Top honours

The lush district of Coorg in Karnataka is famous for its coffee, army generals and pretty girls ? not necessarily in that order, writes MN Batra.

The lush district of Coorg in Karnataka is famous for its coffee, army generals and pretty girls — not necessarily in that order. Medikeri, the District HQ (formally known as Mercare) has statues of two distinguished soldiers who have done the country proud — the late Field Marshal Cariappa and the late General ‘Timmy’ Thimayya. ‘Kipper’ Cariappa, as he was affectionately called by his British colleagues, was the first Indian Army chief. Timmy followed some years later after an outstanding career.

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After the British left, Cariappa set a high personal standard of dress, good conduct and behaviour. Customs and traditions left by the British were scrupulously maintained (at times too literally). During his term, all officers were required to carry on their person a copy of the Cadets Prayer on the lines of West Point Military Academy in the US. His son, Nanda — who retired later as an Air Marshal — was captured and made a prisoner of war during the 1965 war after his fighter plane was shot down. President Ayub Khan sent a personal message offering Nanda’s release. Back came an immediate rejoinder from Cariappa. “All Indian prisoners are my sons. Treat them equally and in accordance with the Geneva Convention.”

Thimayya was altogether a different personality — warm hearted, fun-loving with a tremendous ‘human touch’. He was referred to as the ‘soldier’s soldier’. In October 1947, when Punjab was being torn apart by Partition, he was our Divisional Commander in Jalandhar, a Major General. Somehow he learnt that it was our first wedding anniversary (I was only a Major at the time.) He went out of his way to arrange for the Jalandhar Club band to play the Anniversary Waltz and made my wife and me take to the dance floor amid much applause.

Some years later, a twin-engined Devon aircraft with senior officers aboard caught fire ten minutes after take-off from Lucknow. The young IAF pilot put the plane into a nose-dive and crash-landed. Luckily, there were no casualties.

Thimayya was on board. I asked him if he had prayed during those frightening moments when the engine was on fire. “To tell you the truth, I did,” he replied. “I said please God, don’t let me go like this — I always wanted to die on the battle-field or in the arms of a beautiful woman.”