bls31
May 15th, 2016, 08:08 AM
My Own Small Exodus Moment
The TV was playing the scene from the film Exodus where Moses leads the flock of Hebrews from Egypt, after a torturous climb through mountains and across the sea to safety.
It was back in 1963, the Seven Brigade had been moved to Ambala, after the 1962 debacle, to be shaken back, once again into an effective fighting formation.
Battle inoculation at Narayangarh field firing ranges was the current ongoing activity for the troops being, part of the shaking exercise, at the time of this small incidence.
The troops were marching on the road to the ranges, for inoculation in batches, and it was now the turn of the Signal Section.
Onward we marched, during the moonless night till we came to an abrupt halt, the move forward being stopped by the causeway getting flooded by a fast flowing stream, in full fury due to the heavy rain in it’s catchment area that fateful nigh.
I was in a quandary; we had to reach the ranges by first light so as to make to the slot given to the signal section while facing us here was this stream: many accidents have been reported and lives lost, including my friend Lt Puri from my 40 Medium Regiment days who along his jeep was swept away, earlier by adventurous attempts to cross the flash flooded causeways.
In the semi darkness, it was foolhardy to plod ahead regardless, especially as it was difficult to judge the force of the current and also as to how deep was the water and where.
Five decades later, it is difficult to recall as to from where I managed to get the long stick or was it a broken branch of some tree floating around, but it came handy, as I managed to judged depth at each step, taken slowly and deliberately while I led the boys across, and made it our slot, albeit a bit wet around the trouserbottoms due to the wading across.
On the return journey, it was an anticlimax: the stream across the causeway had by now exhausted it’s fury, getting reduced to a trickle with all the water having flown down
The TV was playing the scene from the film Exodus where Moses leads the flock of Hebrews from Egypt, after a torturous climb through mountains and across the sea to safety.
It was back in 1963, the Seven Brigade had been moved to Ambala, after the 1962 debacle, to be shaken back, once again into an effective fighting formation.
Battle inoculation at Narayangarh field firing ranges was the current ongoing activity for the troops being, part of the shaking exercise, at the time of this small incidence.
The troops were marching on the road to the ranges, for inoculation in batches, and it was now the turn of the Signal Section.
Onward we marched, during the moonless night till we came to an abrupt halt, the move forward being stopped by the causeway getting flooded by a fast flowing stream, in full fury due to the heavy rain in it’s catchment area that fateful nigh.
I was in a quandary; we had to reach the ranges by first light so as to make to the slot given to the signal section while facing us here was this stream: many accidents have been reported and lives lost, including my friend Lt Puri from my 40 Medium Regiment days who along his jeep was swept away, earlier by adventurous attempts to cross the flash flooded causeways.
In the semi darkness, it was foolhardy to plod ahead regardless, especially as it was difficult to judge the force of the current and also as to how deep was the water and where.
Five decades later, it is difficult to recall as to from where I managed to get the long stick or was it a broken branch of some tree floating around, but it came handy, as I managed to judged depth at each step, taken slowly and deliberately while I led the boys across, and made it our slot, albeit a bit wet around the trouserbottoms due to the wading across.
On the return journey, it was an anticlimax: the stream across the causeway had by now exhausted it’s fury, getting reduced to a trickle with all the water having flown down