Reservation for defence personnel in educational institutes

Antony for hike in defence quota in educational institutions
Tribune News Service Chandigarh, May 28, 2012
With the number of ex-servicemen and consequently their dependents increasing day by day, Defence Minister AK Antony has sought an increase in the number of seats reserved for wards of serving and the retired defence personnel in educational institutes.
In separate letters written to Minister of Health and Family Welfare Gulam Nabi Azad and Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Kapil Sibal, copies of which have been circulated to veterans’ associations for reference, Antony has pointed out that the present quota of defence seats is insufficient.
Antony has asked the health minister to consider increasing the existing quota to at least 100 seats in MBBS and 25 seats in BDS courses run in Central government medical colleges. At present, this quota is about 30 seats in MBBS and 2 or 3 seats in BDS courses. Similarly, the defence minister has requested the HRD minister to reserve at least two seats in all educational institutes and universities to effectively address the aspirations of the wards of the armed forces personnel.
Antony has stated that it has been experienced in many places that the provisions of reservation for wards of defence personnel have not been fully implemented, thereby defeating the very purpose of supporting them in their education. Further, the difficult service conditions in which wards of defence personnel grow have a bearing on their education too as they are often deprived of guidance and hence they require the government’s additional support.
Antony for hike in defence quota in educational institutions

The Army Wife

The good Lord was creating
A model for military wives
and was into his sixth day of overtime
when an angel appeared.
She said, “Lord, you seem to be having
a lot of trouble with this one
What’s wrong with the standard model?”
The Lord replied,
“Have you seen the specs of this order?
She has to be completely independent,
possess the qualities of both mother and father
be a perfect hostess for four to forty
with a hours notice, run on black coffee
handle every imaginable without a manual
be able to carry on cheerfully,
even if she is pregnant and has the flu,
and she must have six pair of hands.”
The angel shook her head
“Six pair of hands? No way!”
The Lord continued, “Don’t worry,
we will make other military wives to help her
And we will give her an unusually strong heart
so it can swell with pride
in husbands achievements,
sustain the pain of separation
beat soundly when it is overworked and tired
and be large enough to say
“I understand” when she doesn’t
and “I love you” regardless
“Lord”, said the angel, touching his arm gently,
“Go to bed and get some rest,
You can finish this tomorrow”
“I can’t stop now,” Said the Lord
I’m so close to creating something unique
Already this model heals herself when she is sick
can put up six unexpected guest for the weekend
wave good-bye to her husband from a pier
a runway or depot and understand
why it’s important the he leave
The angel circled the model of the military wife
looked at it closely and sighed
“It looks fine, but it’s too soft”
“She may look soft”, replied the Lord
“but she has the strength of a lion
you would not believe what she can endure”
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her fingers
across the cheek of the Lord’s creation
“There’s a leak,” she announced
“Something is wrong with the construction
I’m not surprised that it has cracked.
“You are trying to put too much into this model”
The Lord appeared offended
at the angel’s lack of confidence
“What you see is not a leak,” he said,
“It’s a tear”
A tear” What is it here for?” asked the angel
The Lord replied, “It’s for joy, sadness, pain
disappointment, loneliness, pride and dedication
to all the values that she
and her husband hold dear.”

click here to read more inspiring Military Poems

Lt Col arrested for posting illegal content over Internet

NDTV Correspondent, Friday May 7, 2010, Mumbai
A serving Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jagmohan Balbir Singh, has been arrested in Mumbai for disseminating child pornography over the Internet.

Forty two-year-old Singh was arrested by the Cyber Cell in Mumbai on Thursday and will stay in police custody till May 12.

Singh allegedly posted and downloaded pornographic photos of foreign children between the ages of 3 and 10 on the internet. The German Federal Bureau spotted the photos on a child pornography site and traced the pictures to India. Interpol was alerted which then passed on the information to India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) who passed it onto the Mumbai Crime Branch.

The Mumbai police has taken two hard drives from Singh's house as evidence against him.

A spokesperson for the Army said Singh has been on study leave, and is currently not attached to any unit. He also confirmed that the Army will apply for bail so that it can deal with Singh's case.
Lt Col arrested for child pornography

What is Hacking and Phishing attacks?: Click here for information and prevention

Lessons Learnt: There is so much of illegal content and traffic on the Internet. ESM should not involve or be a party to chain letters, spam and fwd messages. Do keep your email box free of spam. Visiting Adult sites freely will upload virus and worms which enables the computer to be hacked. Keep all security features of the OS operational on daily basis. Hacked PCs enable others to operate your computer remotely without being aware of it. It is likely many retired/ serving officers are not aware of hacking virus. One should have legal Operating System and not a Pirated version as it is very easy to hack a pirated Operating System than a legal one.
Lastly family members and peer groups are important pressure groups to ensure men do not fall victim to porn addiction- as at times it can become more dangerous than alcohol addiction. Generally soldiers posted to NE states are more prone to porn addiction due to frustrating living environment and lack of entertainment facilities and recreation. The Military needs to fight sex and porn addiction with same fever and vigour as combating alcohol and drug related addictions. The disease can prove devastating if not curbed and nipped at the bud. Curiousity is one sex gratification another but addiction is a disease and needs treatment and counselling.

Reunion and parting are emotional experiences Soldiers endure

WHEN WE LEFT THEM BEHIND
The other day, while surfing, the channels my attention got arrested on the scene of the 70s movie VAJETE where the son, Angad (Kunal Kapoor), a flight cadet is leaving for his advance training. The scene has the first class compartment in the back ground with the parents, Shashi Kapoor, the father and Rekha the mother are facing the son. All professionals and masters at emoting. the father, composed with a stoical continence hiding the turmoil inside, the mother has her face depicting the whole gamut, overwhelmed with a plethora of diverse emotions: pride in her son, her affection for him, pain of looming separation also apprehension and uncertainty of the future, while the son is torn between feelings of leaving the parents and the excitement of joining his comrades soon.

The scene then cuts away to the sitting room of the parents in Bombay. Both a bit distraught: as Kapoor hands over a coffee mug to Rekha who breaks down in a flood of tears with the gates of pent-up emotions opening wide. ‘Let me Cry, Let me Cry,’ she wails, between her uncontrolled sobs as Kapoor tries to comfort her unsuccessfully.

The scene did hit some emotional cord deep inside reminding once again that the fate of the servicemen is that they have to leave the loved ones behind more often than not for the frequent calls of duty.

On such occasions, overwhelmed and preoccupied with my own feelings, emotions, excitements and apprehensions, I was only mildly conscious of the turmoil going on inside of those whom I was left behind over and over again many times over a span of 30 years of service in the Army...

Possibly the first time such a situation arose was when I left along with my brother for Lucknow. I do not recall the occasion but I must have been too excited of the prospects ahead of me of joining the university, to notice the feelings or emotions of my parents.

Things started becoming clear and more specific beginning with my receiving call for training at the erstwhile NDA now known as IMA in 1954.

`Today I have sold my son!’ exclaimed my mother with tears in her eyes; a simple, affectionate and loving lady from a village. My father had just signed the bond required before a cadet could report at IMA. The truth of what my mother had said dawned on me now and I realised that one has to pay a heavy price for wearing ‘OG’.

I could only wave half heartedly at my father that day. Unaware as to his feelings at that time and on my way to Kathgodam from Naniatal from where I was to catch the train to Dehradun. He was too busy controlling an incipient riot-like situation on the road down with the ongoing strike by the roadways employees and waved me on to push ahead quickly without stopping.

Every time I left my parents behind to report for duty, I would look back, at the threshold of the house, to notice a melancholy demeanour and a faraway look in my mother’s eyes as if she was trying to discern what lay in future albeit a “matter of fact” demeanour on my father’s as he came to see me off on the bus stand or the railway station as the case may be.

Later another set of those being “left behind” were formed when I met my future wife Rosy. She along with the family had come to see me off at the Dehradun bus stand. As the bus started off towards Saharanpur Rosy was hidden from my eyes but not from my mind. I was in a dream, lost in my thoughts of the short time spent with her, totally bereft of any awareness or knowledge of her feeling at that time; those that I was to learn much later, post her demise, from her jottings in my diary.

The picture of hurt in Jeet’s eyes, Jeet as I called her post marriage, and her pained expression accompanied me all the way back to Pathankot to join duty, when I had to leave immediately after the delivery of our daughter and also later when, like a good soldier, I abandoned my wife of less than two years and the child of nine months or so to join the unit by 29th October 1959 in far away Assam. ‘Abandoned’ was the word she used then and again many times later to remind me of her mental state on being left behind. What she was feeling at that moment of separation, of being torn from the father’s lap, in her child’s mind and limited experience of world is more difficult to describe or visualise.

The sad lament of the engine's whistle more so as heard in summer nights while sleeping on the terrace of our village home, had a lot more to do with both Jeet and me in later life. It would be reminding us night after night of my impending departure, causing so much pain, by the same train till one late night I would leave her behind tearing my-self from the last embrace, words unsaid to answer the call of Army. I can only visualize her feelings at that juncture. However, I was utterly miserable walking in that dark night, each step taking me farther and farther away from her, silent and lost in my own thoughts with no words being exchanged with the person accompanying me to the station to see me off.

The tenure in Armament Research and Development (ARDE) was immensely enjoyable and satisfying and of a settled life. Then I took the risk of changing track once again; changing from a scientist to a soldier once again. I left for the long journey from Poona, in the last week of December 1970, to the far east of India, this time to Kalimpong in West Bengal. By this time the children were of an age that they would have experienced their own feelings on the parting.

These partings and reunions happen off and on at varying intervals during the service career. A fate ordained for those who serve and their families, so others can sleep in peace and in the comfort of the feeling of security, unaware of the traumatic experience at every of one of those frequent partings.
Brig Lakshman Singh (Retd)

Passing the Baton

Dear Friends,
In a few days, I will turn 68. Admiral Tahiliani, whose word I value, tells me that this is no age. But it is just two short of the "three scores and ten" prescribed by the holy Bible for us human beings. I also find that nearly one-third of my course mates are gone. In the last few months two of my contemporaries dropped like the ripe mangoes on the tree in the backyard of our house, without any notice at all. Even this would have made no difference to me, but an event occurred last week. It shook me.
I had gone to the dentist for some fillings. The waiting room was full, with no vacant seat. As I entered, I noticed a lady who resembled the mother of an officer who was my adjutant thirty years ago. While I was trying to place her, she got up and said, "Uncle, how are you?" And that was a body blow to my ego. Soon, some more people got up to make space for me. I got a chair to sit down, but my tooth ache turned into a heart ache. How I wish the Admiral was there to see my plight!
On my way back, I picked up a few books on "how to make your own Will" and within the next three days, I had learnt all that there is to know on this business of 'passing the baton'.
I then jotted down the points in the form of a paper which is attached for the benefit of those who may like to browse through it. It has been seen by three lawyers, including Maj Navdeep, and I have it on their authority that the paper has no technical errors. I plan to include it in a forthcoming book, and should you have any additional questions, do let me know.
With best wishes,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh (Retd)
Guide for making a Will