Monday, July 29, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Those NDA Days
THE BRILLIANCE OF
SMS AND GD
To start off with, we had with us Surendra Mohan Singh
Rathore of Sainik School Kunjpura, Karnal in India Squadron. The innate sense
of humour, its timing, sense of rhyme and poetry and a vast collection of comic
incidents involving his teachers, which he brought with him from school had in
it the makings of an accomplished stand up comedian; much before the hackneyed
artists in the dime a dozen shows, which one gets to see on the sponsored pay
channels of Indian TV. At a time when we as first termers were finding our
bearings and looking as lost as one can be, in the enormity of the NDA and its
labyrinthine corridors; SMS, as he had been christened by us all, was busy
studying the mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of seniors, appointments,
instructors, teachers and officers in an effort to imbibe their gait, speech,
accent, grammar, delivery, body language, expressions and humour in the officiousness
of authority, as was wont to be their charge. When, the spirits were low and
the body exhausted from physical extremes such as we had never experienced, and
the strains of ‘IF’ were our sole hope of “even this shall pass”, SMS used to
draw upon his huge talent and facility to make light of almost everything. The
drudgery and pain of the moment used to be trashed in the humour produced by
him. A hearty burst of laughter or else a quiet chortle on our lips when in the
presence of officialdom, was an ideal rejuvenator which restored sanity in our
beings amidst a barmy assortment of organizational hierarchy. Sandesh Kumar
Prashar, an alumnus of St George’s College Mussoorie, whose father Lt Col
Prithvi Chand, MVC is more popularly known in the annals of military history as
the saviour of Ladhak, was our course senior. He had the unique ability to
speak without opening his mouth and words slipped from between one side of his
lips, in a mystery of human architecture and wonder of bio mechanics. Sandy is
a dear friend and this is meant to be in the spirit of camaraderie, than fun at
his cost. No hard feelings, brother. SMS was always rubbing Sandy on his
uniqueness and caricaturing him in his actions and we all then being wet behind
the ears, made the former an object of our devious entertainment.
The NDA was then a destination of posting for one of its
most exciting and well remembered Deputy Commandant, Colonel Hari Kishan Kumar
Shukla of the Kumaon Regiment. He along with his wife were the most visible
faces to be seen snooping around Squadrons after lights out. For those cadets
who had something going on for them in the privacy of their cabins with the
venetian blinds pulled down and closed, the sudden appearance of HKK Shukla
would jolt them out of their skins and jump into spontaneous attention. In a
brief period of his having been around in the NDA, HKK had carved a reputation
for himself as a Mr ‘X’. A movie character played with great élan by the doyen
of Hindi cinema, Ashok Kumar Ganguly. One who could appear anytime in the most
improbable of places to pounce upon those who transgressed rules. HKK and his
wife were more of nocturnal people who roamed the avenues, boulevards and
esplanades of NDA in the olive green coloured Chevrolet Staff Car, which was
driven by an overtime paid civilian driver. Hailing from the ancient culture of
Awadhi lifestyle, HKK and his wife were very fond of chewing on tobacco
flavoured pan and betel nut, the juice from which often trickled down their
chin whenever they attempted to speak. Quite reminiscent of the manner in which
‘Lucknavi Nawabs’ of yester years looked and spoke when watching nautch girls
doing a seductive mujra. It was in those days of our stay here that another
blessing visited India Squadron, in the person of Gagan Deep Bakshi,who was
transferred from Charlie to India Squadron. GD as we all know him from those
days is another talented and gifted person, who complemented SMS in their joint
ability to mimic and caricature people.
SMS and GD had made it their one point agenda to lampoon
HKK, whenever an opportunity to do so presented itself. The campfires and end
of term socials were occasions when the two would combine their talents to have
fun at the Deputy Commandant’s cost. It was no surprise that the audience would
then be tickled and entertained as never before and the venue would often
witness a roar of laughter coming from the cadets, officers and their wives.
This phenomenon had become so commonplace that, the Academy authorities had to
resort to passing a gag order on SMS and GD from any further Lampooning of HKK.
But the two, incorrigible as they were then, continued to devise and
manufacture opportunities to take on HKK and publicly snicker at him, under the
subterfuge of entertainment. The famous parody of our times in the NDA, which
Chortled HKK was written and sung by this duo and it ran thus – “Koi Bhi D Day
Hota Nahin Hai Poora, Jab Tak Na Dekha Deputy Ka Chhera”.
It was during the time of Rear Admiral RK Batra as
Commandant, that the NDA Day was to be celebrated among other things, with a
fancy dress item presented by cadets in the main entrance to the revered SUDAN
BLOCK. No one knew what was to happen at the fateful evening and fancy dress
presentations were made in the alphabetical order of Squadrons. Mediocrity soon
gave way to brilliance when it was the turn of India Squadron, to hold centre
stage. Nothing happened for a while and the SCC and CSM anxiously looked around
for the dramatis personae to arrive. But still there was no sign of anyone in
the vicinity, till the lone yellow and black coloured taxi which used to be
parked in the GOLE market was spotted approaching the venue from the NTT short
cut road. It was driven by Pillai, its owner and making way for it to pull over
at the steps of the SUDAN BLOCK was a smartly dressed GD in Walking Out,
shouting aloud “Make Way”. None knew who was inside the car and what the matter
was. Then the door was opened by GD and SMS emerged from it dressed in a white
lungi, OG shirt with the badges of rank of a Colonel and full accoutrements
including the Sam Browne belt of those days and a Peaked Cap with the distinctive
red band around it. The feet were in slippers and a baton was tucked under his
left armpit. Over his shoulders was slung an NDA issue satchel and a barber’s
sling bag, with all its tools inside. The NDA satchel had a measuring tape and
a pair of tailors scissors inside. SMS’ hair, as was visible under the Cap was
suitably whitened to give him the resemblance of HKK and a trickle of pan juice
adorned his mouth and chin. The Academy broke out into a roar of laughter and
this became SMS’ cue to enact the character of HKK, complete with expletives,
bullshit, gesticulations and finger pointing. At some he would dig into his bag
to recover the barber’s scissors and chop a lock here and a curl there, while
at others he would open his measuring tape to measure the bottom width of their
mufti and walking out trousers. And doing so, he climbed up the stairs to confront
HKK. The piece de resistance of this play acting was when SMS bent down to
measure HKK’s trouser bottoms and said that since these were not regulation pattern
18” wide, these would have to be chopped off with the scissors that he was
wielding. The Academy was bursting at its seams, the ladies were falling over
each other in a hysteria of laughter and HKK though red faced with
embarrassment was shaking hands with SMS for his brilliant lampoon act. Mrs
Batra, the Commandant’s wife couldn’t help but hand over the best prize to SMS,
who had become the bête noire of HKK.
SMS and GD continued to shock and lampoon seniors and
officers even while they were in the IMA, Dehra Dun. GD, when he had just
joined the IMA as a fresher in the third term, impersonated the Duty Officer
and got the BCA of Charlie Battalion front rolling, in front of Imphal Company
barracks. These two did what most cannot even dream of, but survived owing to their daring and faith in their
expertise, which defies odds even when these were loaded against them. This is
what made them good and gifted officers who lived their careers with
forthrightness and gumption. When the history of India Squadron is written, the
names of SMS and GD will always have a place for themselves in its pages, adjacent
to NJC Nair; another hero who immortalised the credo of the NDA ‘SERVICE BEFORE
SELF’.
Brigadier Sarvesh
Dangwal
7554/ 39 / India Sqn
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Truth Catches Up
KALMADI SHOWN THE DOOR FOR
GOOD
While the supposed final nail in the coffin of the
credentials of Mr Suresh Kalmadi, as a sports aficionado and administrator has
been put, with his loss in the elections held to select the President of the
Amateur Athletics Association of Asia (AAA); it is a wonder when the
investigating and judicial authorities in the country will charge and prosecute
him for his intent to cheat and criminally profit from contracts, given to
suppliers during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It is said of the law that it
moves like an ass, but the prolonged delay in framing a charge sheet to proceed
against Kalmadi for his acts of commission and omission is a tad too long and
inexplicable. The tragedy of the country is its recalcitrance and dithering to
act against venal and criminally culpable politicians, goons who help make the
fortunes of politicians, celebrities and those corporate houses, which curry
favour with the league of scoundrels.
The memory of Kalmadi, shown on television and
threatening the channel with a defamation suit in the courts of the Capital,
seems so ironical now, with his stature and power cut to size by his political
party and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which he headed for 15 years.
His, probably last attempt to resurrect himself as a sports administrator, by
seeking a fourth tenure as President of the AAA did not work out for him. Even
though he has the reputation of being able to pull the rabbit out of the hat,
his defeat must have surprised quite a many of those whom he had cultivated by
dispensing favours and offering freebies, while he was in power and wielded
authority. One wonders if providence intervened in the process of these
elections, wherein 7 votes were declared invalid in a close margin of 20 - 18, which
Brigadier Hamad won. The result of these elections was a great relief for the
sportspersons of India, who were saved their dignity and pride. Kalmadi, would
no more haunt and cast his pompous shadow over the firmament of athletics,
which had at one time propelled him to his grip over the coveted chair of
President IOA.
The fall of Kalmadi from grace was as meteoric as was his
rise, when he rose from the ranks of the Youth Congress into mainstream
politics and jettisoned his association with his mentor and Maratha strongman
Sharad Pawar, to create his own coterie and political following. His tenure as
a parliamentarian brought him into the corridors of power in Delhi and like
some others of his ilk, was sucked into the power game of sports
administration. His first port of entry was the Indian Amateur Athletics
Association (IAAF), from where he leap frogged into the domain of the IOA and
held sway till he was put into the Tihar Jail, in the wake of alleged
corruption charges slapped against him by the country’s top investigating
agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Kalmaid’s political fortunes were on the rise and he even
held the portfolio of a Railway Minister in Rajeev Gandhi’s government. He had
very assiduously cultivated his parliamentary constituency, Pune and continues
to represent it in the Lok Sabha. The Congress – NCP alliance government, which
is presently in Maharashtra, has in it Kalmadi loyalists from Pune. Therefore,
quite understandably, there was a mass demonstration and rallies were taken out
in support of Kalmadi, when he was released on bail from the Tihar Jail. To his
following, this man could do no wrong and had given to Pune its modern look and
infrastructure. One wonders, what will be the outcome, when he contests the
general elections, which are just around the corner in 2014. Given the standing
of the pathetic opposition to the Congress Party’s most likely candidate, which
most probably will be Kalmadi, it is unlikely that he could be defeated and
will yet again be elected to the Lok Sabha. It seems, corruption continues to
remain a non issue with the Indian electorate, which discounts this failing in our
polity as a minor lapse.
However, irrespective of what happens in the battle of
the ballot, as and when it takes place: the Indian sporting fraternity is happy
and pleased with the outcome of the result to the post of the President AAA. It
now seems that all routes for Kalmadi’s return into sports administration have
been effectively blocked. To me personally, this gives great joy because while
I was in service in the Army Sports Control Board (ASCB), he handed out very
shoddy treatment to those who stood up to his devious machinations and
realpolitik in Indian sports and indulged those who were willing to suck up to
his fiat, even when it was detrimental to the interests of the parent
organization they served in and sports. Kalmadi, had a knack of cultivating
those who were weak of spine and convictions and sucked up to him for
egotistical reasons. He used his protocol as a parliamentarian to exploit the
resources of the Army and the Services and gave scant respect to the
organizational hierarchy. Of course part of the blame rests with those who were
happy to ride his bandwagon, but that was how he practiced his expediency and
politics in sports management and administration.
It is a welcome
news for the country, that the heavyweight which Kalmadi had become in the
firmament of Indian Sports, has finally been shown the door.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, W 64th Street
Ridgeview Drive
Edina
Minneapolis
Minneasota,
US of A
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