bls31
November 23rd, 2013, 11:29 AM
PART TWO
IMA Dehradun was an obstacle course to be concurred only by extreme effort, use of will power and determination. Every time I banged my foot on the Drill Square in front of Chetwood Hall, some equation or formula learnt with so much of effort, in college and university would drop out of my head. Many times I did managed to hit my knees into the wooden horse on the PT ground while trying to jump over it and kept on trying till I managed to be over and on the other side. By grit and will power I did manage to transit from a gentlemen cadet to an officer in the Corps of Signals on 3rd Jun 55.
School of Signals was a different story. The technical side was no problem but the tedious details of manpower and equipment holdings at various levels of section, company, and regiment to be crammed to get good marks in the tests left me cold and I passed -out with an average grading.
Life on posting to the regiment was a different game altogether. Young officers were to be seen only and not heard. The Senior Subaltern, first Lakhanpa and later AJS Gill, was the Captain of the YO’s team, our guide, friend and philosopher. The adjutants office was the most dreaded place in the sprawling campus over which the regiment was spread, The Commanding officer sat in a room, which we would skirt around even when it was unoccupied.
The CO was one the toughest known and a hard taskmaster. The Company Commander, believed in doing things right rather than doing right things. Commanding the most technical company with little technical knowledge at his command, he could only blow hot and cold and wield the stick.
My First OC had a lot in forming my attitude towards Army in general and Signals in particular. He taught me the importance of delegation, responsibility towards, confidence and faith in subordinates also the importance of the ability to distinguish between a horse and mule, when to listen and when to only hear. But I am more than indebted to my JCOs, NCOs and soldiers for holding my hand and not letting me down in those formative years. Above all I learnt the value of dedication also the fact that in Signals we were basically a service provider, the reason for our existence was providing communication to the formation and that it was a twenty four hour, round the clock job.
Command of the Signal Section of an Independent Brigade at isolated Yole, far away from the influence as also any possible help and assistance from the regiment at Jalandhar, did add another brick in building the wall of
self-confidence. Intimate contact with staff on daily basis was both an experience and training in Signals- Staff relationship which no amount of classroom teaching could provide.
An opportunity to be the Rover detachment commander for The Chief of Army Staff Gen Thimayya on holiday at Manali in October 1987 was the high point of my life as junior officer. It provided me with a close look at the top of the Army hierarchy. Although I was independent administratively was fortunate to be invited, rather ordered to sit on the table with the General, his gracious wife and vivacious daughter, the other two of us were the ADC and his Military Secretary Lt Col Munshi. I had the privilege to see the human side of the General from very close. His compassion for a junior most officer, I also saw the hen- packed husband the dotting father, enjoying being the butt of jokes from the two of them. The same person changing to the Chief of Army Staff, the steel of the personality, the aura so visible that it hit me in the chest even from a distance, the moment we arrived back at Pathankot, where he was to address the garrison troops. Seeing him, now, from such a distance I felt lost, having been part of the family for a fortnight.
The experience I had during that fortnight in the value of compassion, human behaviour and attitude towards others would have been otherwise impossible to gain.
Another independent posting to a Gunner Regiment was a lesson on how to survive in an alien environment. I also got my first lesson in man management in a situation where the senior section NCO had lost respect in the eyes of the men a difficult situation for command.
My marriage made me a member of another family, a large one at that, a loving mother-in law a father-in- law to whom I was persona non grata. He had no love lost for those who could not give company in his daily drinking bouts. A kid brother- in- law who was fascinated with my Smith and Wesson Army issue pistol, the elder sister with whom I always had running battles for reasons known and unknown, possibly she was reluctant to let go of her influence and authority over her youngr sister, something strongly resented by me. The younger sisters, to whom I was from a different world with my Western music records and ballroom dancing, for some to wonder and others to admire as one’s wont from a distance.
Redistribution of love and affection, rationing the annual leave
between the two families and the desire to spend some time together with Jeet taught me how to carry the balancing act between two opposing forces, possibly my knowledge of dynamics as learnt in Intermediate Mathematics did help to some extent. Rosy a perfectionist in so far I was concerned was always trying to sand paper any aberrations perceived by her in my personality. Marriage to her made me realise the beauty and joy of loving for love’s sake.
I was fortunate in that in my early days I served under difficult, tough and demanding Commanding Officers with an attitude, which could make or break a youngster. It also had a silver lining; with every officer in the same boat there was tremendous mutual regard and support from among us this kept our heads above the surface and prevented our sinking.
My first lesson in military writing was when the CO made me redraft a paragraph on Range Classification (Firing of personal weapons on the firing
range by officers and men of the regiment) for the daily Regimental Orders, seven times before he was satisfied.
With this background and profile which took thirty years of formation of which eight were in the Army, I landed in Towang one day in 1962, hoping to proceed on annual leave after a short tenure, little knowing what was in store for me.
IMA Dehradun was an obstacle course to be concurred only by extreme effort, use of will power and determination. Every time I banged my foot on the Drill Square in front of Chetwood Hall, some equation or formula learnt with so much of effort, in college and university would drop out of my head. Many times I did managed to hit my knees into the wooden horse on the PT ground while trying to jump over it and kept on trying till I managed to be over and on the other side. By grit and will power I did manage to transit from a gentlemen cadet to an officer in the Corps of Signals on 3rd Jun 55.
School of Signals was a different story. The technical side was no problem but the tedious details of manpower and equipment holdings at various levels of section, company, and regiment to be crammed to get good marks in the tests left me cold and I passed -out with an average grading.
Life on posting to the regiment was a different game altogether. Young officers were to be seen only and not heard. The Senior Subaltern, first Lakhanpa and later AJS Gill, was the Captain of the YO’s team, our guide, friend and philosopher. The adjutants office was the most dreaded place in the sprawling campus over which the regiment was spread, The Commanding officer sat in a room, which we would skirt around even when it was unoccupied.
The CO was one the toughest known and a hard taskmaster. The Company Commander, believed in doing things right rather than doing right things. Commanding the most technical company with little technical knowledge at his command, he could only blow hot and cold and wield the stick.
My First OC had a lot in forming my attitude towards Army in general and Signals in particular. He taught me the importance of delegation, responsibility towards, confidence and faith in subordinates also the importance of the ability to distinguish between a horse and mule, when to listen and when to only hear. But I am more than indebted to my JCOs, NCOs and soldiers for holding my hand and not letting me down in those formative years. Above all I learnt the value of dedication also the fact that in Signals we were basically a service provider, the reason for our existence was providing communication to the formation and that it was a twenty four hour, round the clock job.
Command of the Signal Section of an Independent Brigade at isolated Yole, far away from the influence as also any possible help and assistance from the regiment at Jalandhar, did add another brick in building the wall of
self-confidence. Intimate contact with staff on daily basis was both an experience and training in Signals- Staff relationship which no amount of classroom teaching could provide.
An opportunity to be the Rover detachment commander for The Chief of Army Staff Gen Thimayya on holiday at Manali in October 1987 was the high point of my life as junior officer. It provided me with a close look at the top of the Army hierarchy. Although I was independent administratively was fortunate to be invited, rather ordered to sit on the table with the General, his gracious wife and vivacious daughter, the other two of us were the ADC and his Military Secretary Lt Col Munshi. I had the privilege to see the human side of the General from very close. His compassion for a junior most officer, I also saw the hen- packed husband the dotting father, enjoying being the butt of jokes from the two of them. The same person changing to the Chief of Army Staff, the steel of the personality, the aura so visible that it hit me in the chest even from a distance, the moment we arrived back at Pathankot, where he was to address the garrison troops. Seeing him, now, from such a distance I felt lost, having been part of the family for a fortnight.
The experience I had during that fortnight in the value of compassion, human behaviour and attitude towards others would have been otherwise impossible to gain.
Another independent posting to a Gunner Regiment was a lesson on how to survive in an alien environment. I also got my first lesson in man management in a situation where the senior section NCO had lost respect in the eyes of the men a difficult situation for command.
My marriage made me a member of another family, a large one at that, a loving mother-in law a father-in- law to whom I was persona non grata. He had no love lost for those who could not give company in his daily drinking bouts. A kid brother- in- law who was fascinated with my Smith and Wesson Army issue pistol, the elder sister with whom I always had running battles for reasons known and unknown, possibly she was reluctant to let go of her influence and authority over her youngr sister, something strongly resented by me. The younger sisters, to whom I was from a different world with my Western music records and ballroom dancing, for some to wonder and others to admire as one’s wont from a distance.
Redistribution of love and affection, rationing the annual leave
between the two families and the desire to spend some time together with Jeet taught me how to carry the balancing act between two opposing forces, possibly my knowledge of dynamics as learnt in Intermediate Mathematics did help to some extent. Rosy a perfectionist in so far I was concerned was always trying to sand paper any aberrations perceived by her in my personality. Marriage to her made me realise the beauty and joy of loving for love’s sake.
I was fortunate in that in my early days I served under difficult, tough and demanding Commanding Officers with an attitude, which could make or break a youngster. It also had a silver lining; with every officer in the same boat there was tremendous mutual regard and support from among us this kept our heads above the surface and prevented our sinking.
My first lesson in military writing was when the CO made me redraft a paragraph on Range Classification (Firing of personal weapons on the firing
range by officers and men of the regiment) for the daily Regimental Orders, seven times before he was satisfied.
With this background and profile which took thirty years of formation of which eight were in the Army, I landed in Towang one day in 1962, hoping to proceed on annual leave after a short tenure, little knowing what was in store for me.