbekar; the training clerk, when all of a sudden a big bang, as the first car-bomb planted in the Bombay Stock Exchange, just a few hundred meters away, blew up; soon to followed by the screeching and scurrying of police vans, ambulances and fire-brigades engines with blaring wind-horns on the DBN road, a stone’s throw away. My Group Commander, a six-footer strapping sardar fighter pilot, who had injured him self whilst bailing out over Pakistan when his MiG-21 flamed out, in the 1971 War; came rushing to my room all aghast at as to what had happened and wanted to push off to pick up his wife working in Churchgate, as the second bomb in the Air India Building went off with another door-rattling jar. We went up on the roof for a grand stand view and saw for our selves the thick pall of smoke emanating from the Air India offices, even as another blast resounded from some where in the direction of the Churchgate terminus.
Enough was enough, and it was decided to call it a day as a number of the ministerial staff wanted to rush off in search of their near and dear ones, as the telephones lines had started to come alive with the startling news, that, the Bombay blasts had taken a heavy toll of life and limb. I legged it too as was my wont, to the Regal BEST stand to take the 123 back to Afghan Church. I was in my Olive Greens, hence many of the public wanted to know exactly what was happening. I feigned ignorance but asked them to waylay any of the Army Shaktimans laden with 2/4 Gurkha’s jhonnies in battle gear; rattling through the Colaba Causeway even as early as this. Some Mumbaikars did manage to get one halted long enough to be only told ‘kunni’; which roughly equates to ‘I don’t know; I don’t care..( ..& will you please lay off and let me get on with the task ‘aid to civil authority in the instance case’ allotted to me..?) by the wooden-faced Gurkha sirdar-bahadur-sahib in the co-driver’s seat.
That evening, and many more, all the sundowners were on me.
Now those twin-blasts on 15 August 2003,…ha! I’m off drinks, don’t know where 2/4 GR is, but Colonel Yadav, is turning in his grave, having succumbed to the cirrhosis of the liver a few years back. I know, now, why my fastest friend; a former Colonel of the Four Gurkhas, now even the late Lt Gen Ashok Chaki; always alluded to Second Four as the bewra paltan. It is of some interest for some to know that, this very paltan made one (Major) John Masters world famous after he had published ‘ Bugles and a Tiger’ and ‘ The Road Past Mandalay’–two chronicles, that, have gone down in the annals of military folklore as the romanticized, and immensely popular, official military history of 2/4 G R, and sold like hot-cakes. I, for one, joined the Gurkhas only because of John Masters.
(The Writer Lt. Col A.K. ‘Sam’ Sharma is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla. Col Sharma was commissioned into the 3rd Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in Februray 1964, He retired in 1997 after serving for 33 years. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he holds a MSc Degree in Defence Studies from the Madras University. This officer has been on the instructional staff of two of Indian Army’s premiere training institutes: the College of Combat; now known as the War College; (Directing Staff Junior Command Wing-1972-1975) and the Infantry School ( Senior Instructor, Platoon Commander’s Wing—1984-87) both located in Mhow (MP); where he taught tactics at the unit and sub-unit levels to students, some of who were from friendly foreign armies. He has also served at the world- renowned Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Col Sharma can be contacted at aksh9@airtelbroadband.in)
4 Responses to “Remembering the Bombay Blasts of 1993”
By FIDSNS on Jan 25, 2008 | Reply
Retd Col Jayant Thapa, SC . 2/3 GR to Lt. Col (Retd) A.K Sharma
Your pce on the Mumbai blast was very interesting. Surprisingly, all of us get linked to such events in our own way! I was then GSO-1 (Int) at Secunderabad & had to dispatch plane loads of troops for the aftermath.
By Karen on Oct 3, 2008 | Reply
I think your article is most un-officerlike and you are most definitely unbecoming of a gentleman! How dare you have the audacity to speak of a fellow officer in such an irresponsible and malicious fashion! You are an embarrassment to our armed forces and an embarrassment to yourself!
The person you speak of so lightly is my father, not Col Arun Yadava, but Col Arun Yadav, an excellent an upstanding officer who spent his life in the services upholding every honour that the armed forces stand for. Following every protocol in the army’s role as not only defence but also as you so scornfully put it ‘aid to civil authority’.
I don’t even know you, how many evenings did you actually spend with my dad? Or did you just dream that up when you dreamed up his demise by cirrhosis of the liver?
What brings out your bitterness through your comments on him? The fact that while you were hightailing it home in a local transport, my father had already mobilised half the battalion to do its job at a time of crisis (in your words ‘even at this early hour’), or is it that you know you will never be half the man he was…and it kills you.
Don’t think that by picking on a person who is no longer alive, you can get away with it because he cannot defend himself. Your article has been not only malicious but also cowardly!
For the record, my father Colonel Arun Yadav was an Alumnus of the National Defence Academy, instructor weapons wing infantry school after service of just 4 yrs, from where he was directly posted to IMTRAT (Bhutan) as instructor, he did his Staff College in Malaysia and scored 2nd rank amongst all foreign officers and was mentioned in most local papers as one of most brilliant officers of the course, he served as Brigade Major, served as second in command of 2/4GR and commanded the battalion in Kargil as well as Mumbai, he then went on to take his Higher Command at Mhow and did extremely well in the course, at time of his sudden death (from brain haemorrhage) he was an Instructor in Staff College (Wellington).
I can only feel sorry for you as I see from your words that you seem to be a sad and complicated man who would like delude others into thinking that your life actually holds some meaning.
By Karen on Oct 3, 2008 | Reply
This is what my mother has to say to you, please read it in shame as your article broke her heart.
Dear Col Sharma,
It is a shame when one army officer belittles another, it is not forgivable when the person is living but to do so after he is dead is an act of pure cowardliness, you have not only slurred Arun’s name but also quoted Late Lt Gen Ashok Chaki, as making derogatory remarks about the 2/4 GR. one of the finest battalions in the Indian army.
As you were not a part of what was going on at the time I don’t see how you have a right to pass judgment on how Arun as the then CO conducted himself. It seems that you spent most of your time in a bar picking up little bits of information to keep yourself amused.
As for Arun’s death,amusing as it may sound to you, it was untimely and tragic and as most officers have told me a great loss to them, both as a friend and colleague.
Please do give a thought to the hurt you cause when you write articles such as the one you wrote.
Regards
Ingrid Yadav
w/o Late Col Arun Yadav.
By NishaYadav on Oct 3, 2008 | Reply
Colonel Sharma:
As you have seen from the several emails and blog comments that members of my family have sent you, we were angered by some of the references you made about my father in your article dated January 16, 2008.
I have read your article several times to make sure I discern your point of view – and I think I get it. If I were to summarize your article in a sentence it would be as follows: 2/4 GR did a great job of mobilizing forces and cleaning up the mess that was left in the aftermath of the Mumbai riots. I get this from your “all the sundowners are on me” remark. I believe the gentlemen in the offices of the GOC M&G Area and C-in-C Southern Command at the time would agree with you since they were full of praise for my father for his immediate action in the crisis. So, while your praise was well blanketed with flippant comments about my father and grandparents, I thank you for it.
My family and I however did not like your references to rampant alcoholism in 2/4 GR in general and in my household in particular — this sir is both incorrect and abhorrent. Yes he enjoyed a drink, as did you it appears. My father died at the age of 45 from brain hemorrhage – medical journals often attribute this condition to stress caused by work pressure, in my father’s case a very believable explanation given his stellar military record. General Naidu and General Arvind Sharma, both well regarded and highly decorated officers from the very same 2/4 GR you berated, were present when my dad was cremated with full military honor.
Your family is lucky that they can continue to enjoy your presence in their lives. Mine lives with memories of a brilliant, kind man who was taken away from us much before his time.
Your words caused much pain.
Nisha Yadav