Penning history

Brig Bhandari and I are course mates; we were trained together. We also fought the 1971 war together. He was initially with me on the Eastern border but later shifted to the Akhnoor sector on the western front. On his promotion to the brigadier8217;s rank, he took over the nearby artillery brigade. I had called him over to the Air Force unit I was commanding.

quot;Did you know that in December 8217;71 as many as four pens refused to write?quot; I asked him, quot;that the surrender instrument was finally signed with an ordinary pen after anxious moments for both Gen Niazi and Gen Aurora?quot;

quot;Dacca in any case isnot a dry place but it must have been a hot evening with so many helicopters landing with the top brass of all the Services!quot; he replied. quot;But weren8217;t you all worried that something could go amiss?quot;

Yes, the possibility was there. The general mood was pro-India and the Ramna Race Course was teeming with more than half a million troops and civil population. A few helicopters had come from Calcutta and a majority had taken off from Agartala. It was late in the afternoon.

Only minutes earlier, we had landed in Dacca. The residents of Dacca had thronged the sides of the roads as if to welcome us. All cars, buses and name any other vehicle were loaded with people and were heading towards the Race Course. There was a smart photo journalist from Time magazine and I latched on to him. The Pakistani general definitely looked sad but he was calm and dignified when he handed over his personal weapon to Gen Aurora in a symbolic gesture of surrender.

The pistol was accepted and both proceeded to the table tosign the surrender documents. There was much jostling among the people and more so among the photographers to record a major ceremonial surrender after World War II. The sun was about to set and there was no lighting arrangement. That was when the pens also refused to write.

Apart from anything else, the helicopters were also to get airborne from the airfield at Kurmitola where the night light facilities had also been damaged during the war. Staying the night in war-torn Dacca was unthinkable.

Two gold-capped pens of foreign make were tried initially. They refused to cooperate. Then the general8217;s own pen was tried. Then another and finally a not so expensive pen did the trick. The first A of General A. A. K. Niazi8217;s signature on the first sheet of the document was a witness to this non-acceptance act.

quot;You flew the choppers at a much later stage of your service and how come you landed up there at Dacca with the helicopters?quot; he asked me, quot;all these days it never occurred to me what a fighter pilot, andthat too a junior one, doing in Dacca that evening?quot;

quot;You see, it was a kind gesture by the top brass of the Air Force to let the fighter boys to see for themselves the accuracy of the bombings. The fighters helped the land forces win the war but it was the helicopters which hastened the surrenderquot;, I replied. quot;If you carefully see the famous surrender ceremony photograph, I am in the row behind the Admiral, Air Marshal and General, witnessing the entire thingquot;.

quot;Sirquot;, the staff officer gently reminded us of the delay. With a stylish flourish my course mate signed the visitor8217;s book and I took the pen of 1971 fame back from him and put it back in my pocket.