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When Lt. Gen (Retd) Pankaj Shivram
Joshi PVSM, AVSM, VSM, The first Chief of Staff of the Integrated
Defence Command passed away in an Indore hospital on July 1, 2009 a
cloak of sadness enveloped the small cantonment town of Mhow where he
had settled after almost 41 years in the Indian Army. He will continue
to be a source of inspiration for for all his compatriots. , writes
Dev Kumar Vasudevan
 Jen
Joshi’s wife Mrs. Prabha Joshi was kind enough to give me some time
when I requested her. She talked to me in detail about Pankaj Joshi
the soldier, husband and father. He was born on Sept 9, 1943 in
Peshawar where his father, a civil servant, was then posted. They
shifted to Delhi in 1947. Pankaj and his brother Kuldeep joined the
Nutan Marathi Vidyalaya, Pune. After his schooling Pankaj was selected
for the 21st course at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla.
After passing out as a Gentleman Cadet of the 30th regular course, IMA,
Dehra Dun, he was commissioned in the First Battalion of Eight Gorkha
Rifles in December 1962. He served in Ladakh and participated in the
1965 Indo-Pak war. It was in 1967, while on a mine-clearing operation
in Sikkim, that he lost one of his legs. The other leg was also
amputated soon.
A normal man would have accepted defeat but Pankaj
Joshi was made of sterner stuff. He fought back. It was a painful
journey but he had the support of his wife, family and friends. Within
eight months of his loss and nine operations later he was fitted with
a pair of artificial limbs at the Artificial Limb Centre, Pune. He was
cycling to the Centre within a fortnight.
He was soon walking upto eight kilometers a day.
His activities included walking, swimming and mountain climbing. He
had also participated in the Himalayan Car Rally and in a 42
kilometres cycling marathon in Delhi.
It was in 1968 that Pankaj met a young lady named
Mukta Kale. In due course they decided to become lifemates. It was not
smooth sailing. Mukta’s mother was not very comfortable with the idea
of Mukta marrying a man in Pankaj’s condition. “She was not sure
whether Pankaj and I would be able to have children. So I went to our
family doctor who was like an uncle to me. He convinced my mother of
the soundness of my decision. In any case I had decided that if we
didn’t have any children of our own we would certainly adopt a child.”
Pankaj had got an equally brave life partner for himself. After
marriage Mukta became Prabha and within a few years she and Pankaj
became the proud parents of a daughter Unnati, who is now a US based
architect, and Sameer, who is a teacher of French. “The children were
allowed to choose their own careers,” Prabha Joshi told me, “we never
imposed our will on them. The only thing Pankaj ensured was that they
grew up as normal middle class children. So there was no staff car to
drop them at school or a sahayak to polish their shoes or make their
beds.”
After completing a B.A. degree in Russian from the
Jawaharlal Nehru University he was selected for the Staff College at
Wellington. This was a turning point as he decided against leaving the
Army. In 1978-79 the Army changed the rules for medically categorizing
officers. “My husband was then posted in the College of Combat and the
then Commandant General Sundarji once overheard him speaking in fluent
Gurkhali to a JCO of his battalion who was visiting Mhow. He was so
impressed by the fact that Pankaj had totally merged himself with his
Paltan that he went all out to help him prove that he was fit to
command the same battalion.” Pankaj Joshi was able to prove to a
medical board that he was as fit as any officer without a disability.
He had also played eighteen holes of golf with the Army doctor who had
to check his physical fitness.
 He
was then given command of his battalion - the 1/8 Gurkha Rifles. “When
he took over command of the Paltan,” said Mrs. Prabha Joshi with tears
in her eyes, “he told his men that he was returning to the battalion
after fourteen years of banishment the way Lord Rama returned to
Ayodhya after fourteen years of vanvaas.” He also had instructional
stints at the Higher Command Wing of the College of Combat (now Army
War College) Mhow and the DSSC Wellington. He had also attended the
Higher Command Course of the United States Army War College. His
career graph kept rising after that. He commanded an Armoured brigade,
an Armoured Division and 12 Corps. He was the second officer with a
disability after Lt. Gen Vijay Oberoi to attain the rank of Lieutenant
General. In 1998 during the Prime Ministership of Shri Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, the Pokharan nuclear blasts were conducted under his
command. He held the appointment of Additional Director General
Mechanised Forces at Army HQ and the Commandant of the College of
Combat, Mhow. He went on to become the GOC-in-C of the Central
Command, Lucknow, and was then chosen as the first ever Chief of Staff
of the Integrated Defence Command.
When General Joshi was once interviewed by the
Indian Express he had said, ‘‘There is only one thing that stops a
handicapped person from doing things normally - society. It makes you
feel handicapped by perpetually offering you help. In my home no one
does that. If I have to change a bulb or get something from a high
shelf I do it myself.’’
Even in death he taught us all a lesson as he
willed his body to be donated for medical studies and research. A wish
which his brave family fulfilled. “Both of us had decided to donate
our bodies,” said Mrs. Joshi. A multi-faceted personality Pankaj
Joshi’s interests included Indian classical music, bird watching,
environment, pottery and writing.
Dev Kumar Vasudevan is a
freelance writer based at Mhow
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