Transition from Gun Wielder to Pen Wielder
By Colonel Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them’—Vladimir Nabakov
There are certain similarities in functioning of our body parts the way they become center stage in pushing forward a particular profession. The ‘Index finger’ & thumb of our hand are two such body parts that have been the lynch pins in professions as diverse as writing and wielding of a gun. Even to a layman it would be quiet interesting to know that it is the so called ‘Index finger’ in conjunction with the adjoining thumb that holds the pen in an upright position while writing, as has been the wont of these two parts to hold the pistol grip of a rifle or pistol /weapon while firing. Take out even one of these two parts ( thumb) and we have the famous story from Mahabharata of ‘Eklavya’ repeating itself all over again who was denied his rightful place in the comity of world class shooters by Dronaacharya.
Index finger also referred as the forefinger, pointer finger, trigger finger, digitus secondus is the second digit of a human hand which has been calling the shots in religions (read Islam) that signifies ‘Tawhid’ i.e. oneness of God, as also in archaeo astronomy and finally in holding a firm grip over a pen. Can a writer or a shooter ever think of wielding a pen or a gun minus his index finger? Extrapolating the importance of the index finger in as diverse professions as armed forces to that of the world of writing, one would be stunned by the way both of these professions are inadvertently linked to each other by the commonality of this body part. It is as if this cross linkage transcends even the mental firmament of protagonists of these two diverse professions linking them in an indirect manner. In other words an army man can equally well qualify in the world of writing since he has gained mastery over his index finger that has been doing thinking for him now after having gained mastery over the profession of arms. Something of a similar transition happened with me few years back when I seamlessly did a farewell to arms only to slip into the world of letters.
Ideas are very important to the shaping of a society. In fact, they are more powerful than bombings or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without any limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments or armies cannot. Though the world of letters has undergone a sea change in an age that is dominated by a digitized world having cogs like whatsapp, twitter, instagram ruling the hearts and minds of the people cutting across country affiliations all is not lost. Writing has suddenly become fashionable with people even in their teens coming up with marvelous collection of books that has become all too obvious in many literary fairs all over the globe in recent times. All this is happening in an age where the actual numbers of writers are on a decline. How different it was when about 4 and half decades back I had just finished schooling and was dreaming of becoming something in life with writer too on my radar of thinking. There was nothing fashionable of becoming a writer then, you were just a byline (not even a face) and if you failed you might well have ended as a nonentity.
A writer is a specialist at using words. To quote the above mentioned statement in a more figurative manner—‘Writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers’. Since this write up of mine is particularly focused towards armed forces men becoming successful writers won’t it be prudent enough to pepper this article with a liberal dosage of such successful armed forces men and women who scripted success with a capital ‘S’ in the world of letters so that budding writers could draw inspiration from such human endeavours? Think of all the great successful writers who once donned the KHAKIS. Herbert Earnest Bates served in the RAF (Royal air force) during the 2WW and wrote several fine novels based on his experience –‘Fair stood the wind for France’, ‘The Purple plain & The Jaracanda tree etc. John Masters served in the Indian army and wrote on top to become a specialist in churning out best sellers including a ‘Memoir of his army life’, ‘Bugles and a tiger’ etc. TE Lawrence who fought with the Arabs in their revolt against the Turks during the 2WW gave the literary world a masterpiece in the form of ‘Seven pillars of wisdom’. Nearer home Sir Winston Churchill the war time PM of England once as a young captain stationed at Bangalore in India went on to become a great writer, writing a 6- volume history of 2WW and ended his literary forays with a 4- volume history of English speaking people.
But not every Khaki donning gentleman could create ripples in the literary world. Who has not heard the name of ‘Edgar Allen Poe’? Having served in the US army for 2 years as an ordinary soldier before getting admitted as a trainee cadet at ‘West point’ he was got thrown out of the academy for indiscipline, neglect of duty and general dissipation. Turning the gaze to our sub –continent, we find very good authors cum service officers from both sides of the Radcliffe line who have made a name for themselves in the literary world with equal dexterity as they have in the field of arms. The autobiographical accounts like ‘Friends not masters’ by Field marshal Ayub khan of Pakistan in his first hand account narration in his own voice from his early days, through his tenure as commander –in –chief of Pakistan armed forces as also his taking over from president Iskander Mirza and finally the presidential elections of 1965 is quite a racy read not to be missed by aficionados of books.
Similarly the seminal contribution by the late General Pravez Musharraf in the literary world by his work ‘In the line of fire’ first published on 25th September 2006 is a collection of his memoirs and is marked as his formal forayinto the writing world. Crossing over to own side of the Radcliffe line in the literary world we have excellent books to the credit of equally capable service officers from all the three wings of the army, navy and the air force. Though the turf of literary world is choc-a–bloc with such accomplished service writers, it becomes a herculean task to pick up the best of the best writers with a Khaki / olive green background. Be that as it may, it would be a perpetration of crime on the readers of this article If i don’t put the name of Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh, VRc (former western army commander during the 1965 war) with his authorship of the book ‘In the line of duty: A soldier remembers’ as a crème de la crème of all literary works till date by any service officer. This book is about a soldier who had the courage of his convictions carried on sound shoulders of his that made no bones about his judgment during his service years and face the consequences. He not only set a benchmark of standards pertaining to professional and societal propriety but also followed them assiduously throughout his life.
In the recent past in the literary world streaking like a meteorite has been the seminal book by former Air Marshal Bhushan Gokhale (Retd) going by an equally metaphoric name ‘Akashjhep’ released in December 2022 at Pune by the present air chief Air chief Marshal VR Choudhry . The book depicts the challenges in the air force service, responsibilities and thrills experienced plus the support of the wife of the author as they both negotiate the ups and downs of the service career. Notwithstanding the above genre of literature in the Indian milieu, there are many books but not all of the kind which have germinated out of a crying need of the author cum service officers as a means of catharsis trying to absolve or rather unburden themselves from the hidden guilt or inaction heaped upon them in the course of their service career not of their on doing.
Since the same was not possible due to service constraints, the medium of writing after retirement provides a safety valve cum coming clean of their doings in the eyes of their countrymen. In this category fall some of the best written books of the ilk ‘The Himalayan blunder’, ‘War in high Himalayas’ and the ‘Untold story’ by Brigadier JP Dalvi, Maj Gen DK Palit and Lt Gen BM Kaul respectively. Each one of them at very senior and responsible positions during the 1962 Sino –Indian war trying to put their own experiences and lessons learnt from the national shame. Now what makes a service officer even a retired one so prolific in his writings? To me it appears certain peculiarities of his or her service career to include life style, service conditions, exposure to a myriad tasks of peculiar nature , a stickler to disciplined life and a constant hanging of sword of Damocles over his head by the very nature of his job that is not found anywhere in the world. All these imponderables he wants to put it on paper before his own memory starts playing pranks with him.
Having myself ventured into the world of writing about 5 years back, I must confess that this write up of mine has been the true reflections of a retired service officer which many may not agree with in totality. In any case it takes bundles of patience, single-mindedness, and finally convictions in your own writings to take that single biggest step of putting the pen to paper to record your observations of life as seen from the prism of an armed forces perspective. The sooner the better!
