My story is different. I belong to a military background. My uncle, my father’s younger brother Christudas, was killed in 1962 during the Chinese operation. We are all proud as a family that his name features in the National Memorial at Delhi. My father joined the army; he’s a World War II veteran since 1944 and thereafter rose from the ranks to retire as a Major in the Army Medical Corps. My mother was Karunavathy Devasahayam, she was a school teacher earlier and thereafter she was a homemaker. She was a very strict disciplinarian. So my brother John and I, we were schooled in all the places my father was posted. All over the country! Therefore, in the far-flung areas, there were not many churches available, so our home was our church.
The Bible means different things to different people. It’s a Living Word. So, draw from it and keep it simple.
I remember two things that happened. One is that they led exemplary lives, both of them, on Christian values. Our home was built on Christian values, and every Sunday as a family, we would get together and just to keep in touch with Tamil, we’d sing only Tamil keertanaigal (worship songs). These were the songs that we sang, and thereafter my mother read the Bible, and my father would lead us in prayer. Their lives were their testimony, a simple straightforward Christian life, and my brother and I were the beneficiaries as a consequence. When I was 15, I decided to join the National Defence Academy (NDA).
My father was an outstanding man, and let me tell you what lessons they gave us. My mother gave me only one gift. She said, “If you want to join the Army, you’ve got to read Psalm 91 every day.” So sure enough, I was presented with the Soldiers Bible in 1976 when I was 16. That continues to be with me till today, and the page with Psalm 91 is there. You will find that particular page is completely worn out.
In the far-flung areas, there were not many churches available, so our home was our church.
So, Psalm 91 I’ve read in some crazy situations, but it’s very inspirational for me. My father gave me two pieces of advice. One, he said, “Walk with Jesus and build a working relationship with God.” He said, “You may not have a church to go to; you don’t have to bend your knees, but you can remain in constant communication with God.” That’s a beautiful message he gave me, and it has found to be one of the most pragmatic pieces of advice for any good Christian. And the second is that he said, “You become a Christian on three things: On thought, word, and deed.” These have remained with me. I have failed miserably, I know, but thereafter, just to try the deed part, when I was 15, I tried for the NDA.
You may not have a church to go to; you don't have to bend your knees, but you can remain in constant communication with God.- Col. David Devasahayam Share on XMy father was an outstanding man. He never drank, but he was a chain smoker, a genuine chain smoker. It means you light the next cigarette with the butt of the last one. My mother used to joke that his lungs are an advertisement, and on one lung is written Capstone, and on the other one is Charminar. Those were the brands, those days. So I asked my dad; I said, “If I get through the National Defence Academy, will you stop smoking?” Now, he was, for a moment, panic-struck. Thereafter, he waited a day, and the next day he came back to me and said, “Yes, I’ll stop smoking.” Thereafter, I got through the NDA entrance exam, got to the Merit list, the Services Selection Board, I got through the medical exam, and finally, joining instructions came. The next day, I was to leave for the National Defence Academy.
So, in the evening, we both went for a walk. I found him smoking furiously. We had a habit of sitting together and having a chat on the lawn. So, there were a couple of wicker chairs, and we were sitting. So finally, around 10:30, he said, “Son, I think you’ve got a train to catch tomorrow. I think you should turn in now,” and he took the cigarette, threw it, and said, “That’s the last cigarette.” Trust me, he never smoked again. I mean, that was for you, in terms of keeping your word to a teenage son, in terms of his deed, and fair enough, my good mother latched onto it, and she said, “Now you’re joining the Army. So now, what is your promise?” And I promised her that I’ll remain a teetotaler, and to date, I remained a teetotaler, despite all these years in uniform.
He said, “You become a Christian on three things: On thought, word, and deed.” These have remained with me.
So, when I joined the National Defence Academy, I did one term there. From there, I was under training, and passed out of the National Defence Academy in 1979 and 1980. Finally, it was a very proud moment for my father when I joined the Indian Army at the age of 20. I joined the Second Battalion of Rifles, and my parents are standing on either side of me, and they put the pips on my shoulders, and I became a Second Lieutenant in the Indian Army.
Those days, the militancy had not really caught on, and it was largely border guarding which we were doing, and then peace stations. And so, in 1988, after a stint in the Infantry School, I decided to double up and a beautiful young lady who had just finished medicine came into my life, Dr. Renuka David, Renu as we all know her, and she’s remained a constant companion. An Army officer always enjoys working because his wife will take care of the children back home. So, that’s what she’s been for me all my life.
So, we had our wedding and then the kids came along. Alexander, my older boy and then our daughter was born. In the ’90s the militancy in the valley had really advanced to a large extent, and I was the second-in-command of my battalion. My daughter had just joined Holy Angels and Renu was with the children at Nandanam, and I was posted in the Lola Valley in Kupwara. There was a terrible set of militants at that point in time. There, we got information of the hideout. So that fateful day, I used to always have my bulletproof jacket, and I had been a paratrooper, so my para jacket was there. The para jacket is made of rexine, so I took my para jacket, put magazines in my left pocket, and my trusty Bible in my right, and we headed out that night. We climbed the hill, and on the other side was a suspected hideout. We reached, we were coming down very quietly, all of us were in position, down in the chamber, and we were coming down. And what do we see? I saw a foreign militant below, he had his beard, and he was fast asleep on top of his weapon, and all the other fellows were inside. So, to cut a long story short, it was a successful shootout, and we were able to eliminate those really nasty militants. And once I saw that my men were safe and they were all in position, I pulled out my Bible and read Psalm 91.
When you pray to God, the messenger and the message, we never know from where it will come. So, always have complete faith in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. -Col. David Devasahayam Share on X
So, that’s why I said, I don’t think anyone would have read Psalm 91 in the kind of situations I have. “A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.”
In terms of service to the nation, there are different callings, and the calling of a military man in the defence of his nation at times leads them into such situations.
We were a very successful Battalion in the valley at that time. And then from there, I got command of another Battalion. It was against the Naga militancy, and that’s when I was not very happy because they were literally like kids with lethal toys. I used to tell Renuka that I am not very comfortable here, and I tried to build a vocational training centre there because it was largely unemployment that was driving them towards this. Then from there, I got posted to Bangalore as a Centre Commandant, Open Army Training Centre, the Pioneer Corps Training Centre. That’s when I decided, along with Renuka, to make a career transition.
So, my MBA was in fighting militants, so I was quite unprepared for business, but I had been a commandant for so many years, I had the independence of command, and so I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So, like all good service officers, I thought I’ll start a services company, but I took a resettlement course because I was taking voluntary retirement. I was getting my full pension, and while I was undergoing that resettlement course, there was a class in the afternoon. At a time like this, nobody wants to listen to a lecture, so most of my friends, six of us, were attending. The other five decided not to attend, and I was the only person. And a person came from the RBI, and he met me. He said, “Colonel, if you want to leave, you can. You’re most welcome. I’ll mark you as present.” I said, “No, now that you’ve come, can we have a conversation? Tell me what you have to tell me.” He told me about cash logistics and he told me about retail cash management. He said that there were just a couple of companies who had just started giving retail cash management services in the country. That’s what caught my interest and from that moment onwards, I started doing all due diligence on retail cash management. To cut a long story short, today we are the largest retail cash management company in the country. We work in over 13,000 PIN codes, and 21 of our people are ex-servicemen, including the leadership.
We have also taken the company public, and that was announced in January. With material success has come a keen desire. We’ve been doing it in small amounts, but now have a keen desire to move from success to significance. And for me, as I was in the Army, the boys who died, they made all the difference. I don’t think you will have any idea of the number of widows that are there right now. There are 14,258 widows, men who either died in battle or in battle-connected situations. They have given their lives for the country. And so, therefore, we have now made a MoU with the Army and as entrepreneurs, my great desire — and we have a large number of former service officers with us — is that no child who is the child of a bereaved widow should lose out on higher education. Of course, we also talk with the government about the Prime Minister’s scholarship scheme, etc., but that’s a commitment of our company to ensure this.
My father’s advice: Build a working relationship with God, remain in constant communion with God, don’t put your conscience on silent mode.
So, I know my story is a little different from what you heard so far. I’ll just summarise my story in a few words. The Bible means different things to different people. It’s a Living Word. What Psalm 91 means for me, it probably doesn’t mean the same for anyone else. So, draw from it and keep it simple. My father’s advice: Build a working relationship with God, remain in constant communion with God, don’t put your conscience on silent mode. The other aspect is that you become a good Christian not by any visible symbols but by your thoughts, words, and deeds. And lastly, the example I gave of somebody from the RBI, when you pray to God, the messenger and the message, we never know from where it will come. So, always have complete faith in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
