Vegetarian Milieu with General Thimayya

The Rover is a commander’s wireless link to the world when he is moving. I had the opportunity to be the rover detachment commander, for the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen Thimayya, holidaying at Manali in October 1957. It was the high point of my service life as junior officer-a Lieutenant with just two years of service.

Although I was independent administratively, I was fortunate to be invited, rather ordered to sit on the table with the General, his gracious wife and vivacious daughter, also present were his Military Assistant and the ADC.

I had the privilege to see his many faceted personality at close quarters. His compassion for a junior officer, the pretended hen- pecked husband the obviously doting father, enjoying being the butt of jokes from the two of them. The same person changing to the steel man of a Chief of the Army Staff, the moment we arrived back at Pathankot, where he was to address the Garrison troops. The aura of the personality, so visible that I felt the impact even from afar. Seeing him now, from such a distance I felt lost, having been so to say, part of the family for a fortnight.

How I got inducted in the family deserves telling. On way to Manali the General’s caravan stopped for tea. Each one of us selects a boulder on the banks of the fast flowing Beas to seat ourselves. Naturally I had selected the one farthest from the General’s group. Possibly that was the reason he noticed me, the only officer present who was not part of his group. Beckoned, as I approached him, he shot a question at me ‘ was I in contact with SPUTNIK’, the Russian Satellite launched a few days earlier and its beeping, as it orbited round the earth, the talk of the town. I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind ‘Sir, you provide me with the frequency and I will make contact’. Mrs. Thimayya kindly offered me a couple of sandwiches, with what I thought was Tomato fillings. A few bites later being a vegetarian, I realised that it tasted different. though I was not aware as to how Ham tasted I did released that it tasted different, totally confused with the turn of events I just did not know what to do and the best course appeared to somehow gulp them down. The Generals wife, being a perceptive lady, had sensed my predicament and throughout our stay at Manali she ensured that there was a vegetarian dish on the table. On the return journey, we once again stopped on the banks of River Beas this time for lunch.. Now it was Mrs. Thimayya’s turn to feel embarrassed; the packed lunch consisted of Roast Chicken and Potatoes. However, by now I had been fully domesticated and was quite happy to pick the Roast Potatoes gingerly from the Chicken and somehow push them down, one at a time, at the same time managing not to show my dilemma. This was the least I could do for all the consideration shown to me all these days.

This was my last and only willing encounter with non-vegetarian food. Some how, I have managed to remain a vegetarian during 30 years in the Army, even at times when I was with-out food for days together especially during the Sino -Indian conflict in 1962. Possibly there was no General’s wife to offer me the Khichari prepared by my Jawans to which they had added a bird from a near-by bush.

Brigadier Lakshman Singh VSM (Retd)