Story of Martyr Jaswant Singh Rawat – who is now Saint for Indian Army & Ghost for local villagers

Today August 15^th celebrated as 68^th year of Indian Independence Day, so I thought so surfing the real life stories of brave Indian soldiers, I read an article of brave soldier, Jaswant Singh Rawat who was bestowed with Maha Vir Chakra.

Who was he….??? Rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat was a hero of 1962 Indo-China war, he was serving for 4^th Battalion of Garhwal Rifles (well known combact arm of Indian Army). It was November 1962, Chinese army were invading in huge number through Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and Garhwal Rifles were asked to return back but Jaswant Singh and two other soldiers (the two soldiers were later wounded by Chinese firing, when they were crawling back to the Indian post) remained at the post at an altitude of 10,000 and were successful in capturing MMG (medium machine gun) from Chinese and somehow dragged to the Indian post and this was the turning point of the battle as Jaswant Singh alone resisted the Chinese soldiers entering the Indian borders for 3 days with the help of two local girls named Sela and Nura, helping Jaswant Singh in refilling the ammunitions and it is believed that he shot 300 Chinese soldiers, who were trying to invade India. Chinese adopted a strategy to cut down the rations getting supplied to the Indian Battalion so that Indian soldiers get tired and it would be easy for them to invade.

They tracked down a person who was supplying ration to an Indian army and he was asked “how many soldiers are there in the battalion” and the ration supplier told “it was only one brave soldier Jaswant Singh” listening to this the Chinese were shocked thinking that only one soldier resisting the strong force of 300 plus Chinese soldiers entering Indian boarder from past three days.

 This humiliated Chinese and decided to knock down Rifleman Jaswant Singh and with much humiliation they approached to the Indian post with grenade attacks which killed a local girl Sela and they captured Nura and before they can nab the brave soldier Jaswant Singh, Jaswant Singh decided to kill himself like Chandrashekar Azad, he took his last cartridge and loaded it and shot into his head.

But Chinese were not happy with Jaswant’s decision of sacrificing his life for motherland so with the great humiliation feeling which they had, made them to chop off the head off Jaswant Singh and took across the border (Land of China). After ceasefire, Chinese commander was so impressed with the bravery of the Indian soldier that, he returned back the chopped head of Jaswant Singh along with brass bust of his (statue of Jaswant Singh). Even today we can see the brass bust installed at the battle site.

The saga of Jaswant Singh continues as Ghost to local people and Saint for military people:

If you visit Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh via Sela Pass (which is world’s second highest motor-able road), you must visit to the Temple built in the name of Jaswant Singh known as “Jaswant Garh”. The shrine of Jaswant Singh has been a witness to many tales and also inspiration to military soldiers. For military persons Jaswant Singh has become ‘Saint’ or ‘Jaswant Baba’ and some local people call him as a Ghost. Every morning Jaswant Singh is served with bed tea at 4:30 am, breakfast at 9am and dinner at 7pm and five army soldiers are at his service round the clock. Though the fact is that Jaswant Singh is no more but still there is astha (strong belief) among Garhwal Rifles that Jaswant Singh soul protects them at treacherous mountain terrain.

Army Generals passing by this route make sure that they take blessings of Jaswant Singh brass bust at Jaswant Garh, if they did not do so they will get a curse, it was told by Garhwal battalion soldier. And one day, a major general refused to pay tribute to Jaswant Singh’s shrine saying that it was just a superstitious belief and within few distance of his travel he met with a mysterious road accident and died.

At Jaswant Garh there is separate cook who prepares food for Jaswant Singh, makes his bed, iron his clothes and polishes his booth every day & doors of the shrine is closed in the night. And in the morning his bed is found crumpled and his freshly ironed clothes lie crushed on the floor and his shoes are found soiled & dirty. Army soldiers who are sleeping on night duty get a sense of beating from stick and they believe its Jaswant Singh who remind of their duty.

According to the locals and Garhwal soldiers say that, his spirit roams around the area and comes in the dreams and solve their problems. Even today Jaswant Singh is getting promotions and his promotions have reached to the rank of Honorary Captain.

He is there on those terrains protecting Indian Army from Chinese invaders and has become source of inspiration to Garhwal Battalions and people of Arunachal Pradesh.

Salute to Jaswant Singh Rawat….Salute to Indian Army..

Jai Ho…!!!!!!

“Branding” is it new terminology for Indian companies or we know it from Vedic period???

Today people are more concerned about the Brand and have become choosier in selecting the branded product when compared to other product which gives them equal satisfaction. Why do you think the other product which gave similar sense of satisfaction but failed to make its imprint in its consumer’s mind? Well it’s a game of psychology which the company plays in our mind by promoting their products associated with music, smell, touch and experience. For instance A.R. Rahman performing magic on the key board becomes the “Brand Music” for Airtel, Zoozoo’s advertisement in IPL became the brand ambassadors for Vodafone, Red for Coco Cola, bitten apple is for Apple, check mark for Nike, Golden M for Mc Donald……wait a sec how many of these are Indian companies…???

At the count of 10 seconds we hardly remember less than six desi product name (if not mistaken in those six name you would have taken three names which are from service-oriented industry but not product-oriented).

Let me tell you “Did you know facts about Branding”, the oldest brand which is in use today is an Indian product “Chyawanprash” which dates back to 1100 B.C to 500 B.C i.e. Vedic period. Chyawanprash is herbal paste used for health benefits and Chyawanprash was named after Rishi Chyavana as he was the first person prepared this paste. And today Dabur Company uses this paste with the name “Dabur Chyawanprash”.

In the list of Interbrand Best Indian Brands 2014, most of the companies got listed in it is financial services companies like SBI, LIC, HDFC, ONGC, Axix Bank, Punjab National Bank, Yes Bank, Induslnd Bank etc.. Here the point which I am going to put forward is that services of all these financial companies’ sales are comparatively very less when we consider Britannia products sales or with the products of AMUL which it delivers its product to the households of India.

If we carry out a survey in the households of India we may not find life insurance policy made or any SB account opened in the nationalized bank but at least we would get to have biscuits and tea. In India its common routine in rural sector to offer tea and biscuits to the guest, I wonder these products which are basic needs in Indian mass has its brand positioned at 40 or sometimes no name in the list.

These FMCG companies should try to build up the brand value so that they can face tough competition from global brands in home soil, consumers still believe in Indian product quality, trust, consistency of performance, relevance and emotional connect. The desi brand has to improve upon on building brand value and work to embrace the brand in home soil and then look for building up the brand in global.