(This
article is more like a grandfather telling story to his grandson. The story
which is not found in the books but borrowed from the pages of past. It is a
story of a grand old man from Bom Busty, Kalimpong, a retired Gorkha soldier, a
World War II veteran, a father, a grandfather and a great grandfather. This is
the story of lateRudramaniPradhan, who passed away on November 26, 2006. The stories were
recorded on my two days stay with him at Kalimpong Hospital.)
Another
memorable incident in his staying out at Rangoon was meeting a young aircraft
pilot from Sikkim. The crown prince of Sikkim was fighting for British army in
the war.Ajatalked of a simple, down to earth
persona of the Crown Prince who was around 24 years old, a nice centre forward
football player and was more comfortable mingling with the army men in lower
ranks as compared to higher officials.Aja
narrated an incident he had heard on the battle front about the Crown
Prince at a small remote village in Sikkim. It was in one of the hunting
session along the jungle of Mamring near Rongli. The Crown Prince had got tired
from long hours of hunting when he came across a small rutted hut that looked
more of a pig sty. An old woman who happened to be of a lower caste was frying
corn of maize. Finding a royal guest in his small hut she offered him torn mat
made from straw, some fruits and fried maize corn. The Crown Prince ate the offerings
and before leaving the place took out a small note book and asked her name. The
old women was surprised and scared, with her quivering voice uttered her name.
The Prince noted down her name and went off. Later on it was informed to the
old woman that her entire revenue dues towards Royal Palace were pardoned. Such
was the quality of the Crown Prince toldaja.
In another incident a high officer in Royal army was found guilty beating up a
poor peasant for unknown reason. The officer was summoned to the Durbar and the
Crown Prince himself ordered the officer to take off his clothes and punished
him with 50 strikes on his back with a whip.
It
was duringaja’s change
shift work at Rangoon Petrol Pump, it was learnt that the Crown Prince of
Sikkim had a fatal air crash and died when he was taking off in his aircraft.
The sudden death of the Crown Prince created a furor among the many Gorkha
soldiers.Ajawent on to say there were ten white
soldiers and ten 13 Gorkha Rifle soldiers (that had 3 soldier from Nepal and 7
from Darjeeling districts and Sikkim) including himself who were selected to
carry the dead body of the Crown Prince to Sikkim. The dead body of the Crown
Prince reached Dum-Dum airport by a direct army plane from Rangoon. A special
bogie of a train was awaiting them at Calcutta that made the trip till
Siliguri, mussedajain his soft voice. They had reached
Siliguri around 3.30 pm. A large crowd along with royal families, high
dignitaries and others including the royal family of Kalimpong Raja S.T. Dorjee
were at the railway station to receive the dead body of Crown Prince. The
Choygal (King of Sikkim) was not present but his sons were there at Siliguri.
Seven Sikkim Nationalized Transport (known popularly as SNT) buses were
brought. SNT buses were then recently started. The corpse of the dead Crown
Prince was kept in Deorali Gompa (monastery) where no one was allowed to have
the last look at the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was cremated at Deorali and
a chorten (monument) was also constructed on his name. Seven day national
mourning was observed in Sikkim. After staying for ten days in Sikkim, ajaand his fellow regiments returned to
Rangoon.
After
his tenure at Rangoon, 13 Gorkha Rifles moved to different countries of
Thailand, Java, Hong Kong, Italy and other European countries. In one such
incident in Italy the 13 Gorkha Rifles army men were invited to a feast in a
local village. It was believed that the men from mountains eat grass and in the
villageajaand his fellow army men found radish
along with leaf and few local green grasses in the meal.Ajachuckled at me and added they had no
choice other than to eat it raw. The life in war fronts was very difficult. The
soldiers were deprived of waters for days and on few occasions they even had to
chew there sweated army leather shoes to quench their thirst, he recollected.
When
asked about the most beautiful county he had visited, he would reply without a
second thought…its Greenland. When asked why it is named so he told me
Greenland is an island with snow covered mountains and large ocean everywhere.
When the sun’s ray first touched the water the green colour is reflected, such
that the green reflection is reflected everywhere. So it is called Greenland,
he grinned.
I
was about to hear one of a rare incidents though never recorded in pages ofhistory from aja, he told me it was in
14thAugust, 1947 at
Town Hall, Kalimpong a Pakistani flag was hoisted just to find in the evening
that the districts of Darjeeling was not part of Pakistan but it belonged to
India. Same incident too happened in other places of Darjeeling and Kurseong.
So the next day that was on 15thof
Augustan Indian tri colour flag
was hoisted. It was a huge confusion then, said aja. He added though he never
saw the Pakistani flag being flying at Town Hall but he had heard it, on that
day he was at Bom Busty. He used to have a nice collection of George V and
George VI coins but after Independence rumour ran high that British coins would
remain invalid so one day he threw away a bag of old British coins on the maize
field just to find that none ofthem
was to be found the next day around. Aja regretted he should not have done it.
In
his later yearsajaremembered being at Gangtok during the
pro-democracy movement in Sikkim when he was caught along with thousands of
other protestors and kept captive at Pallor Stadium. He persisted that he
belonged from Kalimpong but the CRPF (Central Reserve Protection Force) were
not interested on his words, they replied all Nepalese are to be kept captive
wherever you belonged to. For 15 days protestors were not allowed to move from Pallor
Stadium. The entire day they had to chant “long live Indira Gandhi”. After
democracy was restored in Sikkim, everyone was freed.Another interesting thingajatold me was about the famous
brotherhood treaty ‘paper’ signed between Lepcha and Bhutia. He told till mid
80s he had heard the original document was kept in “private office” at Gangtok.
It is noteworthy that there is nowhere about of the document of the famous
treaty and where this “private office” is situated at Gangtok sounds pretty
exciting.
Married
to HiramayaPradhan, he had two son
and five daughters and a dozen grandchildren and great grandchildren. He had
many anecdotes to be written but that ended along with him. What I collected
from him in two days is a merely a small part of that lost knowledge house. Aja
wanted to me to write a small story of his experience. Though his wish gets
unfulfilled, I place here what he told me as he wanted these anecdotes to be
heard by others too.
Culture Magazine
(This
article is more like a grandfather telling story to his grandson. The story
which is not found in the books but borrowed from the pages of past. It is a
story of a grand old man from Bom Busty, Kalimpong, a retired Gorkha soldier, a
World War II veteran, a father, a grandfather and a great grandfather. This is
the story of lateRudramaniPradhan, who passed away on November 26, 2006. The stories were
recorded on my two days stay with him at Kalimpong Hospital.)
Another
memorable incident in his staying out at Rangoon was meeting a young aircraft
pilot from Sikkim. The crown prince of Sikkim was fighting for British army in
the war.Ajatalked of a simple, down to earth
persona of the Crown Prince who was around 24 years old, a nice centre forward
football player and was more comfortable mingling with the army men in lower
ranks as compared to higher officials.Aja
narrated an incident he had heard on the battle front about the Crown
Prince at a small remote village in Sikkim. It was in one of the hunting
session along the jungle of Mamring near Rongli. The Crown Prince had got tired
from long hours of hunting when he came across a small rutted hut that looked
more of a pig sty. An old woman who happened to be of a lower caste was frying
corn of maize. Finding a royal guest in his small hut she offered him torn mat
made from straw, some fruits and fried maize corn. The Crown Prince ate the offerings
and before leaving the place took out a small note book and asked her name. The
old women was surprised and scared, with her quivering voice uttered her name.
The Prince noted down her name and went off. Later on it was informed to the
old woman that her entire revenue dues towards Royal Palace were pardoned. Such
was the quality of the Crown Prince toldaja.
In another incident a high officer in Royal army was found guilty beating up a
poor peasant for unknown reason. The officer was summoned to the Durbar and the
Crown Prince himself ordered the officer to take off his clothes and punished
him with 50 strikes on his back with a whip.
It
was duringaja’s change
shift work at Rangoon Petrol Pump, it was learnt that the Crown Prince of
Sikkim had a fatal air crash and died when he was taking off in his aircraft.
The sudden death of the Crown Prince created a furor among the many Gorkha
soldiers.Ajawent on to say there were ten white
soldiers and ten 13 Gorkha Rifle soldiers (that had 3 soldier from Nepal and 7
from Darjeeling districts and Sikkim) including himself who were selected to
carry the dead body of the Crown Prince to Sikkim. The dead body of the Crown
Prince reached Dum-Dum airport by a direct army plane from Rangoon. A special
bogie of a train was awaiting them at Calcutta that made the trip till
Siliguri, mussedajain his soft voice. They had reached
Siliguri around 3.30 pm. A large crowd along with royal families, high
dignitaries and others including the royal family of Kalimpong Raja S.T. Dorjee
were at the railway station to receive the dead body of Crown Prince. The
Choygal (King of Sikkim) was not present but his sons were there at Siliguri.
Seven Sikkim Nationalized Transport (known popularly as SNT) buses were
brought. SNT buses were then recently started. The corpse of the dead Crown
Prince was kept in Deorali Gompa (monastery) where no one was allowed to have
the last look at the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince was cremated at Deorali and
a chorten (monument) was also constructed on his name. Seven day national
mourning was observed in Sikkim. After staying for ten days in Sikkim, ajaand his fellow regiments returned to
Rangoon.
After
his tenure at Rangoon, 13 Gorkha Rifles moved to different countries of
Thailand, Java, Hong Kong, Italy and other European countries. In one such
incident in Italy the 13 Gorkha Rifles army men were invited to a feast in a
local village. It was believed that the men from mountains eat grass and in the
villageajaand his fellow army men found radish
along with leaf and few local green grasses in the meal.Ajachuckled at me and added they had no
choice other than to eat it raw. The life in war fronts was very difficult. The
soldiers were deprived of waters for days and on few occasions they even had to
chew there sweated army leather shoes to quench their thirst, he recollected.
When
asked about the most beautiful county he had visited, he would reply without a
second thought…its Greenland. When asked why it is named so he told me
Greenland is an island with snow covered mountains and large ocean everywhere.
When the sun’s ray first touched the water the green colour is reflected, such
that the green reflection is reflected everywhere. So it is called Greenland,
he grinned.
I
was about to hear one of a rare incidents though never recorded in pages ofhistory from aja, he told me it was in
14thAugust, 1947 at
Town Hall, Kalimpong a Pakistani flag was hoisted just to find in the evening
that the districts of Darjeeling was not part of Pakistan but it belonged to
India. Same incident too happened in other places of Darjeeling and Kurseong.
So the next day that was on 15thof
Augustan Indian tri colour flag
was hoisted. It was a huge confusion then, said aja. He added though he never
saw the Pakistani flag being flying at Town Hall but he had heard it, on that
day he was at Bom Busty. He used to have a nice collection of George V and
George VI coins but after Independence rumour ran high that British coins would
remain invalid so one day he threw away a bag of old British coins on the maize
field just to find that none ofthem
was to be found the next day around. Aja regretted he should not have done it.
In
his later yearsajaremembered being at Gangtok during the
pro-democracy movement in Sikkim when he was caught along with thousands of
other protestors and kept captive at Pallor Stadium. He persisted that he
belonged from Kalimpong but the CRPF (Central Reserve Protection Force) were
not interested on his words, they replied all Nepalese are to be kept captive
wherever you belonged to. For 15 days protestors were not allowed to move from Pallor
Stadium. The entire day they had to chant “long live Indira Gandhi”. After
democracy was restored in Sikkim, everyone was freed.Another interesting thingajatold me was about the famous
brotherhood treaty ‘paper’ signed between Lepcha and Bhutia. He told till mid
80s he had heard the original document was kept in “private office” at Gangtok.
It is noteworthy that there is nowhere about of the document of the famous
treaty and where this “private office” is situated at Gangtok sounds pretty
exciting.
Married
to HiramayaPradhan, he had two son
and five daughters and a dozen grandchildren and great grandchildren. He had
many anecdotes to be written but that ended along with him. What I collected
from him in two days is a merely a small part of that lost knowledge house. Aja
wanted to me to write a small story of his experience. Though his wish gets
unfulfilled, I place here what he told me as he wanted these anecdotes to be
heard by others too.
