Sam Bahadur remembered by a Signal Officer

My dear Chander,
I have appended below, just a few personal memories on my brief, but most significant (to me), contact with the late Field Marshal Sam “Bahadur” Manekshaw when he was Chief of Army Staff at Army HQ New Delhi.
Cheers!
Ossie

I got to know The Chief General Sam Manekshaw on a personal basis during my last year at Sigs-9, Army HQ, just prior to leaving for England, in 1971. He had a complex audio system– speech and music– installed in his bedroom suite at his official residence in New Delhi. However, something went wrong with it– an intermittent fault– and no one was keen to try and fix it, lest they mess things up and incur his wrath!

I had just completed the Technical Staff College Course– my boss, the Signal Officer in Chief, volunteered my services. It was well known that I couldn’t resist a challenge like this, being an avid radio ham!! When I turned up at the august residence and was taken to the Chief’s quarters, I was stunned with the amount of foreign made electronic gear he had around the place. The problem was simple though– a crackle which appeared intermittently while he was listening to his favourite music – an obvious case of a faulty connector. However, when I tried to get at the wiring and connectors, he wouldn’t let me get anywhere near for fear of my messing it up! So, I went back to my boss and asked for a colleague, Major Nandrajog– an equally brash electronics fanatic– to accompany me on my next visit to the Chief’s quarters! The plan was that one of us would distract him while the other would get at the connectors– but no dice. He wouldn’t have it! So we asked him for all the technical literature he had and we spread it out all over the floor of his large bedroom suite. We then began crawling about, following the circuit diagrams and speculating where the problem could be – ignoring him completely. He was very surprised– and impressed– that we could follow the circuit diagrams!! He then relented and gave us a free hand! We soon located the offending connector, but since an original replacement was not available, I had to make one up with stuff I bought from a shop in Old Delhi. This sorted out the problem– and we went on and checked the entire system up– this pleased him no end!!

“However, about the same time, I had decided to apply for premature retirement– through the proper channels– to be able to join my wife, Helen, and the girls, who were already in England, by this time. I didn’t mention this to the Chief! One day, out of the blue, his ADC appeared at my Mess in a staff car, saying the Chief had summoned me to his quarters– apparently my application must have reached his desk!! After giving me a right old rollicking about it all, he wanted to know who would look after his precious equipment if I wasn’t there to do so any more! I convinced him that the colleague I had brought along with me initially, Major Nandrajog, was fully capable of handling the situation. This mollified him a bit. A few days later I was once again summoned to appear before him– but this time he presented me with an ornamental Khukri in a silver encrusted scabbard and a bottle of whiskey– and wished me well! A few days later, I was in England, when all hell broke loose on the Eastern front– the birth pangs of a new nation– Bangladesh!!

“And now the Grand Old Man is no more! I have often wished I had had the opportunity to serve directly under him in an official capacity– but then, perhaps, this informal contact that I did have, was for the best!!”

Maj OA Pereira (Retd)
United Kingdom