Sitting in his cosy home at Fatorda, South Goa and getting nostalgic, Lt Col J R F D’Souza (Retd) reminisces about his 28 eventful years in the army from the day he joined as a cadet at the Officers Training Academy in 1967 until he retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1996 at the age of 52. Today even after two decades of retirement he still feels the thrill of those unforgettable days. Now he is writing a book that will recount his wartime bravery.
“I want my book to serve as an inspirational message for GenNext - to be a soldier in the Indian Army fighting for our nation on the battlefield with pride,” D’Souza states. And as he is brushing up his memories of the past and documenting the inputs for his upcoming book, he is also anxiously looking forward to meeting his seniors and friends in June next year, in Goa. “We are celebrating the golden jubilee of our (SSRC-5) batch trained at the Officers Training Academy (OTA), Madras and commissioned as officers into the Indian Army’s Maratha Light Infantry 50 years ago, in 1968. In Goa, we shall relive history and enjoy looking back,” states D’Souza.
His journey began a long time ago. “I joined as Second Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion of Maratha Light Infantry Regiment in Nagaland and my first posting was at Nagaland when counterinsurgency was at its peak,” recalls D’Souza, who with 120 men has to deal with confrontations every month during his year-and-a-half long posting on the Burma border. Thereafter he moved to various locations, each adding a unique experience to the diary of his life. He did intelligence duties in the same area where he was in 1971 war, served at the Tibet border in UP which the Chinese claimed as their territory and every now and then would visit and disappear. He served where the British drew the MacMohan Line between China and India. He was posted from Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh, then in Arunachal Pradesh and the Wallong area where Chinese had penetrated in 1962 and later withdrew. D’Souza also participated in a peace mission in Sri Lanka representing the army on INS Viraat of Indian Navy. Each of these unique experiences are imprinted vividly on his mind.
D’Souza’s postings were many, from minus 52 degree temperatures in the freezing Kargil sector to the blazing hot 42 degrees in the Rajasthan. In times of war he crossed borders and in times of peace he stayed close to borders, guarding the thin, invisible line that divided India and seven other nations, not all of them friendly. “On the mountain tops, it’s an invisible line, beginning from the peak dividing the watershed area (where the water falls from the mountain on either side) - this line is supposed to be the borderline, which we, as soldiers, have to guard. I recall the fierce war that we fought in 1971 and my peacetime postings where we could live with families.
“Our seniors made us work beyond capability, pushing us to the wall and extracting the best out of us. At the same time they held our hands tight and stood by us in thick and thin and gave us the credit of all the good we did, taking the blame on them if we, by chance, erred. That was the spirit with which we worked together. It has created a strong, unshakable bond between each of us; we were 526 in our batch of SSRC-5, shares D’Souza who is looking forward to meet those among the 526 who have made it to this day.
“Goa will witness this grand celebration,” quips D’Souza who has been given the responsibility to arrange the mega event. “Since I am the only person from this batch who lives in Goa, hence the responsibility to shoulder the arrangement for this gala get-together here next year - on June 23, 2018, to be precise,” says this retired army officer.
The 2018 anniversary will see the batch mates coming from all over the world - UK, USA, Canada and Australia too with their families. D’Souza is part of a WhatsApp group of around 100 colleagues, all of who are volunteering to find those who are not in touch to invite them for the 2018 get-together where old ties would be refreshed.
“Those were the days…!” exclaims D’Souza not repenting for even a second his decision to be an army man. “In our days, there was a craze to join army. There was a demand for such adventurous jobs. For 500 vacancies, 50,000 recruiters would appear for the interview. It was considered to be an honour to serve the nation and lay down one’s life while fighting for it,” he recalls. D’Souza who joined the army in 1967 even before he graduated, is saddened by the fact that the drive to join army is not seen in today’s youth. Admitting that the charm is lost for reasons more than one, he does not entirely blame the youth for their lack of interest.
“It is due to lack of parental guidance and their absence of knowledge about the avenues available in Army, Navy and Air Force. It is the ignorance and general apathy towards such high risk jobs that keep today’s youth away from seeking them,” reasons out D’Souza pointing out to a handful of states that still send their youth to the border. “Few charged states like Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan and UP still lead in opting for high-risk jobs, unlike our own Goa where the number is minuscule,” he asserts. According to him the Goans who migrated from Goa and settled elsewhere were the ones who took up jobs in the army and not the ones who spent their entire life in Goa.
Originally from Aldona, the D’Souza family had settled in Belgaum because of the better educational system there. His grandfather came to Belgaum to educate his three sons who also settled there with their families. As a kid D’Souza watched young officers moving around in the area and civilians showing lot of respect to them. Fascinated by the honour they received he was compelled to take up a career in the army which made his family proud. Life is full of coincidences “ D’Souza joined the army from Belgaum in 1967 and his last posting was also in Belgaum from where he retired in 1996. A long and arduous journey indeed, but one that he wears on his sleeve with immense pride.
