The Bombay boy whose life story is the inspiration behind the upcoming Akshay Kumar-starrer Gorkha, pens a memoir about serving his country, on a limb and a prayer
Major General Ian Cardozo
For Major General Ian Cardozo, Bombay is home. It’s also the city that reminded him why he was meant to be elsewhere. With roots in Candolim, Goa, the Cardozos had made Colaba their home in the early decades of the 1900s. “We lived very close to the sea, [on Hormasji Street], and perhaps that’s why, I initially wanted to join the Navy. But I changed my mind, when I happened to meet a senior from my school, Sunith Francis Rodrigues, who had returned from the Joint Services Wing [the National Defence Academy]. He was polished, very much in control of himself, and in the span of two years, had already become a boxing champ. Being in Bombay, and seeing people caught up in a routine, going to the same office day in and out, made me feel that I wasn’t cut out for this.” The encounter with Rodrigues, who many years later would be appointed as the Army Chief, gave him a sense of purpose. “I realised that the Army is the place for me…,” he recalls. His father had been more than encouraging. “I was born in 1937, and the World War II started two years later, in 1939. From the dining room window of our house, we could see the Gun Carriage Factory, which became the training ground for groups of soldiers heading for WWII. During that time, my father made two scrapbooks with newspaper cuttings and photographs [related to developments of the war]. He also had a large collection of books on the military that he shared with me. [All of this] gave me an insight into war, and what it meant to join the services.”
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After completing his schooling from St Xavier’s High School in Dhobi Talao, where he played hockey, Cardozo joined St Xavier’s College, leaving abruptly after he was enlisted to be part of the Joint Services. “The vice principal of the college told me that my leaving without completing the course meant that I had denied a more meritorious student from getting admission to the college and that I should never, ever think of returning,” he laughs.
Cardozo (standing third from left) with the St Xavier’s High School Junior Hockey Team 1951
The Xavierite was meant for bigger things. The Delhi-based army veteran who’d go on to become the first war-disabled officer to be approved for command of an Infantry Battalion, and whose life story is the inspiration behind the upcoming Akshay Kumar-starrer, Gorkha, is now out with his memoir, Cartoos Saab: A Soldier’s Story of Resilience In Adversity (Roli Books). When the book, available for pre-order, launches in Mumbai next weekend, Cardozo will return where it all began.
He joined the 5th Gorkha Rifles (Frontier Force), “because I was impressed by one of our Platoon Commanders who was from this regiment”. “The Gorkhas are simple, honest, transparent, loyal and courageous. And they don’t know fear,” says Cardozo, who fought in the 1962 Indo-China war, and the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971. “In my battalion, we had a tradition, where you’d spend your first leave in Nepal. I remember after a year of service, when I asked for leave to go to Bombay, I was told that I’d be joining another Gorkha, who was going home, and would be staying at his place for a few days. This person then handed me over to a battalion member, and from there I went to another soldier’s home. That’s how I spent my first two months of leave… going from one family to another. In the process, I learnt their customs, their songs and dances, and even picked up Nepali, as well as other different dialects that are spoken there. They had become family. I would die for them, and they’d for me.”
A photograph of Cardozo taken during Indo-Pak War, 1965
He recalls how it was his battalion that managed to capture Atgram, Bengal, in 1971, from Pakistani troops with nothing but khukris, a type of machete traditionally used as a war-fighting weapon—it was the last khukri attack in modern military history. “I was attending the Defence Services Staff College course at Wellington [Tamil Nadu], when my battalion was tasked to capture Atgram. I wasn’t around, but was told the story later. Apparently, the battalion had come from an area, where they were countering insurgency. We generally don’t use heavy artillery to quell insurgents. It’s one of the reasons why we didn’t have artillery in Atgram. The brave Commanding Officer [Lieutenant Colonel Arun B Harolikar] decided to use khukris instead. With our war cry, Ayo Gorkhali resounding, we fell upon the Pakistani troops with our khukris, decimating them one after the other. We decapitated a lot of them that day, and that put the fear of the Gorkhas in them. Nobody would mess with us.”
It was in the same 1971 war that Major General Cardozo lost his left leg, after stepping on a Pakistani P2 active landmine. Determined to not let his disability come in the way of his service, he soldiered on. “When I was at hospital, I was told that I had the choice to stay, but that I wouldn’t be able to command troops… it would be a staff job. I had not joined the Indian Army to be bound to a desk.” He was inspired by a book, Reach for the Sky, which was based on the life of aviator Douglas Bader who had lost both his legs in a car accident, but went on to become a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. “If he could, so could I. I decided that I would not leave without a struggle… I’d prove to the Army that I am as good as anybody else, if not better than people with two legs. For the next seven years, I trained dedicatedly… I swam, I ran. I remember running so much one time that my wooden leg came off.” It was the Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS), Lieutenant General AM Vohra, who spoke of him to the Army Chief, General TN Raina, MVC, himself a battle casualty of the Second World War. General Raina then ordered to give him the command of a battalion. “This was the first step to open promotion of battle casualties to command appointments,” Cardozo writes in the book.
With Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at the Cadets’ Mess, April 1957
He later commanded a brigade, retiring in 1993 from his appointment as Chief of Staff of a Corps in the East.
His wife, Priscilla, he says was instrumental in pushing him through the good and not-so-good days. “She has been my support and backbone all through…”
Cardozo spent his retirement years in the social sector, serving as the Chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India, and working with the Spastics Society of Northern India, and two other institutions, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment—the National Trust and the Commissioner for Persons with Disability. He now does a lot of writing, poetry and non-fiction, inspired from his journey. In one of his verse, The Marigold, which he shares with us later, he writes: “What is important is that the soldier’s utimate sacrifice needs to be honoured and remembered...
A keen marathon runner: with Priscilla at the Mumbai Marathon. Pics Courtesy/Cartoos Saab by Major General Ian Cardozo, Roli Books
In other parts of the world, soldiers who die in battle are honoured by a ‘Flower of Remembrance’. In Britain… it is the poppy that commemorates their war dead. In France it is the cornflower and in Germany, it is the forget-me-not.” In India, he wishes it’s the marigold.
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