Standing straight in the afternoon sun, his 33 summers of service with the Army behind him, Risaldar Major Jitender Singh of the Skinner’s Horse regiment draws the attention of the British Lady who has come to the central provinces to keep a promise she gave to her 82-year-old mother. Lady Victoria Walker, wife of British Chief of Defence Staff Gen Michael Walker has finally come home to ‘‘her regiment’’.Standing next to his commanding officer, Risaldar-Major Singh waits with the patience of a true cavalryman to speak to the Lady. Here, in the land steeped in election fever, a bit of Old British Raj is being played. Far away from Morar Cantonment, a motley crowd is dancing to the drumbeats of Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh, in town for a regional baithak.Meanwhile, as her husband breaks the ice inquiring about Singh, a flurry of questions come from Lady Victoria. ‘‘Who is a Subedar/Risaldar-Major?’’ she asks. With obvious pride, the regiment explains the time-honoured tradition of the senior-most Junior Commissioned Officer, once introduced by the Britishers, to anchor regiments across India.Singh is dispensing his final duties before retiring to his home town in Punjab as an honorary Lieutenant. As the Chief of Defence Staff, himself an officer who once commanded the British Forces with NATO, inquires about Singh, it is time for a history lesson. Singh, the Commanding Officer points out, has more than 30 years with the regiment, while he has a mere 20!For Lady Walker, the journey means fulfilling a promise she made to her 82-year-old mother Sally Vander Gutch (now Holme) that one day she would see the place where her grandfather had come in as a subaltern. ‘‘I can’t wait to tell my mother that I have seen the place where her father once lived ,’’ she says.If the regiment has dug out tid-bits of precious history stretching from the 1898 when her grandfather first came to India, she has her own little anecdotes to offer. There was her uncle Ben, who was born in the ‘‘Central Provinces’’ and then went onto serve in the British Indian Army. ‘‘He retired as a Major General,’’ she says, moments before being ushered into a sound and light show specially conceptualised to take the Walkers back by a 100 years. The Vander Gutch trophy, earned circa 1920 by her grandfather, shares a pride of place with other memorabilia that the regiment has accumulated over its 200 years. Perhaps the biggest surprise is meeting Major Sandeep Ahlawat, great-grandson of Risaldar-Major Sheochand who had served with her grandfather. Col James Skinner, the regiment’s founder, left an indelible impression on the Walkers. ‘‘Could you give us the address of his great-grand daughters and sons in India?’’ General Walker asks. A group photograph taken after a polo match touches the Walkers. One face in that group is that of the Lady’s grandfather. A photo that the regiment has stored on CD all set to travel to a house in England where Lady Walker would reunite her mother with Major G.T. Vandeer Gutch.
