The World of Elder Care

When our member Ms Sukla Gupta moved to Farakka with her husband, she found herself building a school. She invested it with love and compassion to raise a fine crop of graduating adults

The sleepy town of ...

When our member Ms Sukla Gupta moved to Farakka with her husband, she found herself building a school. She invested it with love and compassion to raise a fine crop of graduating adults

The sleepy town of Farakka suddenly came alive when, in the early sixties, it became the site for a barrage. There was an influx of migrant labour and suppliers of all kinds. Ms Gupta’s husband had moved to Farakka as a contractor for the barrage. The administration must have realized that the place needed a school for the children of those who were arriving in various capacities around the massive construction. 

Ms Gupta along with few others applied for the position of teachers and got selected after the interview. But where was the school building? Where were the students?  The government woke up to its task and constructed a building, where the school was started on March 5, 1964. Some 60 children, local and others of the barrage employees’ joined. The number increased as the school became a second home for the students, given the unique love and care of their teachers.

For Ms Gupta, it was time to shower on her students the same compassion and attention that she had received from her teachers at Shantiniketan. Children were to be nurtured and never punished and school took to the Shantiniketan path of learning. There was a period of great stress in the seventies and the children needed special nurturing. 

Many of them are well settled in life today. By the time she retired the school was flourishing with 2,200 students.

Her point? Treating minor and major issues of the young generation with love and care is the best way to address them. If only the present generation started thinking this way!

Life in the barracks can be fearful, especially when in the border areas, under constant threat of fusillade from enemy aircraft. Our member, Group Captain D. De, posted as ground engineer with the Indian Air Force during the 1971 Indo-Pak ...

Life in the barracks can be fearful, especially when in the border areas, under constant threat of fusillade from enemy aircraft. Our member, Group Captain D. De, posted as ground engineer with the Indian Air Force during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, recounts some spine-chilling moments though nothing he said was quite as entertaining than the story of his little daughter treating the dropping bombs as fireworks.

Barely 40 kms from the Indo-Pak border, at Pathankot, is one of India’s most strategically located airbases. When the country is at war, it becomes especially critical for launching attacks. It was for our member, Group Captain De, posted as ground engineer with the Indian Air Force, during the 1971 war, to ensure that every fighter plane took off and landed safely. They were often engaged in deep raids into Pakistan territory and withstood retaliatory attacks during the wars of 1965 and 1971.

Group Captain De, an excellent raconteur, produced a spine-chilling account of his time there, the excitement of the trenches under regular bombardment post sundown writ large on his face even when recounting the tale several years later. On ideal days, the Indian Air Force could pre-empt such attacks, taking off early and positioning aircraft at a level higher than the Pakistan fighter jets. Sometimes, enemy planes entered by stealth and then the trench became the only option for officers, jawans and families.

The bombing over – there was minimal loss of lives during Group Captain De’s tenure – the hunt for unexploded bombs in the surrounding agricultural fields would commence. There was never an easy day. Pakistan had no fixed time for its raids. So, to the trenches it was, post sundown. Everything was pitch dark to avoid detection but the most important thing was building secure trenches.

It was for Group Captain De to successfully address the challenge of digging a 30ft by 15ft trench, about 8ft deep, in a record eight hours and covering it with dry leaves and plants for an effective camouflage. Only the aerials stayed outside the cover to catch signals of enemy aircraft and enable the launching of many a successful counter attack.

If this was not excitement enough, the Group Captain’s one-year old daughter chose to make matters interesting. This was before officers’ families were shifted to the safety of their hometowns. The Pakistan jets were showering bombs but, because of friction with airwaves, they started descending like firecrackers that are commonplace in India. There was the little Miss De clapping and shouting “Shadi hya”, welcoming the bombs as is they were bringing in a baraat.

It was left to a child to show the Pakistan Air Force its place!