Tips from a Grand Father to His Grownup Grand Children-By Col (Retd) Bhaskar Sarkar VSM

We will teach you 12 chapters written by Col Bhaskar Sarkar in 12 different posts on Khabaratganj.com

Preamble

This grandfather is one of the limited editions. He was born at Kolkata into a liberal middle class Bengali family in 1940. His father was a graduate in Metallurgy from Sheffield, UK and worked under the Ordnance Factories Board. His mother came from a Bengali family from a small district town of Jharkhand called Daltonganj. He was seven when India became Independent. His parents were posted at Ambernath near Mumbai at the time. He vaguely remembers the celebrations of the first Independence Day, the arrival of refugees from Pakistan at Ulhas Nagar near Mumbai and the death of Mahatma Gandhi. It would be difficult for you grand children to imagine life in India in which we grew up. Cycle and cycle rikshaws were the transport middle class used. Many tier three towns had no electricity or piped water supply.

This book is not about our childhood or about how we grew up. I mention these to illustrate the wide variety of experience I have been exposed to from my childhood, Army career, postretirement working life in the construction industry and another 14 years of retirement. I have served or visited all states of India except Karnataka and Arunachal. I have served in the plains of North Bengal and Punjab, mountains in Sikkim and Bhutan, deserts of Rajasthan and the jungles of Nagaland. I have spent time in Singapore and Jakarta. I lived in 32 different houses in about 25 different towns and cities. I struggled to make both ends meet till 2007 but enjoyed life to the full thanks to a very supportive and spirited home maker wife, the brotherhood the Army is known for and the love and respect of those who worked for me all through my working life.

Some of my peers and family members may not approve of this book. “Who are you to advise others?” they would say. But I never cared for what others say and still don’t. I am only giving tips and not laying down any commandments or dogmas. I am sure that my grandchildren and are intelligent enough to take what they find useful and reject the rest.

I would not like to die without sharing with my grandchildren and others the lessons life has taught me.

I have highlighted key words to help speed reading and navigating the book. I have also hyperlinked the book so that the reader can go directly from the Contents to the Chapter of interest.

The Author

August 2021

colbhaskarvsm@gmail.com