How I passed my Sanskrit exam( A real life story)
It was at Udhampur in 1979 and I had taken admission in class IX after coming from St Joseph,s college at Allahabad as my father got posted to Udhampur. Getting admission into the Central School was a great struggle as I had come from a convent school and thus had to appear in the test and the aspect of number of transfers of the parent was the major criterion for getting into it which fortunately was in my favour as my Father had the maximum no of postings in the last seven years. Then there was some problem with my young age as I did not fulfil the aspect of minimum age standards required to be in class IX for which my Father had to run to the KV Sangathan at Delhi for taking the permission as a special case. Due to this I was not on the regular rolls of the school for about a month till such time a formal letter was received by the school from the Sangathan after which I was formally on rolls of the school. As soon as this problem finished I encountered yet another one and that was studying Sanskrit. I had never studied the subject in my life earlier and did not know a word of it The subject of Sanskrit was in full swing where everybody had already spent about 3 years in their earlier classes and were thus well versed with it whereas I had to start from the very scratch and had first to understand the ABC of it.
I was as it is fed up of so much change of schools from the last 7 years since the shifting meant the change of entire syllabus ,dress and sessions but somehow I was able to pull on being fortunate to have educated parents wherein mostly my mother used to take care of my teaching part of it. After coming here my Father decided to teach me physics ,chemistry and maths and the remaining subjects were dealt with by my mother. The buck stopped at Sanskrit which no one in our family knew a word about.
I used to sit in the class and watch everyone speak out the answers when the teacher asked them the questions and when my turn used to come for answering I could not even blurt out a single word as the words went above my head. I however started to know what they meant but that was a drop in the ocean and did not make any worthwhile difference. Initially I thought that it would not make much of a difference as even if I fail in it I may not get good position but would still be promoted to the next class with marks of one subject underlined in red and thereafter in X there would be no such problem as Sanskrit was only till IX class.
But one day I came to know from one of the teachers that if you fail even in one subject you will not be promoted to the next class and would thus loose a year. Hearing this I got very depressed. The first thing I did was to confirm this and after confirming from the staff I gathered courage to tell this to my Father. Soon there was tension which engripped everyone in my house as the syllabus was quiet a bit for a novice.
After adequate attempts to learn this language a decision was arrived at that a tuition be kept for me on this subject in order to pass the exam. So now the hunt for the teacher commenced. It was also planned that it would be better if a teacher from the school itself is hired as would be able to help better since would be knowing the trend based on which the question paper would be set up. So first the actual teacher teaching Sanskrit was contacted who raised his hands as was under posting . Hence another teacher from junior section named Mr Gopal Hari was contacted who agreed on the condition that I have to come to his house in the city which was about 10 Kms away from the school (in the direction opposite to my house) after the school is over in the evening and then I had to rush back home in the local city bus for a distance of about 14 kms. This was apart from the enormous fees he charged. Since we had no other option it was decided that I would be going for the tuition everyday to Udhampur city after the school is over.
I started going to the city in a bus jam packed with the students and teachers. The bus used to take about 45 min to reach the destination ,then a walk of about a km and finally in the streets of Udhampur city for arriving at the house of the tutor. I used to wait outside his house till the time he used to reach there, open the lock and then enter his room on the first floor. He used to spend about half an hour in refreshing himself and then we used to start studying. I started from ABC but had to speed up to catch with the class as the class was 3 years ahead of me. Sanskrit subject although very scoring involves learning by rote method of memorising in which one learns without going into the meanings of the words which required time to assimilate . He used to teach me two lines and then asked me to learn it by writing which involved more wastage of time. But I had no other way and had to listen to him as there was no choice for me. I tried my level best to learn the subject and after that had to rush home. This whole process would waste about three hours daily and consume the timings of other subjects. My rest went for a six and things were becoming difficult for me day by day especially after the long bus journey.
I somehow started to learn it but my confidence level was still near zero itself. Then one day there was a unit test. I was still not sure of passing it so I sat next to my friend Balwinder who knew a little bit although he was an average student but was ready to help to the best of his ability. The test started and it was still Chinese for me except the fact that the script was of hindi language. I could hardly remember a few words of the shlokas which contributed about 20 marks but could only write three words after which I had forgot everything. The exam was in progress and I looked towards Balwinder who was sitting next to me, indicated him that I knew nothing and am expecting help from him. The Sanskrit Madam was strict and used to pounce on the student who used to turn his neck . I did not know much about the tricks of copying being unexperienced in that field as never had felt the need so desperately. I observed how some of the students were managing. Then based on what I saw I applied the same technique by resting the forehead on the left hand with elbows on the desk and writing with the right hand. I turned only my eyeballs on to Balwinder’s answer sheet who was kind enough to align it as per convenience of my vision so that I could read it easily. I then wasted no time and copied it word by word by staggering the answering order to avoid getting caught if the teacher by chance develops suspicion on me. Soon I copied all the answers from his sheet who had copied it from the next person, an expert, in front who in turn copied from a book kept under the desk . The test finished but my tension did not as today I somehow managed but the thought worried me for future and I wondered what if Balwinder does not sit next to me next time then who would help me? Anyhow the tension for the day was over.
Next day when the marks were given I got 7 out of 10 and Balwinder 6 out of 10. How did this happen I do not know ; maybe due to a better handwriting I suppose. The days passed on like this. Soon there was the next test but I could not appear in it as had fallen sick. Now the teacher on my rejoining the school told me that she will take it day after tomorrow especially for the students who could not appear in it on the exam day. This tensed me further as I was all alone with nobody to help me. I inquired who all were to give the test apart from me and came to know that we were three of us including me. One was a girl by the name of Deepa and the other a male student, Rajneesh. Both were very studious and amongst top five in the class and the worst part was that I knew neither of them so closely that I could request them to help me out since I was new to the class and barely knew only a few of them sitting near me. Rajneesh used to sit in the front row far away from me and was a quiet and introvert type of a boy who never mixed with the backbenchers so was out of question to approach. Now the second option of approaching a girl for help was even more embarrassing for me and that also when I was very shy of speaking to them. I thought what impression she would carry about me if I say this to her and how can a girl have so much courage to help me out of way taking so much risk. Not a chance! I thought and considered it better to fail than to ask someone for such a favour. Balwinder told me that this girl may help as he had noticed this from his experience and there is no harm in asking her but I still could not convince myself to approach her.
I tried my level best to learn the opposite words by the rote method including a shloka for it which catered for about 30 marks and I thought that somehow I would be able to manage the rest by hook or crook . I met some professional copycats in the class who used to carry out the task without any fear as if are making notes from the book right under the nose of the teacher and the teacher never used to come to know about it, but I lacked that expertise and ability to take that risk. One of my recently made new friend Virinder Dogra who was a very good sportsman supported me by boosting my morale that he would hand over the chit to me after which I would have to copy it on my own but my hands used to tremble as it was very difficult for a person to adopt this strategy if he is practicing it for the very first time and within minutes would get caught so I rejected this idea also. This exam was important as it catered for 30 percent marks which were to be contributed for the finals. I having no other option started to study by applying all my efforts to learn the subject by the rote method.
On the day of the exam the teacher told all three of us to go outside and sit at three corners of the cemented stage where our morning assembly prayer used to be held in sun so that the remaining class is not disturbed. We all were soon out and I was praying for the best. I was at one corner of the stage, the girl ,Deepa adjacent to me in the next corner and Rajneesh, diagonally opposite to me of the rectangular stage on the third corner. The paper was distributed and everyone started off. I as per my preparation wrote the shloka, did write some opposite words but forgot few of them and then I was blank as the language was Chinese to me. Rajneesh like a good boy was writing slowly and beautifully on his own and was consistent, Deepa was also on the job writing speedily and I like a fool was watching here and there sitting helpless cursing my stars that why did I miss the exam when the complete class had given. Asking Rajneesh was out of question as he was the farthest and secondly not closely aquainted to me. So if someone could help me it was this girl whom also I did not know much except that our seats were near each other in the rear of the class being the backbenchers. So with great effort I gathered guts to ask her what is the answer to the opposites of three words. She looked at me and then turned her sight on her paper and carried on writing. I again asked her the same thing and in return she asked me to show the shloka first . I understood she may be wanting to bargain the deal and would then definitely tell me the answer. I immediately turned my paper and lifted it with both my hands to show her what I had written. She glanced it by enlarging her pupils of her big eyes, scanned the same and continued writing. Now it was my turn and I was waiting for her reciprocation but she did not lift her head. Meanwhile the teacher came for the round and asked if we have any difficulty in doing the paper and we nodded all is fine. Deepa took permission for a break from the teacher to have some water and kept a stone on her answer sheet so that it does not fly with the wind and left her place. Now I was in a very anxious mood so seeing the opportunity which generally arrives once only I decided to take a risk: The risk of going to place where Deepa’s paper was kept and see those words as I had earned it by paying the cost of my shloka to her. So I went quietly near her paper lifted the stone and read those three words. As I was writing them on my hand I heard a loud girlish voice,
”Rajinder stop it.”
It was Deepa who returned from the break. I got a small shock but calmed down as I first thought that the teacher has caught me. I quietly placed the stone on her answer sheet and came back to my place. The first thing I did was to write immediately what I had seen and noted so that I do not forget for all my efforts would have gone waste otherwise. She did not say anything after that nor did I ask her why she did not show me the paper for it is still a suspense till date even after 32 years. I think one day she may explain it when she reads this story. I cleared the paper and got 45% marks and the final countdown began as it was only one more and the last exam left : The final exam.
I had to score about 35% marks in the finals so that I could pass overall with 40% marks and the situation was getting grimmer day by day as it was becoming a matter of do or die for me. I worked hard but only working hard does not pay at all the times in life and one has to apply some brains also. I however gained some confidence in taking calculated risk and convinced myself that whatever I am doing was correct as the odds were against me and somehow I had to overcome it at any cost. I used to think of various ways of overcoming the forthcoming situation which I was to soon encounter just a few days ahead. One day as I was sitting in the class all alone during the recess after finishing my lunch thinking that if I fail everyone will leave me here only in this class and all this just for this useless and difficult subject although I was good in all other subjects. I looked up towards the moving fan which was making a noise and prayed ; Oh God ! Please help me out. I closed my eyes and had a cat’s nap. After awakening a thought came in my mind that I looked up only because there was a purpose to look up and that was to notice the noisy fan otherwise I would not have looked up as nobody generally looks towards the ceiling but only towards front, back and on the sides at the eyelevel where the walls are. An idea struck my mind due to this observation : What if I write a shloka on the ceiling when nobody is here and could make use of it at the appropriate time later during the exam. Yes! but this secret has to be inside me only and I should not discuss it with anyone till I land up in the next class. That was the deal which my mind immediately made with my conscience in presence of my heart as a witness.
The finals were in March1979. I did not leave any stone unturned in studying the subject . I consulted many of the studious lot to know what is important from the point of view of the exam and would come in exam for sure. Everyone gave his own opinion and the guess questions for the preparation piled up so much at the end of the discussion that it was as good as studying the complete book itself. There was another student girl, Madhavi who understood my problem and as a good classmate regularly gave me her notes for learning the subject from the basics and hints of the important matter from the exam point of view but the time was short and I was only interested in passing. My friend Balwinder also provided all the help to the best of his capability. Deepa helped me out in giving the important tips to form the opposite words . Dogra taught all the tricks of the trade to gather information from left and right and reduced my stress through his laughing techniques. The tutor of the city was more interested in getting Rum bottles from my father and used to convey messages through me. The Sanskrit teacher was only bothered about completion of her syllabus rather than making a person like me understand as my takeoff point was far behind.
Two days prior to the Sanskrit exam when the English exam was over and everyone had left the class I kept sitting in the class itself with my head on the desk inside my folded arms pretending to be sick and having a headache. The complete class had left. I first went and closed the front door of the class and then set out for my task. I stood on the desk, kept a chair over it and after securing it took my Sanskrit shlokas slip in my left hand and a pencil in my right and wrote the complete shloka clearly on the ceiling just over the seat in front of me. Also I wrote six lines of an essay near it and quietly came down placing all the disturbed stuff back to its place. After that I left the class quietly.
The next day was science exam and I did it well. I checked everything was intact and visible as planned. I also studied the pattern of the invigilator as to how many times he looks up and found not even once he raised his chin except when he sneezed but he was near the blackboard then. Hence the probability of his looking up at my place of treasure was very grim. That much risk was worth taking.
Then came the D day. If I succeed today it would be a great achievement as my life ahead was dependent on this . The exam instructions were given and adequate warnings by the invigilator were enough to shake me up as I was taking a great but calculative risk. The papers were distributed and everyone started off. I first wrote what all I knew and to my surprise I did well enough to get the pass marks from the efforts I had applied . I still did not wanted to take any chance as it was a project for me. After about the three fourth time was over I consolidated my courage and placed my hand under my chin and started to look to the front and towards the top in between giving the appearance to the observer that I am doing mind bongling of my thoughts to recall my memories .I had a look at the complete shloka on the ceiling and found that I had incidently written it correctly except some grammatical mistakes to which and I applied the necessary corrections for making it one hundred percent correct. The essay lines also came in handy. The opposite words were easy hence I did not take unnecessary risk to look up again. Oh! Thank God. The voice came from my inside that I have passed the Sanskrit exam and now only written confirmation is required which I will be getting after sometime when I receive the mark sheet. I only prayed that this exam gets over safely. Suddenly the Sanskrit teacher told while standing near the blackboard to one of the student sitting just ahead of me,
“Praveen after the exam is over kindly give a complaint of this noise making fan in the staffroom”
Praveen replied and asked ,”Yes Maam .But which fan?”
“The one above your head,” she said looking at Praveen and not the fan without using any gesture.
“This one ? Yes maam” He said pointing his finger towards the fan without looking at it and continued writing his paper.
I was shaked for a moment and felt a chill in my spine but did not budge an inch . I kept quiet and only prayed. The hard time was over and so was the time of the exam. Everyone was asked to stop writing as the time up was announced. Soon the papers were collected and everyone was out of the class. I finished my water bottle after coming out and took a long satisfactory breathe. The fear was gone.
Soon our results were declared and I had scored 55% marks in Sanskrit. All I could see in the report card for some time were these marks of Sanskrit as my eyes were filled with tears of joy and were unable to see other marks .I wiped my tears and saw the result passed and then looked at the other marks which were as expected.
In life it is not that all the time you have to strictly follow the path of 100% truth which we read in our Moral Science and if that path is to be followed it is possible only if everyone down the chain follows that. Minor faults and cheating done for achieving the good is no cheating I have experienced. Only your conscience should allow you to do it and if it does it is no crime at all.
If the system catered for a student to start from a scratch and do the syllabus of four years in one year; Is it right?
If the teacher had shown interest in making me learn by putting extra time rather than interested in completing the syllabus ;Is it right?
If there was no Sanskrit teacher for two months in a school; Is it right?
If the tutor is more interested in getting rum bottles from a student by exploiting his situation; Is it right
and above all is it right that if a student fails in just one least important subject (which is of no use to a student except if he wants to become a pandit) and is good in all other subjects to fail him and waste his complete year thereby further demoralising him.
It is and it is definitely not right. It is wrong.
And if the same student has fought wholeheartedly and outwitted the system when all the odds were against him I am sure you would agree that I was not wrong.
This is a real story and all the characters and names in this story are also real who are very dear to me. They might not been aware of the trauma I had undergone while I was their classmate 32 years ago for it would have not been possible for me without their love, affection and help they had rendered me to pass my Sanskrit exam and what would have been my fate otherwise I cannot say.
I today, through this story salute them all.
I do not mean any harm or disrespect to them as God has given individual capabilities to each and everyone of us and everyone is one of its only kind and best in the world. Still if anyone has any objection of feeling offended and wants to have his name changed in the story I will certainly do it cheerfully to keep him happy because
I love you all.

Young and innocent

The Draft
I joined my first unit in Nagrota (J&K) immediately after completing the Young Officer’s course at Pune. I was full of energy as a youngster in the Army is at that age and was eager to exercise the potential I had attained in the training by putting in my best to make a mark by ensuring that whatever task is given to me is done well before time and be praiseworthy so that the senior officer tasking me is well impressed.
Once , the Adjutant who incidentally was a senior officer called me in his office and said,
“What are you doing now?
I replied,"Sir I am going to the workshop to inquire about the status of Jeep which has been given for repairs since it has been off road for quiet a long time”
“OK then before you go there get me the draft which I had given yesterday” he said .
I did not think it necessary to ask him further details as I thought I understood the task and replied coming out of his office,
“Yes sir”
I took the Jeep and started off towards the workshop. While on the way I thought that since this is the first time he has given me a task and that also his personal work so I should not annoy him in any case. I told the driver to first go to the bank so that I finish off with the draft work which he must have given to the bank manager , collect it and then go to the workshop to avoid missing out its collection on the return journey for if I get late the bank may close. I thus went straight to the bank .
Since I was in uniform so like an officer I straightaway entered the cabin of the bank Manager and shook hands with him introducing myself. He also reciprocated with a warm smile. Initially I had very sweet introductory talks with him and then came to the point asking him for the draft which my Adjutant, Maj Vohra had asked for.
“Which draft ?” the manager asked me curiously
“The draft Maj Vohra had given you. I hope it must be ready by now,” I said to him with a hope of getting a positive reply from him.
“No he did not give me any draft”, he replied astonishingly.
“No! no ! You please ask your staff you may not be remembering it” I said trying to help remind him.
“What are you talking? I already told you. Please come later on as I have others waiting for me for their work. Anyhow I will still check up for your satisfaction” he replied trying to avoid me.
I felt bad as it was my first task which had not progressed a bit leave apart its completion as I could not even locate head or tail of the draft by now.I came out of his cabin and was lost in the thoughts what to do.
After waiting for some time outside his cabin I started to become restless and inquired from the other staff concerned about it asking them to locate the draft but still could not trace it out. I then started to lose patience and went inside the Manager’s cabin again and had a heated argument with him blaming that his staff does not want to work and hence is not applying adequate efforts to search the draft. I also made it clear to him that I would not budge from there till the time they locate and hand over the draft to me even if I have to stay there for the rest of the day.
The bank manager then stopped his work and gave orders to search for the draft to his staff and everyone was looking for the draft inside their files, over the almirahs,inside the drawers, under the heaps of files and in their trays . After a thorough search for good about half an hour was over and they still could not trace the draft he finally gave up and said,
“ I am sorry there is no such draft but please give me time till tomorrow I will get you a duplicate one issued if I am unable to find tghe same but you have to get this form signed again from Maj Vohra” saying this he handed over an empty form to me.
I was very disheartened but could not do anything as the manager had tried his level best and I was convinced that the draft would have really been misplaced by them.
With a long face I got into the jeep and asked the driver to go to the workshop. After finishing the work at the workshop I returned back to the unit in off mood. I went to my office and quietly sat on my chair thinking what to reply to the Adjutant for the work he had given to me thinking about the forthcoming conversation in my mind.
Should I tell him,
“Sir I tried my level best but could do nothing as your draft got lost” for which he would say,
“Why did you not get lost yourself.”
‘No! he would understand my problem and would not say any such thing.' My mind said to me.
Such thoughts kept rebounding in my mind time and again.
I finally concluded that whatever he may say but the kudo for the punch of good work done is lost now . Hence to convince myself I only thought that he would only say
“ Well tried, doesn’t matter".My heart was not ready to accept this as I expected nothing less than Well done! from him.
As I was thinking all this my clerk came to me and discussed the various letters on which I had given him some work to do and just before leaving my office said happily,
“Sir while you were away to workshop , Maj Vohra had asked me for the draft over the telephone and I had handed over the same to him since was ready. He was happy as there was no mistake in it”
“Which draft? But that has been misplaced by the bank authorities how have you got it here?” I asked him curiously.
“No, not the bank draft but this draft of letter which has to be finalised?” My clerk said smilingly.
“You call that rough letter a draft?” I asked my clerk inquisitively.
“Yes sir! and there are three more lying in your ‘in tray’ waiting for being vetted by you” he said pointing to the three letters lying in the' in tray'.

On that day I came to know what a draft is apart from the bank draft which was the only draft known to me till then.

“Ok I’ll see those also,” I said in a normal tone of voice trying to hide my innocence and rung the bell to ask for a glass of water from the runner on duty.

Oh my God !What a day it has been . I kept mum and laughed inside me . What all I have been doing in the bank all this time?”
When I told Maj Vohra about this incident and he had a hearty laugh but was very impressed with my sincerity to the job. Thereafter whenever he met me after that day he would always smile at me and asked me if I got the draft from the bank. I never saw a frown on his face whenever he talked to me even if he would be angry with others for which others envied and wondered the reason.
I never went to the bank for about a month after that. When I went to collect cash for the pay collection duties the bank manager asked me ,”I hope you found the draft finally?” to which I replied
“Oh yes! Sorry for the inconvenience caused to you” and immediately switched over to the other topic to divert his attention asking him to provide small currency notes as would be easier for distribution to the men.

The coded stuff

TMT and LAPTOP
When I was posted at Jalandhar there was one officer Jagjit Singh with whom I got quiet close to and we used to share our lighter sides with each other . He was very blunt and never used to hesitate in saying anything and just stopped after reaching the thin line separating decency and vulgarity but never crossed it . Once I called him on phone on a Sunday and asked in punjabi
“Sir ki kar rahe ho Sunday noon koi programme banana hai bahar challan daa?(Sir! what are you doing on a Sunday ?Do you want to make some programme for outing ?)
He replied
“Oh nahin yaar aaj te apaan TMT ho kay TV dekh rahein aan( Oh no yaar! Today I am TMT and watching TV)
I querried,”What is TMT?”
He replied,” O hee ! Taang Mein Taang”(The same, Leg in Leg)
I asked,”Kiday naal”(With whom?)
He replied,” Oh Jalandhar te family station hain so it has to be my wife only”(Since Jalandhar is a family station hence it has to be my wife only)
He further asked me,”Too ki kar rihan hain”(What are you doing?)
I replied,”Main vee Laptop tey TV dekh rihaan haan”( I am also on laptop and watching TV)
He querried, ”Lap kisdee hain te top tein kaun hai ?”(Whose lap is it and who is on the top of lap?)
I replied,”Is noo suspense hee rahen do?(Let this be a suspense only)”
He said ,”Yaar too tey apni situation clear hi nahin kardaa. Main tey unjay hi majaak kar riha see. Main tey kalla TMT ho kay baithan TV dekh rihaa teh baal sukha rihaan haan”(Yaar! you do not clarify your situation. I was just joking. I am sitting alone keeping one leg over the other, watching TV and drying my hair)
Seeing him change the situation I replied,
“Main kehra serious ho kay keh rihaan haa, main vee tey apnay laptop te kal di chief engineer di presentation bana rihaan haan”( I am also not serious and am preparing for the tomorrow’s presentation for the chief engineer on my laptop computer)
He then replied ,”Mainoon teh lag riha hai ki apaan dono heen jhooth bol rahein haan”( I am getting a feeling that we both are telling lies now)
I then burst out laughing saying,”Main noon vee aihee lag rihaa hai”(I am also feeling the same)He said “OK then lets enjoy TMT and laptop” and we both finished our tele talk.

The fire bullet

The Tracer round
For the purposes of training a round(Bullet) is filled with some coloured explosive so that the path taken by a bullet can be easily seen with the naked eye especially at night due to the burning explosive behind the bullet as it is fired from the rifle. This helps the firer to adjust his aim accordingly and also to study the ballistics. In simple words it makes the flying bullet visible to the naked eye.
We had one of our instructor from Haryana from the lower ranks who was taking our class on Weapon Training on ballistics. After he finished his class one of us asked,
“Ustaad(Sir), Tracer round kisko kehtein hai?”(What is Tracer round?)
The Ustaad replied,
“Jis round kay shootar(Buttocks) mein aag lagi hoti hai usko tracer round kehtay hain”(The round whose buttocks is on fire is called tracer round)

Both the traits

Gurnam singh and Mandakini
I have a course mate of mine in signals by the name of Gurnam Singh. He is very dark skinned and jovial in nature. He was a fan of an actress called Mandakini who was very fair and always dreamt of her. On being asked by one of us during a Tea time at IMA when we were cadets and under training that what kind of a girl would he like to marry after he becomes an officer. Without wasting a second he at once replied,
” Like Mandakini or Mandakini herself if she agrees to my proposal”
Swami who was equally dark skinned and a quick wit said
”That will be no problem as we will make her agree for it but you will have one problem after marriage”
“What is it?” asked Gurnam amazingly showing curiosity.
“You will have black and white kids,” said Swamy seriously and ran away.

Zeroing in

Zip Zip Zoom
It was IMA in Oct 1987. I was in II term and about to finish half of my training of the full one year which we have to spend there before passing out. There was a “Fall in” called by the Company Sergeant Major(CSM) for giving some unnecessary instructions as he did not like the delay imposed in bringing eats for the tea time by some of us. No one was liking the unnecessary harassment at night time for such an issue. One of my coursemate, Pathak who had a habit of poking the seniors from a concealed position was standing in the middle row of the three lined “fall in” and hence was not visible to the Sarge from the front from where he was addressing us. In order to tease the Sarge and to show that he cared hoots for him he opened the Zipper of his trouser and closed it repeatedly moving the aglet of the zipper up and down in quick succession to make the sound which could be clearly heard by the Sarge in front during the pause of his sentence. For the first time the Sarge ignored it thinking that he might have misheard the sound and did not suspect anything. But again the same thing happened to which he just gave a curious look to his left side and continued to pass his instructions ---- may be he again must have wondered what the sound was of(Zip Zip Zip) but when it happened for the third time he understood that some one his trying to provoke him. He came running towards us to his left. I was standing to the left of Pathak in the same middle row and was cursing that today Pathak will put me into trouble. As he came near us there was a stunned silence and everyone was standing in attention looking in front with no movement of even their eyeballs.
“Who was it?” he said in a stern and loud voice.
There was no answer.
“I said who was it?” he repeated again.
He asked Joe standing in front of me. We were not supposed to break unity that was an unwritten law amongst every of us which everyone followed in letter and spirit but it was also a law that we should never tell a lie. Secondly no one would break so easily as everyone wanted to maintain good relations with each other till the time it did not affected him individually in his career. Hence Joe replied,
“Sir, the sound came from my back side” and kept quiet after that.
Sarge came towards me and asked the same question to which I replied’
“Sir I think it came from my right side” and thereafter I also kept mum.
The sarge took two steps towards the direction I had indicated , crossed Pathak and asked the person to the right of Pathak as to where the sound had come from to which he replied on the similar lines ,
” Sir the sound came from my left I suppose”
Now things were becoming clearer. The Sarge went to the rear row and asked the person standing behind Pathak the same question and he like all of us said,
”Sir the noise most probably came from my front”
The Sarge at once shouted ,” You bloody Pathak, fall out”
And pathak was in the Bajri order (All packs filled with small gravel to their full capacity and over the shoulders) thereafter for the rest of the night moving around the Sarge’s room.
Thank God ! he caught the right person we all prayed.

One for us

The fourth wire
If you notice the electric transmission wires while travelling in train or by road you will notice a set of four transmission wires going along with you on the way parallel to the road or rail which are basically high voltage wires to decrease the power losses in carriage of electricity from one place to another. Once I asked a village electrician who was repairing the switch of a street light on the pole that what are these four wires meant for ? Why there is not a single wire instead of four?
He told me that if we look up the lowermost wire nearest to us is meant for carrying a positive current, the one next to it above is for carriage of negative current ,the third one from the bottom is a neutral wire which helps in absorbing the leakage current if there is any short circuiting in the system for the safety.
“And the fourth one at the top”, I asked him curiously
“That is meant for the birds to sit and rest” he replied confidently.

The tilting Cup

Cup position
Giani Nirvail singh and, Smt Indigo Gandhari were invited for a tea party at Washington DC by their friend George Khush. After having adequate talks and finishing their cup of tea George placed the cup in a normal position as we do it. Indigo placed it upside down on the saucer with the bottom of the cup facing up. Seeing this Nirvail Singh was in a fix as could not understand in what position he should keep the cup. After a considerable thought he placed it in a tilting position in which the cup could be rolled on either side and sat down quietly. Seeing this George could not stop himself from asking reasons from both of his guests as to why they had kept their cups in those positions. Indigo replied that she does not want to have any more tea so she had kept it that way thereby ensuring that the waiter does not pour more tea even by mistake. George also added that he desires to have some more hence he had kept the cup in upright position so that the waiter pours some more tea. Now it was the turn of Nirvail to give his reasoning who said,
“If there is still some tea left then I will have it otherwise its all right”

Killing With Reflex Action

A Smart Response
Indo Pak war was in progress where the valiant soldiers of Indian Army were deployed on the border. There were two trenches of both the countries facing each other with a distance of about 150m between them with LOC( Line of control) running between them and firing was in full swing. Whosoever was getting chance was taking a shot at the other. Mohinder singh got an idea which would avoid wastage of bullets and ensure effective results. He called out loudly from inside his trench in a ducked position,
“Aslam Khan” and Aslam khan got up to look out of his trench curious to know as to who called him.
“Phat! Phat! Phat!,” Fired Mohinder singh from his rifle at him who was already waiting for him to pop out from his trench and killed Aslam Khan.
“Mohammed Akhtar,” Shouted Mohinder singh for the second time and Mohammed Akhtar popped out of his trench as to who had called his name
“Phat! Phat! Phat!”, Fired Mohinder singh again similarly and killed him also.
It carried on like this with two more.
Now the Pakis understood the strategy and thought of adopting the similar tactics with the Indians. Jaanbaaz Khan from the Pak trench shouted,
“ Mohinder singh!” waiting for him to pop out. But Mohinder singh sitting inside his trench with head ducked down shouted,
“Yahaan par nahin hain”(He’s not here) and the Pakis could do nothing.
Now Mohinder singh shouted in the same position from his trench
“Who had called Mohinder singh?”
At once Janbaaz Khan popped out and said
“Me”
“Phat! Phat! Phat!” came out the bullets from Mohinder singh’s rifle and killed Janbaaz Khan.

Awkward situation

The Unique Salute
I was posted in J &K when insurgency was in full swing and my company was sent in a remote location where a unit of RR( Rashtriya Rifles) was deployed .My task was to make some shelters for them and was thus staying with them. They had an Officer Ranbir singh who was one of the subunit commander but was not pulling on well with his commanding officer. He used to narrate how his CO used to insult him in front of the men he commanded. The enemity thus kept on increasing day by day. Finally one day he got fed up and when the CO called him for counselling he first listened to everything quietly and later abused his CO without anyone noticing it. The CO was shocked and shouted back at him but everyone thinking it to be a routine affair did not bother to even ask Ranbir as to what had happened. He later got a counselling letter from his CO but replied denying all the charges levied on him. Nothing could be done to him as there was no witness to the incident except the fact the enemity further increased.
The tension grew further and Ranbir now made it a point to abuse him at the first opportunity he got whenever he was alone in absence of any witness. This soon became a headache for the CO so he decided to trap Ranbir by placing a tape recorder below his table nicely connected to a switch near his bell switch and called Ranbir. Meanwhile Ranbir came to know about this from the electrician who had fixed the switch since the electrician was more loyal to Ranbir and was from his native place.
After reaching CO’s office Ranbir entered with a salute and stood in attention in front of him after which the CO started off to insult him with harsh words much harsher than he used daily to provoke him to reciprocate for recording the same which he could later use as an evidence in the court martial proceedings as per his planning. He said to Ranbir,
”Now you will salute again the proper way and get out from here “ just to infuriate him further.
You know what Ranbir did after that ?
He said loudly,
”Yes sir”, and performed the following action.
Opened his trouser zipper ,took out his organ, saluted smartly and after his hands came down from the saluting position put his organ back into the trouser, adjusted it properly ,closed the zipper, took a smart right turn and marched out of his office. As he marched out the sentry standing outside the CO’s office doing the duties of a stick orderly saluted Ranbir in a routine way to which Ranbir reciprocated and went back to his office as if nothing had happened.
After that day there was no tension between them as both of them must have reconciled with each other and signed a pact;
That Ranbir will give all the due respect to his CO in future and will not carry any hard feelings and:
CO promised him that he will not place any video camera in his office for his future endeavours to trap him again .
It was only after Ranbir was posted out that he revealed this secret to me after he was high immediately after his dining out speech while going to our tents as by then the CO had also been posted out.

Diplomacy

Ghost belief
Once I and my friend were cornered for being ragged by some second year students of Engg while I had just taken admission in Engg at Bidar. A student asked me do you believe in ghosts? I wondered why he had asked me this question and suddenly I noticed that there was a grave yard just behind the place where we were being ragged. I could fairly make out what would be his further course of action based on my answer. If I say no then he will definitely ask me to go to the graveyard and make me do some stupid act on some of the grave and if I say yes he would insult me and call me a timid person. So I replied him
“Sir I do not believe in ghosts but at the same time I do not take any pangaa(Challenge) with them either”
Hearing this he laughed and asked me to narrate a joke instead which I did and and came out of their trap.

Doublecrossed

DOUBLECROSSED
(A real life story of childhood)
It was St Josephs high school at Bathinda where I was studying in 5th std in 1975. I used to go on my bike to school which was about 3km from my house located in a civil area as the accommodation in the cantonment was not available being scarce. Those days traffic was not much and I used to take a detour along the main road since it was out of bounds for me . However at times I used to go to the market with my friends if the need of the hour demanded something. We had a very strict principal, ‘Mother Rosalie’ whose nature did not sound in resonance with her sweet name having Rose in it and one could easily be convinced after attending her class that what I said was true. She used to teach us English. We did not dare to miss out homework given by her and made it a point first to finish off with it immediately after reaching home and then resort to other things including having food so that were tension free later. The fact that she was the principal further added a feather in her cap of her authority and fear of degree of punishment. Her way of teaching was however excellent as she made it a point to drill everything into our heads of all the words she spoke during her lecture before dismissing the class.
One fine day after giving the homework she told us to bring a 200 page register from the market which would be the CW (Classwork ) notebook and would take into effect from tomorrow without fail and no excuses for not bringing it would be accepted. That was more than enough as her statement was the last word and could not be changed even if the highest authority in the town would approach her for changing her decision on request. Now everyone’s tail was on fire till the time one could get hold of that 200 page register.
The last period was going on so was the planning in everyone’s mind about how and where to go after the class to get it ; The school stationery shop, the stationery shop in police bazaar or elsewhere, whether it will be available? Whether the shops will be open at this time? What if I am unable to get it? Will she agree to our request ? What punishment will she give if we are unable to bring it the next day and hundreds of such doubts had already gripped our minds. I do not think anyone was concentrating in the class rather everyone was more interested in solving the problem of tomorrow. I tied up with my friend, Malwinder that we both will go to the market together in the afternoon to get the register as I do not think it will be available in the school tuck shop to which he agreed and it was decided that soon after having lunch he would come to my house from where we will go together to the market. Soon the class was over and everyone proceeded home. We checked from the tuck shop of the school and as expected the register was not available.
After reaching home I had my lunch and waited for my friend, Malwinder to come. It was 2 O clock in the afternoon and I was getting impatient for him. Soon I heard Trin! Trin! of his cycle bell and was exulted. As it is I was sitting in a ready position and we both took off immediately to the market. We crossed the main roads entered the Police bazaar and stopped at the stationery shop. On inquiring about its availability we came to know that only 100 page register is available which was not acceptable to us as it would be straight away rejected by her. So we went to another shop and another and still another but could not get it. The thought of taking two hundred page registers was also opted out as the principal had very categorically told us that she requires only one register. Now the tension started getting in our small heads and we prayed that we get it in time.
Malwinder was tall, hefty, stronger and older to me by about one year and was not so worried as I could make out from his face as compared to my state of mind since I was also new to the school. We also hunted for it in all the general merchant shops that if by chance some shopkeeper may have kept some stationery quota in his shop and this register might be available there but all in vain. But finally as luck would had it I found a register of 200 pages in a small general merchant shop and we both took a sigh of relief .
We at once asked the shopkeeper to pack two such registers and put our hand in the back pocket to take out the money for paying its price. The shopkeeper went inside and searched for the other piece but came out empty handed saying that only one piece is available. This gave birth to a new problem as to who will buy this as only one of us could do that. I was feeling shy to say that I would like to take it as I noticed it and had asked the shopkeeper first as Malwinder was still on his bike while I had gone inside the shop to inquire about it after reaching the shop and after my confirmation of its availability I called him to come inside the shop. I however gathered some moral courage to say softly to Malwinder ,
”I will take this one and we will go for the other one to the next shop”
Malwinder at once replied in a heavy and louder voice,” How can this be possible I am elder to you so it becomes my right first to buy this”.
I felt very bad seeing his behaviour change all of a sudden which was highly unexpected of him. If he felt so, he could have conveyed this in a pleasant and friendly way for I could have given it to him itself on the bonds of friendship.
“How can he talk like that to me being my friend?” I said to myself and kept quiet.
While I was thinking this he meanwhile ordered the shopkeeper to pack the register. I could not hold on any longer so I also said in a furious manner
”No, I located it first hence I would take it “ and the never ending argument started then and there at the shop itself.
Seeing this the Shopkeeper told us to first decide the matter amongst ourselves and then come to his shop. Then the argument ended with the decision that no one of us will buy this and we go further for its search in some other shop and accordingly we proceeded ahead.
We searched that register in all the shops but could not find it anywhere . Two hours had passed and it was getting late so we dropped the idea and decided to return on the pretext that we will search out somewhere near our respective houses or else tell ‘Mother Rosalie’ that we could not get it anywhere and require some more time to get it facing the consequences whatsoever. We returned back to our respective homes and were obviously tense.
At the time of doing homework of other subjects I was feeling very uncomfortable and was not able to concentrate with all the weird thoughts flashing in my mind of the state I was going to face the next day. Exhausted from these thoughts I finally arrived at one decision.
‘I will go and get that register as it would be foolish on my part to leave it there since so much of efforts to find it had already been put in which would go waste otherwise’.
I tried to convince myself that it would not be a treachery as Malwinder had showed his big brother attitude by speaking to me in such a rude way which he should not have done it thereby showing his selfishness and disrespect to our friendship. He could have conveyed it to me in a pleasant way so rather it would be a lesson for him for his such future endeavours’.
So I took my bike, went to the market at the same shop and asked the same shopkeeper to give the register we had seen about two hours back. He immediately brought that register of 200 pages on which was written ‘National note book’. I took our Rs15/-and immediately handed over the same to him as its cost price and came back home satisfied and happy but still however at the back of my mind felt a guilt of breaking the promise I had made to Malwinder that nobody of us would buy that register . Any how I quickly finished my homework of Mother Rosalie and could breathe properly thereafter.
Next day I went to school satisfied without fear but that guilt kept disturbing my mental peace with questions like what will Malwinder think of me if he comes to know of my act ? I will fall down in his eyes and this is not what a true friend does. Although I had covered the register with a brown sheet and labelled it properly with a beautiful sticker from which he could not make out at the first glance that it is the same register which we both had seen the previous day but still I was not confident.
Amazingly I saw a similar register he had brought with home work done and it also appeared to be of 200 pages. I thought it better not to ask him the details as to from where and how he managed that so that he is not prompted to ask the similar questions from me for I would not be able to tell a lie now. After the class was over I saw Malwinder coming towards me and my heartbeat doubled due to the guilt and I was finding a place to hide my face , not being able to decide which side to look at. He finally came near me and said,
” Yaar! You are a great thing, yesterday when I went again to the market to that shop to buy the same register which rightfully belonged to me the shopkeeper told me that you had already come and taken away the register from him. You are a very clever person?”
Till the time his half sentence was over I was drenched with shame and felt at the bottom of the world but on hearing that he had gone to buy the same register from the same shop in my absence my shame turned into anger and there was sudden change in me in a fraction of second with only one thought in my mind.
“Had I not acted the way I did, I would have felt much worse than what I am feeling right now.”
I patted my own self inside me praising the decision taken by me to buy that 200 page register. The feeling of guilt vanished, my head was high and I was bold with unknown strength which creeped inside me from nowhere. So I told Malwinder.
“I am now fully convinced that what I did was 100% right as you would have done the same thing what I had done had I not gone in for this decision to buy this notebook and in addition you would have been making a fun of myself showing your big brother attitude. Better luck next time my dear friend.”
When everyone came to know what had happened and I asked them to tell us
“Who’s correct? Me or Malwinder?”
You know what they did?
They clapped !

The threat

Buy or else!
It was Bidar again and this time also we were out to see a movie in Sangam theatre. I had reached there well before time as did not wanted to miss the start of the movie. There was still some time left and everyone was busy in buying tickets, keeping the cycle in the stand and some were out to buy monkey nuts from the hawker whose cart had a burning earthern pot kept over the nuts to keep it warm. The vendor was shouting
“Please come and buy it, please come and buy it as you will not get this quality anywhere”
Initially about 10-15 of the customers came and bought some from him but soon he was seen standing idle , waving the smoke of his pot kept over the peanuts with a card board and there was no customer. I was standing with one of my friend waiting for the others to come after buying the tickets. Seeing me also standing idle he looked at me and asked me to buy some peanuts from him showing them to be of good quality. I nodded in negative indicating that I am not interested to have them. He again repeated the same action and I again denied. This happened 3-4 times but still he did not stop. So I went near him and said that I have already told him that I do not want to buy them then why is he insisting on it time and again. Now he said to me in a slightly loud angry voice.
“Le lo nahin toh pachtaaoogay (Buy it or else you will repent)
“No I will not repent”, I said to him.
“Mai phir keh raha hoon, le lo nahin toh pachtaaogay”( I am again saying buy it or else you will repent) he said again
Now I also got angry and said sternly,
“Kya matlab hai tumhara koi jabardasti hai kya?”(What do you mean and why are you forcing?).
He turned violent and said,
” Bataaoon phir?”(Shall I let you know) Seeing this the crowd also started to look towards me and that vendor as some fight is soon going to start.
I could not take it any more and got ready to fight with him clinching my fists and said,
”Bataa phir”(Do let me know then)
And you know what he did? He said clearly, loudly in a very cool manner,
“Jaao phir Vinod Khanna Chor hai”(Then go and Vinod Khanna is the thief), and pushed his cart forward to occupy some other place where he could sell his Peanuts.
When the movie began I could make out in next ten minutes who the thief was in the story i.e actor Vinod Khanna and got so much bored since the suspense was already lost but thought it better to keep quiet otherwise my friends would have cursed me.
I wish I had taken those peanuts from him as would have enjoyed the movie apart from having the peanuts with suspense intact but could do neither.
So, do not forget to buy them next time when you go for a suspense movie before it starts.

On your marks ,Get set ,GO!

The Rickshaw Race
I was in Bidar in third year of civil engineering. The students were mostly Sikhs and from Delhi side. There was no feeling that we were in the south except for the fact that when we visited the local hotels we were served with south Indian food which reminded us that we are about 1000 miles from Delhi. I remember that day when our term end tests were over and we had decided to go for a movie in the night ,the typical 9 to 12 night show which was student dominated. Some were from very rich backgrounds of landlords and did not thus hesitate to spend and give heavy tips to the waiters and the rickshawalas and at times did not take the balance money back from them saying,” Aish karo”(Enjoy yourself) to them as a result of which they would serve them happily in return. They were also fond of drinking which had formed a custom. After the movie was over we all came out and it was a pleasant night at about 0030h the next day. Some were high and they were wanting to do something funny as were still feeling restless. There were some rickshawwalas waiting at the corner of a crossing. NP Singh ,one of the leading drunkard of our college called one of them and asked him to call all his other friends also and soon there were about 10 of these rickshaws standing expecting to get some money for doing some funny act as demanded by NP singh. He told them after consulting all of us that we would conduct a rickshaw race now and whosoever comes back after touching the second crossroad located about half a km away would be given Rs 500/- as the price. The moment he said this all the rickshaws immediately stood in line and tightened their lungis(Cloth worn on the lower part of the body ) and were in the get ready position .
“OK ! One ,two and three” NP Shouted and waived off his hand with a handkerchief and off they catapulted applying all their strength on the pedals ; a sight worth watching with empty rickshaws running amok.
Now as they left the start point and were nearing the second crossing, NP started off
“Liyaoo oye paise kaddo”(Come! Everyone peel off some money),said NP to all of us in Punjabi so that the price money as promised could be handed over to the winner when he returns as NP had expected that everyone would contribute some part of it in order to make the sum total of Rs 500/- but no one took out anything as most of us had already finished off in the interval of the movie or were not wanting to. NP tried one more time from everyone and when there was no response he said,”We will have one more race amongst all of us”, and everyone took off to heels in the other direction in that one sided race never to be seen again there for the rest of the night.

Cow and Crow

The fourth sentence
In our unit we have a Hindi test for the men which they have to qualify for scaling up the ladder for their next rank from Lance corporal to corporal.The troops are mainly from Northern India with Sikhs especially from Punjab. Angrez singh was a driver who had to clear his long pending hindi test which he was not able to pass since last so many attempts so I got the directions from the higher ups to clear him this time as otherwise he would face financial loss in his pay and care should be taken that a proper easy test be conducted for him by me personally so that no one else raises any objection that partiality has been done. Accordingly I called him for the test and asked him simply to form four correct sentences of hindi and I will pass him. He asked me on what matter he should speak. I looked around on the ground and saw a cow over which a crow was sitting feeding on the insects moving on the back of the cow....Mutualism. I told him to say four sentences on that cow.
“OOOOO gaa hai.” ( That is a cow), he said with a Punjabi tinge
“OK granted one”, I said
“OOOOO kaa hai” (That is a crow) , he added making it two to his credit.
“ Kaa gaa ke upar hai,” (The crow is over the cow), he said confidently making it to three.
Now it was the final one for him and I was worried what he would say now which I could somehow manage to show as correct as it was going to make a lot of difference for his future was dependent on it. I heard the following from him as the last sentence
“Gaa kaa ke upar nahin hai” (The cow is not over the crow).
“Cheers! Angrez singh has passed hindi”, I shouted and everyone jumped around.

The infected Chicken

The infected chicken
After attending a cadre on AIDS awareness I along with my friend went to buy a broiler chicken in a shop. As we entered the shop we saw culled chicken in three stacks ,the first one labelled as 'AIDS infected' at Rs20/- per kg, second 'Broiler Chicken' at Rs 80/-per kg and the third 'Desi chicken' at Rs 120/-per kg. My friend immediately ordered 2kg of Aids infected chicken and when we came out of the shop I asked him that going for a cheaper option is understandable but why he chose the Aids infected ones and that also just after attending the cadre on it. "We have only to eat it and not screw it, I hope you were not sleeping in the cadre when they were teaching ways in which Aids spreads" replied my friend

Trapped

Trapped
I was in first year of engineering college at Bidar and I had a friend Anmol singh who was known for the fact that he would anyhow get his work done either by doing it himself or by others either by hook or crook by trapping others in such a situation that his effort would never go waste and there would be some effective end result to his plan. One day I and my room partner, Dhillon were about to have a nice afternoon nap just after having a lunch. I went towards the door to close it so that no one disturbs us for another hour. I saw Anmol approaching towards our room. I told Dhillon about it hearing which he immediately took the bed sheet and covered his body with his face tucked inside saying that he is asleep and handed over the situation to me to handle. By that time Anmol had already seen me from the partially open door and started running raising his hand to indicate me that he has seen me and I should not close the door. As he reached our room he asked me,
“Where are you going?
I said,” I am going to the market for some work”, so that he does not bother me with any of his work here as I am out of the hostel for him”
“Then please get me these two books and I will pay you when you return back,” he replied immediately.
“I mean I am not going right now as I will go after some time after having a short nap”, I said to avoid doing the work requested by him.
I also requested him to give his work to someone else if he requires it so urgently so that he does not mind my words.
“Since you are not going anywhere then in that case kindly give me your bike,” he said crisply and clearly.
“Trapped” I said to myself and handed over the bike keys to him.
After closing the door I could hear chuckles of Dhillon from inside the bed sheet.

Conveying the meaning

Dictionary
One of my friend, Anmol at Bidar had a problem speaking in English as he could not recall the words quickly into his mind. I was also not so fluent so we both decided that from now onwards we will think, talk and write in English most of the time and do a prolonged discussion in it especially when we are alone. So we started off immediately and the following was the first conversation which took place between us ;
Anmol: Yaar, I do not have much of the problem speaking in English but, but, but--------
Me: But what?
Anmol: But my dictionary is very weak
Me: That dictionary is called vocabulary .

A Narrow Escape

A Narrow Escape (a real life story)
It happened in the month of May 1989 at the Sailing Club when I was a youngster in the Army and was doing a young officers course at the College Of Military Engineering in Pune. I had developed interest in Sailing watching beautiful noiseless sailboats smoothly sailing in water in the cool breeze which I could feel at a distance watching the waving hairs of the sailors . I along with my coursemate friends Deore, Deo and Rakesh boarded a wooden sailing boat which was the basic boat meant for learning for the novices known as, ”Kamla”. We all took our places on it, Deo at the Stern sitting on the Starboard side, I and Deore at the sail and Rakesh at the Bow. We did not have much of the training being the novices. At that time the coach had only taught us how to observe the direction of the wind and proceed in the desired direction with the help of a small thread tied on the mast of the sail with an attempt to keep the hanging thread at an angle of 135 degrees to the direction of the move. For the boat to proceed in the desired direction ,the hanging portion of the thread should point towards the person sitting on the Stern side and we proceeded accordingly. Although we knew very little on the subject of sailing but knew just enough to take the boat anywhere and bring it back to the starting point irrespective of the direction of the wind blowing.
We were going smoothly gossiping and enjoying the gushes of the cool wind on our face wearing the lifejackets over our Tee shirts and shorts. The river was dirty as usual but still clear till one metre of depth. We could see the floating plants , the planktons passing near us. One loves speed and thrill at that age and we were no exception to that so I applied a little more pull on the rope of the sail as a result of which the speed of the boat increased and the body of the boat also tilted with the degree of tilt directly proportional to the strength applied on the rope and so was the corresponding increase in the degree of thrill. We soon got adjusted to the new speed and wind started to flutter the sail .The desire to attain more speed and thrill got into us .Deore yelled, “yaaaaaaaah! I want more speed. More! More!” and added to the excitement .I was waiting for this ignition and without a second thought applied more tension on the sail as a result of which the speed further increased and thus more thrill .”More! More! More!” everyone shouted. I and Deore applied all the strength we had leaning and keeping our complete body nearly parallel to the water surface keeping our legs stretched.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! went the boat at full speed with the sail cloth making noise phat! phat! phat! but the tilt increased so much that and at one stage the starboard edge of the sailboat was at the water level and just after that it tilted further taking the boat out of control. Finally all the water started entering in our boat and the boat collapsed completely.
Chapaak ! came the noise of the sail when it fell flat on the water surface.
The sail was on the water surface which became a mere wet cloth which one could no longer call it as a sail. I do not know where all the others were but I was under the boat beneath the water surface with boat above me vertically with its keel facing the sky . I thought it to be a normal incident as we used to see the learners capsizing their Laser and Scull boats quite frequently as was a routine affair in the club but never heard of a ‘Kamla’ boat capsizing like ours did as it was considered to be a very stable boat. I tried to come up at the surface of water from under the overturned boat and swung my arms with a breaststroke action but something stopped my movement ahead and I felt that as if some one was pulling my leg. Initially I thought that one of my friend must be playing a prank by holding my leg and took it lightly but as my breathing was becoming difficult I gave a jerk by kicking with my leg to move forward but could not do it .It was then I realised that my feet had got entangled in the sail rope which I was pulling. I immediately turned back taking a U turn inside the water itself and tried to free myself from the entangled rope but was still unable to .
Now the things were becoming difficult and serious as I could not even yell for help since no one was able to hear me being underwater . It was then I realised that its Mayday for me and no one on earth can help me except for my own efforts and God .My breath was giving away as I gasped for air and the body was becoming heavier. I thought in a few moments from now I will be leaving my body and going up from where I will see the boat and others as there was no way out but to die .I prayed to God not to spoil my birth as I had just entered my youth and wanted to live. I could not even cry .Time was running out and it was no time to think but act .Only act and act fast. There was no time to plan and think .My mind decided to give a last try and all good thoughts of helping my ownself started creeping into my mind like God helps those who help themselves, do what your mind says when heart and conscience fail to give a decision and a soldier never quits etc etc. There was no choice but to give a last try with full force of all the strength and breathe left in me as it was fight for survival. So I firmly decided to act ,collected myself , applied all my strength and dived deep into the water going much below the boat as a result of which the knot got loosened and I was able to take out my leg from the loop of the rope where my leg was entangled which gave me tremendous confidence as I was free now but still below in deep water. My nerves were about to burst and my lungs were completely shrunk waiting for oxygen to come in by the inhaling action which was long awaited by them. My stomach was absolutely stuck with my back with not an ounce of air gap in my intestines and eyeballs were waiting to be catapulted out any moment. I somehow gathered my leftover strength and breathe and swung all my limbs into action pushing the water down and after two such coordinated swings of my hands and legs finally surfaced up outside the water Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! My voice came out and the air gushed into my lungs giving me life .Finally at last I had made it and kept floating on the water with my eyes closed thanking God and my inner unknown strength till I gained 4-5 good long breathes after which I opened my eyes .
I noticed that I was not far away from the overturned boat which was floating submerged in water which all three of my friends were holding it and drifting along with talking to each other as if they were having a cup of tea over a dining table made of the overturned boat . They had just made two swim strokes after having fallen in water of the Mulla river and got hold of the boat thereafter and were now waiting for the motorboat to come and drift us ashore. Even the safety org was not bothered much and had not send any boat till now as were thinking that everyone was safe after seeing three of them gossiping over the capsized boat from a distance being an everyday affair for them.
It was later after we drifted with the flow more than about a km from the sailing club that we saw a motorboat coming towards us . How was the dip ? Asked one of my friend ? I wondered what to say as for me it was like someone asking from lord Rama ,”How was the trip to exile”. I however replied, ”An Unforgettable experience indeed”. Soon the motorboat reached and drifted us to the shore at the sailing club bay just to hear from our instructor ,”You all owe me a Beer bottle each as have set a record of capsizing a ‘Kamla’ boat which no one in the history of this sailing Club has ever done it till date”.
I said to myself,” Had you asked for the costliest scotch in the world today I would have happily given it to you as my life was not so cheap that it was worth only a beer bottle.”
But you know what I did ?
I kept quiet.

Thanks to Baba Ramdev

THANKS TO BABA RAMDEV
I was attending a course in Mussoorie at the Institute of Technology Management (ITM), an Institute under DRDO, where a class on “Knowledge Management” was in progress. The topic was more subjective and less analytical and the time of the class was nearing lunch, when one is waiting to be catapulted to the Mess after the class is over. I was feeling sleepy while some of my course mates had already dozed off. Although the instructor could see them, he did not bother much as he was more interested in finishing his class rather than wasting his time waking them up and hearing the word ‘Sorry’ from them. I made it a point not to sleep but was finding it very difficult to stop my eyes from closing as it was an involuntary action over which I had no control. I then thought of making effective use of a trick learnt during one of the Yoga classes I had attended earlier. We were taught to sit erect with spine straight, chest out and eyes wide open with hands on the knees, at the same time moving the toes to and fro inside your shoes, and relax your body. I did all this as per the instructions, except the action of moving my toes inside the shoes. To my surprise, I felt quiet fresh and energetic as one feels after a long yawn and stretch after which you gain considerable energy.
I was thus managing to listen to the lecture attentively. My head was held high and erect above all other heads in the class, which were mostly drooped. I could be seen distinctly from any position in the room which the Instructor could take. It gave the impression that I was the most sincere and attentive student in the class, one who was active even at this hour of the day. Soon I was able to concentrate and grasp things better than I could before adopting this posture. I could understand the aspects of knowledge, the various sources from where it could be attained and how it could be managed in everyday life to make problems simple and easily manageable, which in turn would result in increasing the work efficiency of the Organisation.
The instructor carried on, “Now we shall understand this with the help of an example, suppose you want to buy Fork Lift trucks for your unit, how will Knowledge Management help you in this? The first thing to be done is to gather all the information of the various dealers who deal with it in India and abroad and tabulate them in separate columns with their addresses. The third column should indicate the time within which it could be procured. To ease the subject and have firsthand knowledge directly from the horse’s mouth, we have today a guest with us, Miss Nicole Harrison from Gammon Forklifts Pvt Ltd, who is sitting right behind us. I request her to describe the various aspects connected with it.”
Saying this, the Instructor went behind the class just near the exit of the last row and ushered the guest to the dais.
“Here I handover to Miss Nicole” he said and there after he went and sat in the front row on one of the vacant seat along with the student officers.
Miss Nicole Harrison was a beautiful lady in her mid thirties, dressed in well ironed black trousers, a light pink shirt with a formal tie over which she wore a cream coloured coat. Her short black hair was nicely styled and gripped with a silver coloured hair band. She was a combination of an MNC executive and a newsreader from the BBC channel, a perfect example of grace with a model- like figure of 5feet five inches one would like to watch!
She started off, “Gentlemen, give me a few minutes (Why not hours, I said to myself) I will introduce you to the machines which our company is making, along with their applications, in a concise form so that it can be easily referred to as to what type of machine you need in your work and then we will come to the specifics of Fork lift trucks and its technical specifications in brief.”
I was attracted to her way of narration, clear pronunciation and crisp British accent. Although of Indian origin, she must have spent more time in UK, she was fair complexioned with sharp features and light blue eyes. I wondered why the foolish class was still drooping with sleep and not showing any interest, which was something incredible in a situation like this. I considered myself lucky to be awake and the thought of having a nap went miles away from my mind, irrespective of the posture I had adopted! To show more interest I started to think of questions based on which I could get an opportunity to speak to her.
During a pause in her lecture I interrupted and raised my hand, “Nicole, may I interrupt?” I said. “What‘s the turnover of your company?”
I could not think of anything else to ask, since I was already lost from the subject.
“My dear sir, it is very sweet of you to ask me that question. I will definitely answer it shortly but we are discussing tabulating and collation of information so that it can be made use of as a ready reckoner. Do not worry, I will answer you before I let you go even if I have to explain it you while having pastries during high tea“.
Her answer gave me goose bumps as I never thought she would reciprocate in such a lovely way with words like My Dear, sweet, let you go(as if she exercised authority over me in the first meeting itself) along with pastries etc etc as we had to proceed for lunch after that.
I quietly sat down saying,” As you please Ma’am”.
As I sat down after a few seconds she looked at me and asked, “Can you now easily decide how this decision has been arrived at?”
I wondered “Which decision?”
By the time I could think further she raised her beautiful hand, pointing her fingers in a shake hand position towards me with her palm slightly inclined, facing upwards and said with a hundred dollar smile, “Can I have it from you my dear sir?”
What?! I said to myself, sweating inside me as I did not know what to reply.
So, to divert from the specifics of an answer, I stood up and said, “That’s OK but don’t you think the time can further be dovetailed along with other activities?”
“Which activities you preconceive, my dear?” she said.
Now what do I do, I said to myself, cursing myself for speaking just for the sake of speaking so I replied, “I mean the unforeseen activities”.
“Like?” She asked curiously, looking at me with her beautiful eyes radiating brilliance but now beginning to look a bit confused.
“Like anything which cannot be forethought now”, I replied and sat down forcibly in order to close the point.
She gave a long smile, a pretty long one which I cannot forget till date indicating she knew that I was off the track but to divert the issue and save my skin said, “Then we go for the second option as I have already explained earlier. Now would you like me to explain it once again, or are you clear?”
She looked at me again and there was a stunned silence. The whole class was looking at me expecting the answer from me. I, afraid to say anything more, just nodded and raised my hand indicating an all clear. Laughing while looking at the board, she proceeded with her explanation.
After few minutes she said, “Gentlemen, I would now request all of you to join me for a cup of tea just outside the class in the lounge where my staff will introduce our company products. We will proceed further after it.”
We all came out. The students mixed around with everyone, watching the catalogues and photographs displayed outside on the easel and some were more interested in eating. As I was coming out Nicole came near me and said with raised eyebrows smiling, “Your face looks quite familiar. Where are you posted?”
I replied, “At a location much colder than this” and smilingly added, “Every two people out of ten from the army tell me that my face is very familiar, and you are one of them.”
We both laughed together and now seeing me relaxed, she ushered me towards the photo display board saying, “This is how our Fork lift Truck looks like.”
I looked into her eyes and my look conveyed that I was more interested in her than the Fork lift truck and said assertively, “Beautiful colour”. Incidentally, the colour of the Fork lift in the photo was also blue.
She replied, “It seems you like blue colour.”
I said again after establishing eye contact with her, “No, not blue but light blue to be more precise, and don’t ask me why”.
She smiled with a blush and I shared the smile with her. We were getting closer. In an intimate gesture, she held my arm and directed me towards the pastry table, asking me to pick up one. I wondered why she held me like that as she could have also indicated the direction without touching me. She treated me as a special guest in front of everyone and it looked slightly out of place as she was not exhibiting the same behaviour with anyone else. I was convinced by now that she was expressing solidarity and warmth towards me by this gesture and was interested in talking further.
Suddenly I felt her hold on my arm growing stronger. I loved it but it looked awkward in front of everyone. Her grip grew harder still and now I could feel the pain. The hold tightened further and was soon becoming irritating when anger started to overtake the passion in me. Suddenly, I got a big jerk in my body and was completely shaken off. I saw Arun holding my upper arm and trying to pinch me to wake me up from my sleep, whispering loudly, “Hey! Get up, the instructor is looking at you for the last 30 minutes but is not saying anything, thinking that I will wake you up and diffuse the situation. And you are sleeping like a horse and that too sitting up in such an erect position. If you wanted to doze off you could have at least slid down a bit in your chair like the others! Why the hell are you bent upon making the situation so insulting for the instructor?”
“Oh my God! What the hell has happened? Where has Nicole vanished and where is the plate I was holding to get the pastry?”I said to Arun.
I was sitting in the same erect posture and was fast asleep all this time. How did it happen? How did I go to sleep and when did I fall asleep? I just could not understand.
After recovering from the painful shakeup Arun had given me, I understood everything and came back to my senses, cursing myself for trying that experiment of Baba Ramdev’s Yoga here. Fortunately, I saw half the class had also dozed off and nobody took any notice of my action except one or two officers sitting behind me and on the sides, who just laughed off the whole thing as people falling asleep was a routine matter in the class just before lunch!
I was totally relaxed with my head and neck sweating and the first thing I did was indulge in a long yawn by throwing a pencil down so that I could bend down while yawning and pick up the pencil. My eyes were watering as it happens after a huge yawn and I was in a very refreshed mood. I thanked God for such a lovely dream.
The question which arose in my mind was at what point in time had I dozed off? If you as a reader were not able to guess before I said, “Where has Nicole vanished?” after Arun woke me up, then I think my effort in writing this semi fictitious story has been successful.
Now I shall tell you that I had really dozed off when the instructor had said that he will explain the subject with an example and after that from the word ‘Horse’s mouth’ onwards I was in the dream as he never used this word as was clarified later from the alert student officers who had listened to the complete lecture in the class.
“Then what about Gammon Forklifts company? How did this come into my mind? I do not have any knowledge of this”, I asked Arun later.
Arun said, “There is no such company by the name of Gammon Forklifts pvt ltd. ‘Gammon India’ is a construction company and to the best of my knowledge it does not manufacture any Forklift trucks”
After lot of discussion on it with my course mates we all had a very hearty laugh. After dinner in the hostel Mess I finally said, “Gentlemen, to summarise this incident after carrying out an in depth analysis of it, the lesson learnt is Never try a trick without practice in public!”
“Especially when you forget to move your toes!” added Arun, and we all had a thundering laugh together before we left the Mess for our rooms.


It’s an RSN production
Written by: Rajinder singh Narula
Edited by :Madhavi Murthy

Vehicle in neutral

Vehicle in neutral ( a real life story)

Those were our youngster days and I was posted at a place in J&K. It was my first unit and thus I was learning the ways a unit functions. Every second drops of knowledge kept accumulating in my mind. I was enjoying the company of troops and had made friendship with them. As I came quite close to them so they also reciprocated in sharing their problems and jokes which they hesitated with the senior officers. Going outdoors with them was a real fun which gave ample opportunities to know in depth about them the act which is encouraged in this organisation for having a better officer-men relationship and understanding the troops so that one is able to allocate the type of task one is fit for later when required as per the situation.
I was once detailed to go to some higher HQ located at about two hours journey by road to get some important military documents .Such type of duty was popularly termed as ‘Courier Duty’ which was mostly entrusted to the junior officers and used to be a good outing not involving much work except to collect the documents and bring it safely under security ; the aspect which was taken care of by the guards with weapons accompanying them. The officer was however responsible for the complete conduct. I had a one ton truck which is something more than a Jeep and less than a truck .I had one more officer accompanying me and four of the guards who were sitting at the rear of the vehicle. I as their commander was sitting on the front seat as a co driver and the driver was driving the vehicle. We reached the HQ ,collected the documents and immediately started back our return journey as were to reach before the dusk.
The weather was pleasant, sun was bright , road was wide and the route was mountainous. There were turns, climbs and gradual slopes as it was National highway connecting Srinagar to Jammu in Northern part of India. I could also afford to see good scenery enroute as was sitting in front and not driving. I could see long stretches of valley ,green trees with fresh leaves coming out of them ,clear sky with cirrus clouds in the background, birds flying and whatever can be thought of for painting a good scenery hence was lost in them. We reached a place called ‘Nandini Tunnel’ and crossed it after which stopped for a tea break. The place was famous for ‘Paneer Pakodas’ a good Indian dish of cheese and gram flour fried in oil to make it crispy which everyone likes to have it with tea. We had lot of them and after the men had it full to their hearts content started off refreshed.
As we proceeded further a few kms on the way towards Jammu the vehicle started giving jerks but the driver somehow carried on for some time as a gradual slope was helping us to carry on. He used to switch off the vehicle and again start it with the help of momentum gained by the vehicle due to the slope and we proceeded like this for some distance but the vehicle finally came to a grinding halt.
I asked the driver, Om Prakash,”What happened? “
He replied, “There seems to be some problem in the carburettor”
“Don’t you clean it daily especially before carrying out such a move.” I said authoritatively
“Saab , Kiya to tha chalne se pehle (Sir,I had cleaned it before we started)”he said lowering his head with raised eyebrows and looking towards me with his eyeballs turned left and face in the front as if trying to check from the expression of my face whether his lie works out to convince me to avoid further scolding.
He got down and opened the bonnet with it resting on the hood of the vehicle, started to fumble the parts of the engine and after sometime closed the bonnet, came back and sat down on the drivers seat. He then twisted the ignition key and the vehicle started. We proceeded ahead and carried on for a few kms more.
After sometime again the vehicle started behaving the same way as earlier and stopped. I glared at the driver and said nothing. He quickly opened the door and started off with the same drill. After that he then quietly entered the cabin and twisted the ignition key once again. This time the vehicle did not start. Fearing to face me he looking at the steering wheel told me that the vehicle needs to be pushed after which he will manage it to start.
Feeling pity on him I asked the guard party sitting behind to help him and push the vehicle .They at once dismounted and pushed the vehicle .He kept the gear in neutral and after gaining adequate momentum turned the vehicle into the second gear and left the clutch. Chak !chak! chak ! the vehicle started off. Soon everyone mounted and we started our journey again.
The vehicle climbed and descended the route and gained good speed and I taking a sigh of relief got convinced that now we will reach without any problem and as soon as I reach the unit handover the documents to the Adjutant after which would have a bath, watch some good movie in the Mess , a nice dinner after having my favourite lime cordial soda drink and sweet dreams at last with some romantic music in my ears.
Chuk!Chuk!chuk!Chuck!Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr came the noise and my mind was back in the one ton vehicle which again came to a halt .I was getting furious now and fired the driver for poorly maintaining the vehicle.
“Aaj lagata hai hamaare sare pakoday yahin nikaal dega Om Prakash( It seems that today OmPrakash will take out all the Pakodas that we had) “ said one of the guards from behind as was expecting that he will soon be told to dismount and push the vehicle once again.
Fortunately there was a very gradual slope favouring our direction of move. He got down from the door and making use of the gravity started to push it moving along with it by holding the steering with his left hand and the door with his right hand applying force on the door in the direction of the move at the same time keeping the door half open so that he could jump in once the vehicle gained adequate momentum and then with the same trick start the vehicle without disturbing and requesting anyone to push the vehicle since he was now guilty conscious. He succeeded in doing this and the vehicle started again but soon stopped after moving a few metres.
He again adopted the same procedure as the slope was still in our favour. All of us became so used to this fact that we did not bother thereafter even to think of it. Our minds were accustomed and tuned to the fact that this vehicle will move in this way only and we will be able to reach in no other way.
I kept my head rested on the back of the seat tilted on to the left window pane and started to watch the birds on the hill side who were sipping water dripping from one of the rock outcrop on the hill side turn by turn with their small beaks. The guards were also holding their rifles with their barrels facing the sky and butt on the vehicle floor in drowsy positions since were tired of hill sickness one experiences generally due to frequent turns on the hilly roads.
There was adequate slope and the vehicle although switched off now was moving slowly in neutral gear with everyone having deep expectations on it that it will soon help take us near our destination.
I took a glance towards the valley on my right hand side. It was deep, very deep, infact very very deep but beautiful where one would like to have a flight on the ‘Hang Glider’ since was an ideal place for take off. I could clearly see about 50 meters ahead in front a sharp left turn after which the road was not visible. My mind diverted and became busy in selecting an exact point of take off along with the hang Glider keeping into consideration the minimum length of road required to run for finally diving straight into the valley which turned out to be the edge from where the road turned left.
There was no traffic on the road at that time which could be seen nearby and was late afternoon. The sun was clearly visible in between the clouds. I felt something missing which was not coming to my mind as it seldom happens at times in our mind that we are not able to see what is in front of us and assume everything is in place even if it is not so . Your eyes are able to see but mind is not able to concieve what is missing. However something keeps pricking you to find what is missing. I again stretched my mind to various things which I could recollect but still could not . The vehicle was moving slowly, smoothly with a speed of about 10Kmph in neutral with engine switched off. There was no noise of the engine, no one was talking and stunned silence except for the very dim voice of the moving tyres which could also be felt as was being transmitted from the feet to the upper body and finally to the mind. Still something was unusual which made me feel uncomfortable without the known cause..
I suddenly brought my mind inside the cabin to watch what expressions the driver Om Prakash was emitting after hearing and having so much from me for the day and being guilty conscious for keeping his vehicle unfit. I got the shock of my life when I looked towards the driver’s seat as he was not there at all
Missing!
The vehicle was moving on its own in neutral.
My head turned over my neck my in quick successions all around like an Owl, with my eye muscles totally flexed and searching for him all around inside the cabin. My heartbeat doubled its pace as our one ton vehicle was soon going to become a wingless Hang Glider and would take off from the spot which I had selected as was just a few metres ahead and we were approaching it spot on fast ,very fast.
I looked back from the slit opening at the mid rear of the cabin from where the person sitting in front can peep at the rear of the vehicle and I saw Om Prakash on the road running towards our own vehicle from the rear
What ?
The driver of the vehicle running towards it from the rear to catch up with his own vehicle ?
The why and how of the situation was complex to understand at that juncture for there was not enough time available for me to tackle the situation .These things could be thought of later as the priority was to save the lives of all of us. There was a very thin line between life and death which only I knew. I had to take further action of deciding what to do in next fraction of a second otherwise soul of six of us would have soon left its body and all of us would soon be seen standing in a ‘fall in’ in front of God and attending a court of Inquiry as to why we returned back so early apart from the one being held on earth in our unit for the loss of lives of 02 X Officers and 04 X Other Ranks including the loss of ‘Secret Documents’ which we were bringing by courier.
I saw Om Prakash running like a slouch trying to catch up the vehicle and after sometime being not able to keep with the pace of the vehicle reduced his speed further and finally even stopped running. I feared for a very serious accident.
All these thoughts explained above did not take as much time as I took to explain it to you but just a few seconds . I as a result of reflex action of my mind dived on to the brake pedal with my body lying down completely on the front two seats , caught hold of the steering wheel with my left hand and pulled it towards me moving it anticlockwise (so that the vehicle turns left, hits the hill side and does not go straight into the ditch ahead) and with all the strength left in me pressed the brake pedal with my right hand .My head was under the steering, body on both the seats with stomach flat on it, the left leg on the floor of the co driver seat and right foot just projecting out of the window of co driver seat. I could see nothing as my eyes were fully concentrated on the brake pedal below the steering and only wished that the brake functions properly with the strength of my hand.
It was my subconscious mind which planned for the double safety (turning to the hill side and braking) on its own without me actually thinking about how to go about it . This is where the training comes in handy as the actions practiced during the training get drilled in you at the back of your mind without you actually knowing it. Although we consider such actions a mere wastage of time time during the training period but in real life it is rewardable as can be noticed now. .
The vehicle finally came to a halt from a speed of about 20 Kmph in 3 to 4 seconds after I applied the brakes with my hand and fortunately did not touch the hill cutting preventing the damage to the vehicle. I immediately put the vehicle in gear and got up holding the steering and the seat of the cabin to see where we had stopped and saw that we had halted just about 4 to 5 metres short from the edge of the ditch.
Oh ! Thank God!
‘For extending my tenure on this planet’ I prayed and took a sigh of relief.
As my mind stabilised from the turbulence, anger started to take over me exponentially and there was only one name in my mind,
‘Om Prakash ‘
I saw him walking at a far off distance behind towards our vehicle as if some civilian asking for a lift was approaching the tail board of the vehicle when the driver stops a few meters ahead of him to offer the lift and waits for the hitch hiker to get in.
My mind then wandered to clarify its confusion.
How the driver went behind ?
If the driver was behind why did the person sitting in the rear did not say anything to me and kept on looking at the driver?
Inspite of all this occurrence no one even cared to bother as to what has happened and rather they should be thanking their stars that they were saved and have got a new birth.
Why have they turned out to be so mean, thankless and least concerned types after somebody saved their lives .
Leave apart everything at least they could have thanked me for the good job done.
It was so confusing . They still did not move their muscle and now it was heights and I got furious and was fuming with anger. I got down from the vehicle banged the door and speedily went behind the vehicle shouting at the top of my voice,
” You Shameless creatures don’t you have any shame, if you are seeing the driver running towards you on the road and also know that he is your driver don’t you think it was necessary to tell me at the top of your voice?
Do you know where would have we landed had I not stopped the vehicle?
They, including the officer who was with them looked at each other and were speechless. By the time Om Prakash had also reached the vehicle.
“Where were you and how have you reached the rear of the veh”? I asked him to unravel the mystery for clarifying the matter to me so that I could give my peace of mind to him as he seemed to be the main hero in this act.
‘Sir, I was trying to push the vehicle on the slope holding the steering “? he said
“Then how did you reach at the rear”. I shouted at the top of my voice.
“Sir, I was not able to move the vehicle properly as it required more effort ,since the slope was not adequate so I went back and started to push the tail board with my both hands which thus moved the vehicle” he further clarified it to me.
“Go on”, I said, showing curiosity to know the remaining part of his version.
“So I pushed the vehicle but it sped up as the slope increased so I started to catch up with the vehicle by running behind it in order to reach the drivers cabin door from the right and get into the vehicle for starting it in the same way as done earlier”, he added.
Now I understood everything as clearly as you are able to make out the remaining part of the story of a typical hindi film after watching it for 10 minutes.
I then helped him finish his remaining explaination from my mouth and got the confirmation from him alongwith to authenticate what I am saying was correct;
”Then you pushed the vehicle and when it gathered enough speed you were unable to catch up with it ?Right? After which you thought it is useless to run now and stopped running thereby allowing the vehicle to go on its own. Isnt it?
“Yes Sir”, he nodded in affirmative to me.
“And you thought that since you are safe you should now relax? Is it? I added
“No sir “? He said.
“Then why the hell did you not shout at the top of your voice so that the person sitting in the rear could hear you and convey the same to me? “
“You are lying.” I said assertively
“Sir I was very far off then” he said just for the sake of saying to cover himself up
“Shut up”! I shouted again at him
I looked at the guards sitting inside the vehicle in the rear cabin and standing next to the tail board asked them ,”why did you not tell me”?
“Sir, we were thinking that you are sitting on the driver’s seat and have told him to give a push to the vehicle from the back so that you are able to start the vehicle yourself by putting the vehicle in gear and releasing the clutch.” They replied honestly.
I was now adequately clear of the situation and my mind was stable since I got all the answers to my doubts .
The driver was foolish.
A perfect example of ‘Suppandi’ whom we read in comics.
It is said a foolish friend is worse than a wise enemy and today it was proved.
When the situation was clear to everyone they got infuriated and were about to thrash him, the action I stopped but however did now interfere them from abusing him to release their anger as it was going out of control. I heard all the filthy language which a soldier uses uninterrupted for 2 to 3 minutes after which there was stunned silence .I then told the officer to come and sit in the co driver seat and myself drove the vehicle which fortunately started on the slope with the same method and we reached the unit at last, fortunately without any further stopping of the vehicle enroute .
Om Prakash was awarded 14 days of Rigorous Imprisonment for this act which I think he must remember all his life for the betterment of his as well as others safety. Later we came to know that he was having some family problem due to which he was thus so absent minded and thus demotivated. After his problem got sorted out he was hail and hearty again and was given administration duties.
The guards who were sitting behind narrated the story to their friends and the incident was talk of the town for so many days .They only understood the complete story and realised part of it but I had experienced and realised it in full and know what what went inside me . All I can say now is that there is hell a lot of difference between understanding and realisation. It is my realisation which has made me remember this story bit by bit to the minutest detail and is fresh as a flower in my mind which enabled me to narrate the same to you even after 20 years of its occurrence .