Author: murali

Money is really is of no consequence. Any amount of money is insufficient if the society robs you of your dignity and honour.

       That is the way army was when I joined. It was considered too ‘bania-like’ to have a second look at your pay statement. A pay statement (pay slip as it is called ) was routinely torn up after seeing the figure ‘remittance to bankers’. Today it may sound foolhardy. But it is not unique to Indian Army. Warriors all over the world disdain money,  it is only the banias or bandits who accumulated wealth(banias did it without weapons and bandits did it with weapons).Japanese concept of Bushido explains it best.  Here’s an extract from the book BUSHIDO THE SOUL OF JAPAN BY INAZO NITOBÉ, A.M., Ph.D.

………He disdains money itself,—the art of making or hoarding it. It is to him veritably filthy lucre.  Niggardliness of gold and of life excites as much disapprobation as their lavish use is panegyrized. “Less than all things,” says a current precept, “men must grudge money: it is by riches that wisdom is hindered.” Hence children were brought up with utter disregard of economy. It was considered bad taste to speak of it, and ignorance of the value of different coins was a token of good breeding. Knowledge of numbers was indispensable in the mustering of forces as well, as in the distribution of benefices and fiefs; but the counting of money was left to meaner hands………..

        We never complained about not getting our due , for the simple reason we hardly knew what was our due. While on leave, I was surprised to find that my civilian friends not only knew the current DA rate but were also aware of the next one. That explains why OROP was not talked about for four decades.

      On the other hand, Dignity and respect were valued a lot. One only had to see a military special train , where compartments are marked “officers mess’ ‘Tiger’, Lion and so on. Even in the middle of a jungle, a clearing where the CO’s tent was put up attained the status of a bungalow. Furnishing was done with available material like logs , planks and grass. It resembled the den of ‘Hagar the Horrible’ but far from complaining about, we were proud of the arrangements. It was termed ‘jungal men mangal’.

Lack of money did not affect the dignity of a soldier when he returned home after completing 15 years of service. He had a place in the society. Education and medical expenses were less or non existent. After all army had one of the best networks of hospitals and medical centres.

The liberating nineties , as Gurcharan das calls it changed all that. It was extremely difficult  for a fauji to seek admission for his children in private educational institutions and treatment at private hospitals became out of reach. Even to die with dignity it cost money. I could not leave army as I had no civil qualifications and people at the universities and colleges wanted you to apply a year before and go through the process of entrance exams and enrolment. I actually met the Vice Chancellor of Madras University . I thank him for agreeing to meet me without prior appointment, but the rules quoted by him were absurd to me. How can these babus, who have not served in army ever understand how difficult it is when posted at Tawang or Poonch to go through this one year process. No sir, I did not want money, I just wanted an opportunity to study, upgrade my skills to suit the civilian life.

An army man misses the opportunities to invest, to upgrade his skills or simply learn the way of life in civil environment. And it happens due to his spending the most  productive years at the borders or at sea, not through chasing money at Gulf countries or a better life style in the West.