Kirkee-I

7 AM, 3^rd Feb 2010.

Pune Railway Station

 “Kirkee, Kirkee, Kirkee” Col. Lotay shouted in the phone.

I reached Pune Station by Azad Hind from Howrah sharp at 6:50pm after a journey of thirty-four hours. I am patient of colitis; moreover seldom I use the loos in train hence I wanted to reach my room as early as possible.

“Col. Lotay main Khadki suna hoon, Kirkee nahiin.”

“do no ek hi hain,the car will take you to CQA(M) OFF-MES,its in Mula Road.”

“Any nearby landmark, sir”

“Yes. It’s in the cantonment area, near the ammunitions factory “Col Lotay continues, “and you have a war memorial right next to your place of stay.”

I came out the platform and walked towards the MCO.A man in uniform came forward as if he was waiting for me and asked, ”Aap?”

I brought out my ticket and showed him my identity.

“Aiye sirji, mujhe Brig. Sharma ne bheja hai, Lotay saab aapko bataya hoga mere baare main, aaiye”

We came out of the Pune Station; I found a typical Maruti Gypsy used by the milltary was waiting for me. We left the station. After crossing the Pune Engineering College, the car took a right turn.

On the way I spotted a big Shopper’s Stop. Size? It stretched longer than the Howrah Station’s both complexes taken together. Then I spotted a board

MILLITARY AREA

KIRKEE CANTONMENTMENT BOARD

After going some distance I started seeing the scenes that I have seen in several cantonment areas like Ambala, Allahabad, Dehradun, Kurseong, Tura, Colaba etc

“Yeh rastaa Ammunition factory ho ke sidhe Khadki station tak jata hai. aur daaiyen taraf hai Bhaiyawadi aur thoda agey ek church hai, uske baad military officers ka residential.”

He took a sharp turn towards left after a hundred metres or so I saw a board:

CENTRAL QUALITY ASSURANCE (MILLITARY)
KIRKEE AMMUNITIONS FACTORY
KIRKEE CANTONMENT AREA,PUNE

The car entered a well maintained compound and stopped. As we were entering through the gate a Sikh army man who was sitting at the gate in his duty stood up and saluted. I felt a bit embarrassed.

This is why sometimes I feel why not the common citizen should salute a man in uniform instead of the vice versa.

Coming back, it was quiet a big compound. There were two houses one seemed to have been built in the pre-independence era and another was a new one. In the compound there was tennis court, a flag-hoisting corner and even a small stage. The old house was a bungalow type. It has a thatched roof covered with what in Bengali is called taali and had a big courtyard. There were two rooms “Raigarh” and “Torna”. The new one had the dining hall, bar, reception, kitchen in the ground floor and two rooms “Lohagarh and “Singharh”.

The Torna was allocated to me. It was a luxurious one. As one enters he step into a modern drawing-cum-dining hall. The hall had a huge sofa, a circular dining table with four chair , a refrigerator and a cupboard full of cutlery set. A skin of dead tiger, heads of musk deer and a bull were hung in the wall. There was two bedded bedroom across the hall. The bed room had an adjacent dressing room, a huge window and adjacent to the window was the bathroom. As per my habit I went straight to the bathroom. I was so delighted to see the geyser that I switched it on immediately. I removed the curtains of the window. The curtains were light ones, they allows light to pass though I cannot see what is there on the opposite side. I found the window opens in the back of the compound. A big tree and behind was a small wall and it shares the boundary with the cemetery. Yes, the Kirkee War Cemetery.

11 AM, 3^rd Feb

“When you go home tell them

Of us and say for your tomorrow

We gave our today”

As I was stepping down into the cemetery these words were flashing in my mind. Many years ago I visited Kohima where I saw the most famous war cemetery of The World War II, there I saw these lines written on the War Memorial. Even I saw another cemetery in Imphal also. Well, stepping down means stepping down, the cemetery is few metres below the level of the main road.

Walking on the Wimbledon grass I moved towards a huge it is the memorial that commemorates more than 1800 soldiers who died in the First World War (1914-1918) who are buried in civil and cantonment cemeteries in India and Pakistan where their graves can no longer be properly maintained. It stood at the centre of the graveyard and was surrounded by twelve concrete structures in arranged in circle. On the same memorial are commemorated almost 200 East and West African servicemen who died in non-operational zones in India in the Second World War, and whose graves either cannot be located or are so situated that maintenance is not possible.  In front of it there were lines of graves stones about twenty in each row. With beautiful flowers and plants the place looked more like a garden of peace than a graveyard. This pattern of lines and rows were also followed in different sides of the cemetery. The Stone of Remembrance is a brightly polished limestone. The cemetery gate opens in the Mula Road, it is written on the wall KIRKEE WAR CEMETRY 1939-1945.These words speaks a lot. Soldiers fighting for the Commonwealth Forces serving Her Majesties were buried here. I did not go on to count but it seemed there were nearly 1500 hundred graves.

I don’t know what happened to me. I had planned to stay at the cemetery for just ten minutes, but something attracted me to stay there longer which was nearly an hour. I lingered around the whole place. In spite of the fact that it was a grave, the arrangement of the stones, the huge cross at the centre, the mast trees (Debdaru in Bengal), the Wimbledon grass, arches of bougainvillea together gave an awesome look. The gravestone carries the name, number, rank of person lying at the grave. They also had the name of the regiment the soldier belonged to, the date of there. Some of their ages were also mentioned. I noticed most of them were in their twenties. The huge cross in the centre is the symbol of sacrifice. The plaque behind the cross has names of soldered who sacrificed their lives.

The last line from Kohima cemetery “we gave our today” seems to hold true for all war cemeteries throughout. Thousand brave soldiers who left their home to fight for their nation died in foreign soil. This happen still today, Indian soldiers dies in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone.US Marines and other NATO forces dies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gaza Strip. Today the bodies of dead soldiers are carried to their home. But whenever anyone stands in front of a war memorial or a war cemetery a mixed feeling feels their mind. It is not the feeling of standing among the dead but being surrounded by brave soldiers who are sleeping peacefully forever.

I returned back to my room. After having my bath I lied on the bed as I was to switch to switch the TV on I turned my eyes towards the window only to discover that I can see the cemetery even when I am lying on my bed. The geometric array of white granite grave stones all neatly paced out in neat rows and columns, all facing towards the central stone of remembrance. It appeared that the men in uniform standing there on the richly manicured lawn shouting out their name, number and rank.

I don’t know how every alternate second my eyes were turning towards the grave even though there was something very interesting was being shown in Star Movies-Juno.

I walked up to the window and pulled the curtains on.

Staring at a grave 24X7 is not a good thing to do, my mind suggested. I came back to the bed.

Not even five minutes had passed I started thinking that I am depriving myself from a wonderful view.

So, I went back again and pulled the curtains off. I started watching the cemetery with its sun bathed grass from my bed. How teenage girl Juno was spending her gestation period took the backseat of my mind. Thousands of thoughts started pouring in.

How they died? Just a one-liner in a sealed envelope used to reach their home carrying the news of their death. Today people forget the heroes after initials hues and cries for few days. Then it would have been much worse sixty years earlier. At times not even any letter carrying the news of death would have reached the family.

                                                                                                                                          .. to be continued