“We develop…don’t...”

I read with interest the letter "We develop…don’t destroy” by Vice Admiral R. K. S. Ghandhi (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, July 7, 2008) in which he has suggested that Col Adi Tarapore’s name should be included in the hall of fame at Udvada, and rightly so. This brought to mind an incident. Many years ago I was lying on the carpet reading the life of Rommel by Desmond Young in my father-in-law Khan Saheb S. K. Irani’s home in Ahmednagar (which was open house for all officers of the Armoured Corps) when Tarapore wal­ked in for an evening cup of tea. Taking the book from my hands he said, "Ah! What would I give to fight a battle like this!” He was referring to the Battle of El Alamein. Little did he then realize that he would fight a much larger battle as far as tank formations are concerned, cover himself with glory and perish in that battle.

May I also request Dinshaw Tamboly to include the name of another forgotten hero of World War II, Col Sorab S. Nazir, who won the Military Cross (MC) in Burma after the battle of Tidim? He was airlifted to Singapore and decorated by Lord Mountbatten himself as the life expectancy of an officer in the jungles of Burma in that engagement was just three days.

Both these men were soft spoken, self-effacing and modest. I knew Nazir for 20 years before I discovered that he had been so highly decorated, and this only by chance. After I had operated on him he mumbled something about the MC while coming out of anesthesia. When his wife Roshan passed away he dropped the medal in her grave. This is the stuff heroes are made of.

Dr Hirji S. ADENWALLA

Trichur, Kerala