Lt Gen (Retd) Kapil Vij, AVSM passes away

Lieutenant General (Retired) Kapil ‘Lala’ Vij, Ati Vishist Seva Medal, breathed his last in the R&R Hospital Delhi (Cantt ) on the evening of 4 August 2010. He was in the Intensive Care Unit there for over six weeks, on and off the ventilator, under treatment for the second attack of cancer.

Last post, held by him was that of Director General Rashtriya Rifles. He was Senior Instructor (Army) Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India too. Was Chief of Staff to Gen Sangra, the Western (?) Army Commander. He was GOC 2 (Strike) Corps, during Op “Parakarman”. ARTRAC got him next. He was GOC 18 (Rapid) Division, before that. The Indian Military attaché in Yugoslavia, he was there, when Julio Reberio, of ‘Bullet for Bullet’ fame was ambassador. At the regiment level he was Commanding Officer 70 Armoured Regiment (Missiles). He was Roddy’s ( later Indian Army Chief, much later Governor a few sates/UT) ) Brigade Major in high-altitude. We were commissioned on 9 Feb 1964 from the IMA. He went to a cavalry regiment, me to 4/3 Gorkha Rifles. He is the one who had motivated me to sign up for the gurkhas, and not the EME, after seeing me fight it out on the football pitch in the National Defence Academy, Karakvasla, near Pune, Maharastra!

He was badly wounded in the 1971 War in Fazilka’s Foxtrot Sector on 7 December….a High Explosive shell of a Pakistani up-gunned Sherman tank found its mark through the loop-hole of the bunker from where he was directing fire of the pilot of his SS11B1 anti-tank guided missiles ( ATGM) on to the hull down Pakistani Shermans. Used to look him up when he was down and out in hospital. He was Mentioned in Despatches, but he stopped hearing from his right ear, & brother did it run! When I had blown all fuses, once, in 1979, he gave me the leg-up. Very compassionate. Cool, calm, always cheerful and smiling, lion hearted and forgiving – qualities that are required of a senior officer and worth emulating.

His Squadron Commander Dhiru Randhawa was badly wounded too in the 1971 War…… Dhiru’s son later set the golf courses on fire and answered to the very non-Khalsa handle of Jyoti. He married his sweet heart, a very comely Merrut-wali jatni, a former Miss Delhi; Tina to us in 4/3 GR; born as daughter of Lt Col Niranjan Singh. She is now world famous as the very acclaimed film star, Chitranagdha of “Hazaron Khwashian”; fame, now soon appearing in a leading role opposite Akshay Kumar and John Abraham in Desi Boys.

Niranjan is a 3 GR paltan wala of our’s. Tina’s brother Dig Vijay Singh; Bittu to us in Four Third , also swung a very mean golf club, and along with his brother-in-law gave world golf champions the world over, a run for their money!

Kapil’s elder sister married a Deo for love. She is a retired IFS officer, last, posted in the USA. There, she was even senior to Ambassador Ronen Sen of the ‘headless chicken’ fame! Kapil, in the NDA, used to tell us of her & her beating it up in New Delhi-CP’s Wheels under-ground joint where single men were denied entrance! One had to have a date on the arm to gain respectful entry to Wheels. I went there with my Cuckoo, then aged three, in 1980. She set the dance-floor stage on fire. All the firangs present asked for encores!!! And they were not high on grass only. Cuckoo was a born foot-tapper. She broke my heart when she married a few years back. But she & her beau are very happy, so who am I to crib?

When in the undivided Punjab, Lala Vij; Kapil’s father; acquiesced to the request of one of his serfs, one Shri Nikhunj;…. said, it was okay by him should he also christen his first born son : Kapil. This second Kapil later set the cricket pitches the world over on fire when he gained fame as the Harriyana Hurricane! Ajai, Kapil’s brother is still in touch with him from Germany.

He was in Babina, where 70 Armd Regt was under raising then. He was motor battalion of the 2 (I) Armoured Brigade. This was way back in the late 1960s. He always showed up for our Dusserahs. I think, that the gurkha in him never really died. He was, at one time in the NDA, seriously contemplating, joining one of the Gorkha regiments, much impressed by (Major) John Master’s “ Bugles and a Tiger” and “Road Past Manadalay”, the defacto record of the gallant doings of the kanchas of 2/4 Gorkha Rifles, John Master’s Regiment, in its fighting in Burma during the Second World War. I was keen on tanks, having grown up in Ahmednagar, the home base of all cavaliers. My father, then, was with the TDEV; now Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (VRDE). TDEV approved trials of all A and B vehicles prior to induction in to the Indian Army. I’ve played hide and seek in derelict Centurians and Stuarts, abandoned in the shallow ravines opposite the Hathi- bowli, as a kid, and studied in the Armoured Corps Children’s School, both English, and after its packing-up; Hindi Wing.

Not many know that Kapil joined NDA as a naval cadet to start with! A very able rider, he was in the Academy polo team right from the beginning. With him on the team were Sparrow’s younger son, Mau Shergill (retd as a Lt Gen) and Amrinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala, a former Chief Minister of Punjab.

Taps for him for good. Last post, in Brar Square on 6 August 2010. Thousands. Not a dry eye for miles around! Many ceremonial salutes; many salaami shastras, many khukri salutes, many bye-byes in perpetuity. Look after yourself. Take care. GOD bless YOU, Horsey! R. I. P.