Leaves from a soldier’s diary

Gaurav Kanthwal

In olden times, bugle calls were musical signals that announced the scheduled and non-scheduled events in an Army installation. A soldier’s life used to be strictly governed by the calls of this instrument, but with the passage of time, electronics have taken over, and now bugle is mostly reserved for ceremonial purposes only. But even now the phrase the call of bugle has military connotations — it primarily signifies the beginning of war. It is a different matter that trumpets are preferred over bugles by the military men on most of the occasions.

Lt Col (retd) Naresh Rastogi’s book borrows its title The Bugle Calls from this analogy. The book is a narration of what a soldier experienced, observed and heard in the course of two wars against Pakistan (1965, 1971). Co-author Kiran Doshi, Rastogi’s golfing partner in retired life, felt Rastogi had a vast reservoir of anecdotes which could easily translate into a book, and that’s how the book came into being. Primarily, it’s a memoir of a soldier’s life lived through two of independent India’s biggest wars with Pakistan. What is striking in the book is its vivid visual imagery recreating the terrifying atmosphere and giving an insight into the state of the mind of a soldier caught in a war.

Rastogi and co-author Doshi are an unusual combination of a soldier and bureaucrat teaming up together to compile anecdotes in book form. While Rastogi, like a true-blue fauji, has the gift of gab, the bureaucrat in Doshi has a knack of collecting minute details and spreading it out on paper. The book, divided into 30 chapters, narrates stories from Khadakwasla, Mhow, Delhi to Wellington, Jessore, Khulna and Nigeria. 

However, the main thrust of the book is in the chapters related to the Battle of Asal Uttar — the theatre of war between India and Pakistan in 1965. Hopelessly outgunned and understrength, the Indian forces destroyed Pakistan armour, making Asal Uttar, a village near Khemkaran town in Punjab ‘the Graveyard of Patton tanks’ on September 10. As many as 90 Patton tanks were either captured or destroyed by the Indian forces. 

Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid, mounted on his 106mm antitank recoilless gun, emerged as the hero, single-handedly destroying scores of tanks. He was posthumously awarded the Paramvir Chakra for his exceptional bravery and supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. Among the very few Pakistan officers at Asal Uttar who got away was Lt Pervez Musharraf, who later became the President of Pakistan.

In Chapter 16, The Battle of Asal Uttar: Day 3, Rastogi, while narrating the happenings of the day, recounts that Pakistan’s artillery brigade commander, AR Shami, was killed in action and his body buried by the Indian soldiers. But soon a message came from the Indian Army’s divisional headquarters that his body be exhumed and reburied with full honours. The orders were followed even if this put everyone in an awkward situation.

The Bugle Calls is a diary of a soldier from the time he aspires to join the forces till he settles into a retired life. Far from being a military history book, it is a compilation of stories which recounts soldiers’ tough life, their bravery and the camaraderie they share in war and otherwise. The authorised versions of war fought by armies may list out facts and figures but they never depict the feelings and emotions of a soldier during the war. Such personalised accounts of a soldier are better placed to give the readers a greater insight into their lives.