At 9, to retire is aim

Brig IJ Singh (Retd)

WHAT do you say to a nine-year-old grandson who tells his nana, a retired Brigadier (me) that he wants to retire? I was taken aback when the young chap, who till yesterday had excelled in science and maths Olympiad, dropped the bombshell. Concerned, I immediately asked him what had triggered this course of action or inaction. Pat came the reply, “You have been the root cause of such ‘holy’ proposal.” 

He was not found wanting and had done his homework well. He took off, “Nana, you don’t have to get up early, no school, no homework, no examinations, nobody to chase you. You get up late, read newspapers, play golf, see movie first day, first show; attend parties and entertain your friends, and on top of that, the government pays you pension without doing any work.” He mentioned my holidaying, both in India and abroad. On two such occasions, he had been my fellow companion and had seen me enjoying my single malt whiskey/beer sessions.

A retired soldier, I decided that I was not going to be defeated by a misled grandson. I started by saying that even now me and my wife work and are responsible for running two companies. Sometimes, I have to work for 12 to 14 hours. Straight came the reply from the youngster, “So what? You are your own boss, you give orders and no one bullies you.” 

With a solider’s never-say-die attitude, I decided to take him head-on. “Look here, as a student your age, I did not have the comforts of a tablet and a laptop, or LED TV, mobile phone, no holidays abroad, except trips to my nana-nani’s village. I got only an anna to spend a day, no branded clothes and I walked to school. When I joined the Indian Military Academy, I was bullied by seniors. In subsequent years, the Army put me to places where the temperature was -35°C. We stayed in bunkers.   

“Your nani and I stayed in remote places in temporary one-room accommodation. My superiors chased me all my life and now my wife. And with 36 years of hardship in the Army, I had earned my pension.” 

To motivate him to get on with his daily routine of studies, I mentioned that as an Army officer, I did my MSc in defence studies, MPhil in defence management and even BEd before taking up the assignment of chairman of an Army Public School. I drove the final nail by saying that all those who work hard in the initial years enjoy the rest of their life and those who enjoy in their earlier years, suffer for the rest of their life. I reminded him of Army mottos — Abhi nahin to kabhi nahin, Reach for the Sky, Do or die — in which we believed all our lives. 

And to have total superiority over my grandson, Dilawar, I was now adding operational components. I fought the 1971 War in Uri sector and was posted to Leh soon after the Kargil War. I had been to Siachen, Kargil, Drass, Chushul, unlike him who had only been to five-stars in India and abroad. “I participated in real war while you fight cartoon wars on the tablet!” 

By now I saw the froth had settled down, but there was defiance in his eyes. “Some other day, nana.”