Skylark Group was formed in 1987 by the late Shri RC Rao as a small venture in simple manpower guarding solutions. Realizing what Skylark meant to his father, after his death, Maj (Dr) T C Rao took over the reins in 2000 after serving in the Indian Army for over 24 years. With his dynamic efforts and business acumen, Skylark is now amongst the biggest preferred Security & Urban Management Solutions expanding globally by opening up offices in New York, Montreal, London, and Kathmandu.
With a modest annual turnover of 22 lakhs in 2000 to 300 crores annually in 2011, Skylark Group has seen tremendous growth over the last decade employing 22,000 professionals that include engineers, managers, IT experts, and security personnel. Besides security, the company has diversified in highway operations and management, facility management, solid waste management, education, equipment rental, and food and beverages.
The Skylark Group of Companies has an intrinsic connection with the Kumaon Regimental Centre, Ranikhet, and 13 Kumaon when it was located in Ghingharikhal during 1976-79.
Queen’s Meadow
Ranikhet, which means Queen’s meadow, gets its name from a local legend that Raja Sudhardev won the heart of his queen, Rani Padmini, who subsequently chose the area for her residence, giving it the name Ranikhet. The Britishers established a military station in Ranikhet and its surrounding heights of Chaubattia in 1869 primarily as a retreat from the heat of the Indian summer.
In 1950, the Kumaon Regimental Centre under its Commandant Lt Col (later Brigadier) Balbir Singh, MC whose illustrious son Brig Jasbir Singh, SM has also made Ranikhet his permanent home, was shifted here from Agra.
In 1900, Ranikhet along with Nainital was considered the summer capital of the British Raj, which ultimately was shifted to Shimla as the fragile rocks of the area could not sustain the hill railway. Though I have visited Ranikhet any number of times, I had the privilege of two postings in Ranikhet, firstly in the Kumaon Regimental Centre from 1973 to 1976 and then back to my Paltan 13 KUMAON that came to Ghingharikhal as part of the Chaubattia Brigade- both Ghingharikhal and Chaubattia are the suburbs of Ranikhet.
Soon after 13Kumaon reached Ranikhet, there was a change of command as Lt Col YS Bisht took over the Battalion on promotion from Lt Col KC Mehta. In the process, Maj PM Wakhle, the second in command also was posted to the Kumaon Regimental Centre as a Training Officer, an appointment that was held by me before my posting back to Paltan.
Regimental life in a peace station in a beautiful hill station like Ranikhet is a nightmare. In summer there is an endless stream of VIPs visiting the station to beat the heat of the plains. Also, one gets steady strength from all sorts of unknown uncles, aunts, cousins, relatives, and friends as mostly unwanted guests to be a mighty strain on young officers’ otherwise frail financial condition. Summer was followed by the monsoons causing landslides and roadblocks that troops often had to rush to augment meagre Public Works Department resources. In harsh nasty winters, we all used to rush for collective training capturing and losing high hills as part of the Blue Land (own country) and Redland (enemy country) territories. So for troops, there is never a dull moment in a peace station. During Lt Col Bisht’s command, I was the Adjutant of the Battalion besides being Bravo Company Commander and it’s from here onwards the story of ‘A Recruit to a Skylark’ unfolds.
Troops located in Ghingharikhal and recruits of the Regimental Centre do their morning PT or physical training in between Ghingharikhal and the Somnath Ground on the Ranikhet-Almora Road. Often Centre’s recruits and troops from the Ghingharikhal Battalion while running from opposite directions would mingle halfway on the road and there was fear of traffic accidents during the chaotic confusion.
On one such occasion, Sub Kanwar Singh, the Senior JCO of the Bravo Company of 13 Kumaon hauled the Recruit’s PT instructor and told him with a mouth full not to use the road to avoid an accident. The PT instructor felt insulted and exaggerated the incident to his Company Commander who according to Sub Kanwar Singh repeatedly failed the weeping Recruit Tara Chand Rao who was from his village in Rewari, in one or the other tests on flimsy grounds.
Sub Kanwar Singh as my senior JCO pleaded,’ Saab kuchh karo..Gaon mein izzat ka sawal hai… aur kahin yeh ladka bhagora nahin ho jaye ya khudkashi na kar le..aur Sahib Tara Chand bahut hi kabil aur neik recruit hai aur mera gamoli bhi hai’. The JCO pleaded that I should speak to Maj PM Wakhle, the Training Officer in the Regimental Centre who also was the former Bravo Company Commander before becoming Second in Command of the Battalion.
Rather than reaching home for an already belated lunch, much to the annoyance of my wife, I drove straight to Maj Wakhle’s house and narrated the incident. He assured me not to worry and that he would take the tests of the Recruit Tara Chand Rao the very next day. Needless to say, Tara Chand was an above-average Recruit and cleared all the tests in the first instant. Being from a clerical cadre, after attestation, he served in various units and as an NCO clerk did his post-graduation, LLB, and doctorate in Military studies and got a Special List Commission. He took premature retirement after the unexpected demise of his father and took the reins of the modest Skylark Company and took it to its present status.
Maj Tara Chand Rao’s hard work, shrewd business sense, desire to care for ex-servicemen, and as part of his corporate social responsibilities, he mostly employs ex-servicemen in his group of companies. He looks after the ex-servicemen wing of the Haryana and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committees. It is on his behest on 16 September 2011 the foundation stone of the Rezangla Memorial at Palam Vihar was laid by the Honourable Chief Minister of Haryana Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda that was attended by a large number of ex-servicemen, war widows, four former Chiefs of the Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air force besides many three and four-star Generals, Brigadiers and other officers.
Lately, Maj (Dr) TC Rao after venturing into business, tried his luck in NCR politics to fight local elections firstly, as the Congress leader and lately as the BJP one with not much luck.
Over the years, I had totally forgotten Recruit Tara Chand Rao’s incident narrated above as many such incidents one goes through in every day’s family, professional, and social life. During the last Oak Lunch organized in Infantry Mess in Delhi Cantt on 30 July 2011, I saw one grey-headed unfamiliar figure anxiously waiting at the entrance of the lounge where the OAK lunch was being hosted. He was looking for some old familiar friend. At least, I did not know him. Seeing me, he smiled and enquired if I knew Col Bhatia and that he was present in the gathering. I smiled and said that I was the one, simultaneously regretting that I was sorry I could not place him.
He gripped my shaking hand tightly for a long time and asked me again and again if I could remember him. He said that what he was today, was because of “you Sir.” I pleaded my ignorance and guilt, taking the shield of my fading memory in old age. There was a glint in his eyes and his numerous thanks for gratitude of the unknown made me a lot uneasy. Then, he unfolded the story narrated above, saying repeatedly that if I had not gone to Maj Wakhle‘s house that day, his life perhaps would not have changed. He would have either deserted or committed suicide. I told him that I did nothing and that what he was today was due to his sheer hard work and dedication and that I have just lived to pen his story for the day.
The Palam Vihar Rezang La Memorial was constructed with the sheer efforts, missionary zeal, and dedication of the same Recruit/Clerk who later became Maj (Dr) TC Rao. I attended its inauguration a decade back.