大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's War site aby a volunteer from Regents Park Library by Serajul Islam Molla and has been added to the site with his permission. Serajul Islam Molla understands the site's terms and conditions.

In 1944 I left my local primary school and was admitted in to the High School. One morning when I went to school I saw that the whole school playground was surrounded by an army camp and we were not allowed to go in to the camp.

But every afternoon after school I used to pop through the gate into the camp and was challenged by the guard as to what I wanted. I could not say anything but gave a smile! I thought that the major in charge of the camp knew about my afternoon presence.

One afternoon one very tall and handsome army officer came along and asked me to go in to camp and so I did!

Because of my courage as a small boy gave me a Jacob鈥檚 cream cracker and a jar of horlicks to take home. This was the first time I saw a cream cracker biscuit and horlicks! After that event I used to go to the army camp freely with my other class mates and we were given chocolates and other English sweets which we shared with our school mates. The army major name was Major Jaleel who was a pathan.

With the help of our headmaster the major staged a small play on our school stage. He took the part of Robert Clive of India and I took the part of his tea boy or page boy. After the war the army left our area and at the time of their departure gave me a small army baton and told me to become an army officer when I grew up!

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