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I have no idea where I was kept
for five or six days. After that I was on another
plane. We arrived at Comilla at well-equipped
hospital. Some were bleeding from fresh wounds
and others are recuperating. I had a lot of trouble
because of my wounded hand. It had to be operated
on three times. In the first operation, the hand
was only shortened a little, yet it would not
heal. So I had another operation where my hand
was amputated. I stayed for 22 days in Comilla
and was then shifted to Calcutta from where I
was taken to Murshidabad for three months. By
then I slowly started regaining my strength and
was walking as little.
After that I was sent to Poona
to get an artificial limb. A Gurkha captain and
a lance corporal went as escorts .I was brought
back in time for the Dasain festival. I was then
told that I was to go to Delhi for the investiture
ceremony. It was earlier proposed that to go to
London, but I had never been there before and
did not know any English. So, I chose Delhi instead
of London. My father, mother and elder brother
arrived from home for the ceremony. I was awarded
the Victoria Cross for bravery on the Burma front,
and then I went home.
In the meantime, the armistice was signed. I was
on the front only a short while compared to others
who spent up to seven years fighting. One of my
instructors served right through the war but remained
unscathed-well, they command from the rear and
face little chances of being hit. On the other
hand, we were involved in the front. A number
of my comrades-in-arms laid down their lives.
Many millions had died. The sole purpose of the
war was to lower the population, which it succeeded
in doing. Politics warranted the state to lessen
its people when it could not provide food and
shelter. The sons and descendants of rulers were
spared. Ordinary people became victims. Many just
disappeared. In the war we focused on fighting
and how to do away with the enemy. If we didn’t
kill them, they killed us.
Since we were recruited by the
British, we had to fight on their behalf. We knew
they were fighting the Japanese and the Germans.
At that time, Germany was a big power. Physically
too, they were bit. They were strong enough to
thrust in the bayonet in the body of a Gurkha
soldier and then raise his body up. They could
squeeze a Gurkha to death using one arm.
Quite a few Nepalese died in
the war. One of them was my brother-in-law. Unfortunately,
on one can collect his pension because his father
and mother were long dead and as he joined the
army as a lad and died in the war, he never had
the chance to marry. I enrolled at the age of
22 and was a bachelor. I married only at the end
of war. In those days no one could refuse to enlist
in the army. I did not inform my family about
my own voluntary enlistment till after I had joined
the army. I knew how to read and write a little,
so I sent them a letter. Since we belonged to
family of headmen, our grandfathers had taught
us to read and write. Quite a few of the other
soldiers were illiterate. |
