People who taught me and touched my life

teacher's day Major DP Singh

I was an average student and couldn’t have fared well in school without the guidance of Devinder uncle ji (spelling is different but the name is same as mine) and Kamlesh aunty ji, a next door couple.

My dream was to get commissioned into the army.

I had promised aunty ji that one day I will get actual stars and bow them in front of her.

On 6th Dec 1997, after commissioning from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, I drove directly to their house and bowed to touch their feet.

Donning, full uniform with stars on my shoulder, I said, ” These are the stars and here I bow in front of you aunty ji and uncle ji. Thank you for what you did and all the support you gave me.”

Today, aunty ji is no more. May God bless her soul. I spoke to uncle ji, this morning, who is still in Roorkee, Azad nagar and wished him Happy Teachers’ Day. It was difficult to control the emotions.

I thank all those who, in one way or the other, mentored me, including all those who did not do what I expected of them as that helped me become an even better fighter.

I am the chosen one and blessed by Almighty HIMSELF. Thank you GOD for such a blessed life.

Happy Teachers’ Day

PS: The picture was taken during the piping ceremony at IMA. My grandparents did the honour as they are the ones who nurtured me during my childhood and groomed my personality. May their soul rest in peace.

Kargil Vijay Divas

kargil vijay divas Major DP Singh

18 years back in 1999, on 15th July, I got injured, I had two choices:-

1. To carry on as 100% disable, dependent on others. Or,

2. To stand back on my feet and make best use of whatever I have.

Any soldier, will make the obvious choice, so did I.

I did not just chose to make best use of whatever I have, but also made all efforts to pay back and keep contributing towards betterment and progress of my motherland. After all, each one of us, injured or fit, have this moral responsibility. And the same is mentioned in “Fundamental duties” of our constitution.

So, the question was and is, “What am I doing to make my country look good”?

I feel proud and humble that Almighty gave me strength to keep following my duties, to the best of my capabilities and HE also ensures that I should make efforts to improve my capabilities.

In the ongoing efforts, recently on 15th July, I was able to celebrate my “Death Anniversary” in Kargil itself and then run, the maiden, Kargil International Marathon on 16th July. After completing my 21 km, I received my medal and directly went to Drass war memorial attired in same dress.

The memorial, where many of my mates, left their name inscribed in golden words to remain alive forever in history and memories of we Indians. I was not lucky enough to reach anywhere near them, but I could touch their feet and lay my medal as homage to their brave efforts.

kargil
kargil
kargil

I know my medal is no where in front of what they did to save our country, but I was finding it very trivial to stand their wearing it. I am sure, they will accept my humble and trivial homage.

May you all stay alive forever in the history of India mates.

And May we Indians cherish your contribution to the extent that we start owning our responsibilities towards this mother earth and do our bit to save it.

That for sure will be a befitting remembrance of martyrs and Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Jai hind

Run with a soldier for a soldier

Run with a Soldier for a Soldier Major DP Singh

Running in Sikkim was one opportunity to check back how and where do I stand today after recovery of high altitude effect.

Opportunity was even more lucrative as I had my best buddy, Col Sundaresan, to run with and be a part of his lovely mission. He is running 50 full marathons in 50 weeks to collect 50 lacs to be distributed to 50 martyr families. I ran with him in Dehradun too, just 2 weeks prior.

The run was on 14th May from Changu lake at 12500 ft to Libing helipad area in Gangtok covering 42.2 kms. We did acclimatisation from 10th to 13th May by staying at 10500 ft in a transit camp of army. Little runs, up and down, visit to Nathu la (Indo China border) , Baba Harbhajan temple, daily visit to Gangtok for press conference, meeting with Governor & interaction with students of SRM university kept us super busy.

We had kept 13th as free to relax and be ready for 14th but my course mate was commanding there. His request to speak to men to motivate them could in no way be refused, (coursemates are above all) so on 13th we interacted with his team. I got moved when post talk, one of the boys walked up to me and said, ” sahab 2 saal baad tuhanu khabar daunga ke tusi ajj iss bande nu kis level te motivate kar ditta ” (sir, I will tell you the result of today’s motivation after 2 years, you have no idea how much you have motivated me today).

While going up on 12th we met with landslide and turned back to stay with Sikkim scout. It was an adventure within an adventure trip, as we didn’t have any clothing but the suits we were in because we had a meeting with the Governor that day.

kargil
kargil

But, when the army is around, one need not worry for anything. The stay at scouts was the most comfortable and memorable one. Every thing (every small thing) was arranged by team scouts. Sumptuous food, perfect weather (ideal to be with partners). Unfortunately I and Sundar sir were facing each other 😀 lol ) , & lovely sight from guest room. Despite their coercive hospitality, we refused to enjoy drinks as acclimatisation was going on & focus was on run than anything else. Well, this becomes the reason to go back there for leisure stay too. 😉

As it was a test run for me I had gone with the aim of trying only 21km but after going there we both were confused with what distance should I run. After lot of deliberations we concluded that I should chose middle path and run 31 km. The fact that there was a long patch of damaged and slushy road in between became the reason behind this decision. This way I will run more but save my prosthesis from getting damaged.

Thunderstorm, a night before had raised some doubt in others & questions were asked if we will still go ahead. Obviously, the answer was yes even if it snows. But Sundar sir predicted that it would be a clear sky on run day. Lo and behold, it was so clear that throughout the route we were craving if the sun could hide for some time please. 😉

We started at 5 am from area crusher (that is how we name in army, there is a crusher lying on the hairpin bend at the road and distance from this point was measured by us using a Garmin and speedometer of a Gypsy ) we had kept a distance of little more than 42.2 so that in case Garmin misbehaves, we should not remain short of full marathon mark as Sundar sir had do run one FM (conveys a lot about morals we have learnt from army as it was not an organised marathon, no one was keeping an eye on us and no certificate was to be given but the mere fact that an FM was to be run every week didn’t let our conscious to take any short cuts).

kargil
kargil

We were accompanied by men from various paltans enroute. Ojas, son of CO of Sikkim scout, just 11 year old ran almost 12 km and I was damn impressed by his enthusiasm.

During the last stretch, after 25 km mark, heat was increasing and was pulling me back but the boys around and Sundar sir kept the spirits high.

A drop of almost 5000 ft forced the road enroute to have slopes as steep as 40 degree gradient and taught me well to maneuver it by trying all stunts of light jog, single leg hop, snap knee (artificial one) breaking action to walk with the slowest speed. I am thankful to all the boys who had never met me in the past and might not have met again but were kept an eye on me from corner to react and hold me if I fell (this is true love & one can get it only in army). God’s grace, I did snap once but the falls during Doon run and the practice had trained my mind on how to balance, in case there was any situation of stumbling and this way I didn’t fall even once during the whole route (practice makes you learn most difficult things too & that is why I suggest fellow amputees how important it is to fall if you wish not to fall ever again 🙂

Finally in about 4.26 hrs I entered helipad area of Libing, Gangtok, along with Sundar sir and other runners (Maj Gurpreet, Col Partha, Col Amit, Capt Deepak, two boys from SRM university whom we had motivated previous day to join us, and many men of my beloved, Indian Army). General officer commanding, Maj Gen Tejbir Singh was waiting for us. He himself is a sportsman and knew the importance of cooling down and stretching after such a long run. Immediately on receiving us he asked us to go and do proper stretching which was unthinkable from any civilian chief guest.

As Col Sundar is trying to collect 50 lacs from corporates, to be distributed to 50 martyrs family, Gen expressed his desire to support financially too. Although, in no way we had the intention of taking funds from army itself to be given to our own families (as army is doing a lot to support) but Gen was so touched and emotional with the idea that he couldn’t stop but contributed one lac to the cause. One who knows the pain of martyrs’ families and feels the genuineness of mission can only do so.

Next day I again gained height (went up again by 1000 ft) but in a paraglider as Air Officer In charge of Bagdogra, himself an ultra runner, and a well wisher senior friend, made me take this ride.

Jai hind

Receiving a gold medalist 101 year old lady

Bibi Maan Kaur with Major DP Singh

Got the honor of receiving Bibi Maan Kaur, a 101 year old lady from the village of my paternal granny. She won 4 gold medals in recently concluded World Masters Athletics championship at Auckland, New Zealand. She was accompanied by her 79 year old son, who also won a silver in his category.

It was a matter of pride for me that I got an exclusive opportunity to receive them and only those who are sincere in their respect towards such inspirational figures were present, Super Sikh team (Lovleen, Raja, Aseem and Dheer) under Rajeev and Gurpreet.

When I hugged Beji (a loving name given to all punjabi elderly women) I realised age has affected her as she was wearing a waistband to support her bent lumber. This conveys a lot about her will power and the fact that achievements are a game of mental strength and not luck or just physical power.

kargil
kargil

And when you are determined of such nature and have perseverance, even God blesses you (perhaps that is why they say, God helps those who helps themselves). This was evident from her reaction on getting the welcome. She could not stop herself from singing praises of almighty (shabad of Gurbani) . Typing this makes my eyes wet as I can still feel the aura of that special soul.

I was also surprised to see that my mom was enthusiastic to meet her and even when many youngsters shrugged to spoil their sleep at 2 in the night, my mom was dressed up before me to receive her.

It was a blessed night.

Now I am at the airport again, ready to catch a flight to Bagdogra to travel further to Gangtok to run with a soldier named Lt Col Sundaresan Sen (last we ran together in Doon on 30th April). He is on a mission ” Run for the soldier, Run with a solider ” , doing 50 full marathons in 50 weeks in 50 different locations of India to collect funds to honor martyrs’ families. Generally he runs in an organised marathon however as there is no run organised towards Gangtok side , he was running alone, that is where I pitched in. How can a soldier who is on such a wonderful mission be left alone…… 🙂

Limca Book of Records

Limca Book of Records Awards (Major DP Singh)

Limca ‘People of the year’ award 2016. It comes as a surprise to me that I am one among 15 chosen for the award. Certificate in my hand is half white as this portion is written in Braille. 🙂

Surprise! because I never gave them my name and generally all the awards are need to be applied for. In this case, it was a jury of 3 members who chose me for the work done, out of around 400 names put up to them by Limca book team.

I dedicate this award to all Chosen ones, the Chosen souls, including more than 1000 amputees of my group, The Challenging Ones. Generally known as Specially abled, PwD or very recently Divyang.

Chosen! coz, these highly risen souls, even with restricted or limited abilities perform at par or even better than others. I was not lucky enough to be born as Specially abled. I was given a wild card entry later in life. Perhaps, Army quota worked there. 🙂

So, here I thank Gen Musharaf, who did that favour on me. When I was fighting out his army, shouting Bharat Mata kee jai (because for me Bharat mata is this mother earth (not a statue) and he wanted to step on my mother.

His team stops me and says, Janab, we have wasted many bullets but none could find your name on it. So, here we dispatch this bomb, to whomsoever it may concern. Hopefully it will hit you.

I thank all those who challenged my ability and rejected me because they helped me to discover new me. A challenger. And pushed me to be the first Indian to start running marathon on artificial leg way back in 2009. Today just by action, by holding hand, I have made 100 more such amputees who are floating free on Indian roads and running events. Who have turned themselves from being one, as good for nothing to … wow.. you are an inspiration! By performing just 5 km of action.

I thank my Alma mater, Indian Army, who trained me to never give up, innovate and keep serving my Bharat maa. I am thankful to all my coursemates. My course IMA 101 regular, have produced heroes like CaptVikramBatra, PVC and made tradition to always keep the Tiranga high and flying.

And in the end and most importantly, I am thankful to God almighty who made be born as Sikh to my parents. The martial race, epitome of selfless sacrifice and service towards week, needy and the mother earth. This race has credited and understood the value of females way back in the era of Guru Nanak Dev ji itself and there is no restriction on them in performing even as priest of Gurudwara sahib, forget about entering there.

Where humanity is served, irrespective of cast and creed. Where community kitchen and doors of help opens even before the local authorities wake up to any untoward situation. Be it in India or places affected by ISIS. Following the moto of Saint and Soldier, this biggest heart race, have the audacity to make jokes and even laugh over self.

Thank you all my friends, fans, followers, relatives and near & dear ones for the blessings and good wishes you keep showering on me, time and again.

Wadakam, God bless, Om NamayShivaye, Om Shanti, Sat Sri Akal, Allah Hafiz, Pranam.

But, BUT ABOVE ALL…… JAI HIND… JAI HIND..

List of awardees is as under :

1. Akbar Khan

2. Arunima Sinha

3. Dr Suresh Advani

4. Javed Ahmad Tak

5. RamsuratMajhi

6. Ashwini Angadi

7. AayushiPareek

8. KS Rajanna

9. Major Devender Pal Singh

10. SayleeNandkishorAgavane

11. Ranveer Singh Saini

12. ZameerDhale

13. RajiveRaturi

14. KY Venkatesh

15. Radhika Chand