Page 176 - Leadership in the Indian Army

When she saw Teja getting on his bicycle, which had no lights, she asked,
‘Why don’t you use the Brigadier’s motorcycle that is rotting in our
verandah?’

Next day, Teja took one of his colleagues, Jimmy Dorabjee, to fetch the
motorcycle and also teach him how to ride it. He began using it regularly to
commute to his office. After a few months, Teja was nominated to attend
the staff course at Wellington and he decided to buy the motorcycle. He had
found out that Sam had purchased it from a British officer for 400 rupees.
He went up to Sam and offered to buy it. ‘Why do you want to buy it?’
asked Sam. ‘If you don’t need it, throw it into a khud (ditch).’ When Teja

insisted that he would like to pay for it, Sam agreed to accept 300 rupees.
But Teja wanted to pay 400, so Sam asked him to toss a coin to decide the
issue. Teja lost, and Sam walked away, saying, ‘OK. You bloody well pay
400 as you wanted.’
At Teja’s farewell party, Silloo was sitting next to Teja’s wife and learnt
that they owned a buffalo, which gave five seers (a seer is about two

pounds, in weight) of milk each day. On the way home, she told Sam about
it and expressed a desire to buy a buffalo so that they could save on the
expenses on milk. Sam was very fond of his garden and knew what a
buffalo would do to it. Next morning, he came to the office in a foul mood.
He walked straight to Teja’s room, hopped on to his table, and looking him
straight in the eye, said, ‘Teja, if you don’t want to pay for the motorcycle,
don’t pay. But don’t put that buffalo of yours on my head.’

In April 1952, Sam was given command of 167 Infantry Brigade at
Ferozepur and got some respite after his hectic schedule at Delhi, where
Partition, integration of the Indian States and the operations in Jammu and
Kashmir had kept him fully occupied. He could now devote some time to
his family and indulge in his hobby of gardening. He grew vegetables,
flowers, even cotton. They had a huge house with a large garden and Sam

kept himself busy outside, while Silloo looked after the inside. Their
children remember them as a popular couple with a hectic social life, full of
parties and visits to the club. They were also a sporting family and played
badminton, tennis and table tennis. Sam was an indulgent father and doted
on his two daughters who remember, wistfully, the games and stories of
which Sam seemed to have an inexhaustible repertoire.
After finishing his tenure as a brigade commander, Sam was posted as the

Director of Military Training at Army HQ in April 1954. After a short