Dr Amitabh shares his memories with General Jack Jacob, a war hero and art enthusiast who led a multifaceted life, exclusively for Different Truths. 

Who says Generals can’t be artists. The late Lt. Gen Jack Jacob, a decorated war hero was an artist too. He was an art collector and an avid art enthusiast. This is his oil on canvas pictured with another legend, the late MF Husain. Lt. Gen. Jacob passed away on 13 Jan. 2016. He used to tell me laughingly, ‘Kuch medal, chakra dilwao’. He was probably looking at the Maha Veer Chakra, which evaded him. We both laughed while telling him, ‘Saheb, Humarey passto ekbhi medal nahi hain’. He would promise, ‘Gwalior chalengey’ He was fluent in Bangla.

While autographing his two books, one his own autobiography and the other on surrender at Dhaka, I asked him whether he used the same pen for writing down the draft of surrender for General Niazi, Commander in Chief of the Pakistani Army in the erstwhile East Pakistan. It was an old Schaeffer pen, black in colour, with a golden cap. He laughed, “Amitabh, nobody till now has ever asked this question. Yes, it is.”

MF Husain wrote poems too. His love poems have been published in an anthology of love poetry titled, ‘Strangertime’ edited by none other than Pritish Nandy

General Jacob was the only Jew who rose to the post of Lt. General in the Indian army. He was a Baghdadi Jew, born in Calcutta.

This charcoal portrait of General Jacob on a 300 GSM paper has been gifted to Tel Aviv, Israel, where his battle uniform with all his medals and this portrait are on permanent display at the Heroes Museum. There is a permanent shadow under his eyes and it remains forever. I brought it in my charcoal portrait of him.

I remember, Pritish Nandy, Poet, Artist, former Member of Parliament, his poetry, titled, Lonesong Street has been put into a film and recitation with the music by Ananda Shankar in the background. I have had the pleasure of reviewing all his books. He told me that he was there at the marriage party of Major Dalim with the daughter of Consul General of Pakistan at Kolkata.  Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s eldest son had misbehaved with Major Dalim’s newly married wife at the party. Major Dalim assassinated Sheikh Mujibur and his family on 15 August 1975 at his Dhanmondi residence in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Visuals by the author

Dr Amitabh Mitra

Amitabh Mitra is a poet, artist, and medical doctor based in East London, South Africa. He is the Head of the Trauma and Emergency Medicine Department of a tertiary hospital complex in the black township of Mdantsane. It is the second-biggest Black township after Soweto. Recently, the Department of Arts and Culture, in association with Oxfam, honoured him for his contribution and long-standing devotion to the people of Mdantsane.

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