Got, him, lost him got him

I was preparing for IAS. There used to be a book shop on BKS Marg near CP. One fine morning, I was there to buy a book.Another young man too stood waiting outside the shop's shutter. I can't recall the reason but definitely, I got into some problem with this man. We snarled at each other only to become friends after half an hour. I learnt,this guy too was riding in my boat-- the IAS. We had a plan to watch a movie but somehow, things could not click. In a couple of days we separated, me to Patna to marry in 1978. Meanwhile, this practical man, after giving up his idea for further preparing for IAS, went somewhere else to fry some other fish. However, by this time, we were bound in a cemented relationship of friendship through epistles.(Yes, he would write epistles, not letters, to me.) He married in some early year of 80s while formally inviting me too. He was emotionally so close to me that he even christened my eldest kid, and the name given by him still goes though bit in Hindi. We were in touch till, may be, 1992 but then we lost track. I tried to trace him out at Ajmer, his home town; at other places he had worked; in telephone directories of India, but I failed. It was now out of question to find this dear friend through any other possible means. However, as miracles happen, again one fine morning, I got a msg from somebody on Facebook verifying my identity, in the end of Jan 2012. And lo presto, I knew him. It was my very dear, long lost friend IK. He is Inder Krishen Wali, taking care of Dinesh Mills at Baroda, a proud hubby of an attractive wife and an equally proud dad of 2 bright kids. God is great, as they say.!!!

How pityful

So, ultimately, Gen. Singh, our poor Chief of Indian Army stands with a bloody nose. He got the knock at the Supreme Court where he went expecting his stay as army head up to May '13. This failure of his is a classic example of how power hungry are humbled. It is never contendable that someone feeling basically aggrieved by the Government or any body else should not fight out his case for justice. The hairline difference between genuine justice seeker and our battered General was only that our General pretty well knew that he was fighting an already lost cause, per se, not even a cause. Instead of going thus far to Supreme Court and contriving out a means to continue as Chief of Indian Army for a further year, Singh would have been a better gallant soldier had he resigned away right at the moment, his date of birth was getting controversial. If not with a few thousand more rupees in his pension kitty, he could have gone with greater honour and bigger image. Gen Sinha had done so by throwing away his resignation to the then PM immediately after his junior Gen Vaidya was opted for chiefship. He did not go to any court. This reminds one of Kiran Bedi, a much hallowed police woman, the first lady IPS officer who clamoured for the job of Delhi Police Commissioner after elevation of Dadwal, a junior, to this office, much in the Singh style. She was lollypopped by the then Home Minister for a long time. Instead of smelling the design of the government, Bedi acted the innocent girl only to resign her job just three months prior to her due retirement date. No one was the taker of her system-made me-a-martyr stance and she fuzzed away with all bravado she had earned as a very upright cop only to reappear as an Anna baby later on in Indian socio politics. This is how mighty fall in this country with their Macbethian ambition at play.