It’s not every day you see a get-together of ‘Goondas.’ Only, this one, held at Fort on Sunday morning, concerned ‘Ex-Goondas.’
‘Goondas’ is the nickname for the Second Battalion of the Indian Army’s Madras Regiment, and on Sunday former soldiers of the battalion came together for an annual meeting in the city with their families.
Among the approximately 300 ex-servicemen present, there were at least 17 soldiers who had fought in the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 Indo-Pak War. There were also a few who had fought in the ‘62, ‘65 and the ‘71 wars, like retired Subedar Major/Captain (Hon) P Raveendran Nair. In the ‘62 war, he was stationed in NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh), in ‘65 in the northern borders of Punjab, and in the ‘71 war with Pakistan, in Bangladesh.
‘’This year we had 162 jawans and their families from Kerala and the others were from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,’’ said Raveendran Nair, who was also the general convener of the event.
The Second Battalion is quite old; it was raised in 1776 and has underwent several name changes since then. It was originally raised as the 15th Carnatic Battalion and in 1796 became the 2/4th Madras Native Regimentry. In 1885, it again got a new name - the 15th Madras Infantry. In 1903, it became the 75th Madras Infantry and in 1922, the 2/3rd Madras Regiment. ‘’We have a war cry - ‘’Veer Madrasi, Adi Kollu Adi Kollu! (Brave Madrasi, Hit and Kill! Hit and Kill!),’’ explained Raveendran Nair.
A guest of honour at Sunday’s get-together was G K Pillai, a familiar face to movie buffs in Kerala. Pillai, now 88, had joined the Army at the rather young age of 19.
There is also a story behind how the battalion got the nickname ‘Goondas.’ It goes back to 1951 when soldiers of the battalion sided with the famine-affected people of Rajasthan and helped them get their hands on food grains intended for some other destination. Though the Army HQ tried to locate the ‘mischief makers’, none could be identified the next day at an identification parade as the men had been in mufti when helping the locals. Anyway, the Rajasthan Governor of the day was impressed with their act and gave them the name ‘Goondas.’ It stuck.
On Sunday, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor inaugurated the get-together. G K Pillai and Sanuja, the winner of ‘Ningalkkum Aakaam Kodeeswaran’ contest, were honoured on the occasion.
The next meeting will be held in Kochi in 2014, general secretary of the event, retired Subedar Major (Hon) R C Nair, said.