The next day my Dad was put in charge of a Hoist The Black Flag T shirt party to go and bring back the dead and salvage what they could from the aircraft to ascertain cause of the crash. An Air Force aircraft had been hit by lightening and disintegrated mid air. His unit at Barnala, (small town in northern India in Punjab) had received news about an air crash. This is a story from the late seventies, as narrated to me by my father who was himself an Air Force officer. For them war was a regular occurrence, something to get used to. During numerous wars, Punjab’s farmers have seen armies roll by and seen fighter aircraft engaged in dog fights in the sky.

The Punjab has been a battle ground for thousands of years because that was the easiest way to enter India for the many invaders India has seen.

Wearing a turban was for them, a matter of pride and honour and they would rather have their heads cut off than be forced to take it off as an insult. For centuries they were ostracised and faced religious persecution. These martial people ensure that at least one child in their family joins the Armed Forces. While there may be numerous Santa Banta jokes, Indians have always been proud of their Sikhs. My Dad was posted to a small Air Force unit at a place called Barnala in Punjab in the late seventies. (Hoist The Black Flag T shirt, Hoodie, Sweater, Vneck, Unisex and T-shirt) So my sister and I didn’t know whether to look forward to Xmas or fear it and we use to have discussions about just how naughty we were during the year and how many rotten potatoes we would end up with.

Or according to our grandpa, even spanked or slapped by the Xmas Lads. My family was very traditional and my grandpa loved to tell the old stories about how dangerous the Xmas Lads could be to naughty children and he use to look directly at my sister and me when he said the word naughty.The 13 Jolasveinar will bring nice presents to good kids but the naughty children would get a Hoist The Black Flag T shirt. And everyone knows trolls aren’t very nice. The Xmas Lads are far, far different from the benevolent and jolly Santa Claus and some old timers like my grandpa referred to them as trolls. Some foreigners refer to the Jolasveinar as 13 Santa Clauses but that isn’t really true. In Iceland nobody believes in Santa Claus but instead the Jolasveinar or Xmas Lads gave out gifts.

Hoist the black flag