At the NDC- June 1965-December 1966

I left NDA soon after the passing out parade of 28th course held in the shadow of Pandit Nehru’s death and reported at the National Defence College, New Delhi, early June 1965, to take over as Flag Lt (ADC) to the Commandant, VADM AK CHatterji. The College including the Commandant, senior staff and students, was on a foreign tour which was part of the curriculum. I had plenty of time to learn about the new job from my predecessor Rajnish Tandon. One advice he gave me was to be careful of Admiral and Mrs Chatterji’s temper which he said could be on the short side!

On return of officers from the tour, the College resumed its normal routine. My day started with receiving the Admiral at the porch.  He used to drive his personal Fiat to office and back. Apparently, government rules were that the staff car should not be used from residence to office and back. The Admiral strictly followed that.

After briefing the Admiral on the day’s appointments and ascertaining his requirements, I would go back to my office while the day’s activities progressed. These would usually begin with a lecture by some prominent personality followed by lunch at the College dining room. The lunch was compulsory for all including the Commandant and self. After lunch, the students would go back to their syndicate work or studies till closing time.

The Commandant’s office suite included a bedroom and the Admiral was fond of a short siesta. On getting up, he would walk barefoot to the attached bathroom to freshen up. One afternoon soon after my joining, I heard the Admiral screaming loudly. Apparently, he had gone to the bathroom and sensed dirt under his feet. I ran to get the sweeper to wipe the floor but it took quite a while for the Admiral to calm down. Back in my office, I recalled Rajnish’s warning and pondered how long I would last with this temper and why I had left the comfort of the NDA where I had 35 cadets under me, for the NDC where I was the juniormost officer by far!

My fears were unfounded. After that incident, I cannot recall any incident when the Admiral or Mrs Chatterji lost his or her cool. Of course, the bathroom cleaning was personally supervised by me from that day on!

It took sometime for me to adjust to the atmosphere at the NDC with its peculiar staff setup. There was the Commandant with the rank of Vice Admiral, four Senior Directing Staff, one each from the Army, Navy and Air Force and a civilian, of the rank of Rear Admiral and equivalent, one GSO I from the Army and two Junior Directing Staff, one each from Navy and Air Force, of the rank of Commander and equivalent, and self, a Lieutenant. The students were mostly of the rank of Brigadier and equivalent with a few Colonels. So there was a 10-year gap between me and the next officer with no colleagues! To their credit and kindness, I must say that all of them made me feel at ease and I never felt out of place because of my juniority. In fact the two JDS, Cdr MS Grewal and Wing Cdr Suchanti, were like friends and the GSO I, Lt Col Pyara Lal, later promoted to a full Colonel, an extremely kind and gentle soul. The last named was singlehandedly responsible for getting the College up and running right from its inception, setting the curriculum, getting the best speakers Indians and foreigners, writing their biodata and introductory speeches for the Commandant, laying out individual and syndicate tasks for the students and almost everything else. I have never seen a person for whom work was his entire life and the Colonel was up every night till late and often slept in his office.

With other gentle people like Maj Gen Pandit, RAdm Heble and most students, I was well into a comfort zone. To an extent, I was used to a similar environment right from my childhood as I was brought up by my Nana and Nani with just the three of us at home and imaginary friends to give me company!  All this took away any awe of seniors and taught me to be at ease with them. Indeed, I found that Brigadiers in their own circle actually behaved like cadets!

I soon started attending lectures whenever I could. That was indeed a great learning process with famous personalities talking on diverse subjects. I recall Smt Indira Gandhi as Information and Broadcasting Minister addressing the College. She seemed shy and halting and not too impressive. What a change there was when she came next year as Prime Minister and talked unhesitatingly with supreme confidence!

The Indo-Pak war in September ’65 saw some of the students leaving and joining their battalions. On the personal front, Vinnie Mama was in NHQ and was transferred overnight to take over as Commander (second-in-command) of the Indian Fleet flagship, the cruiser Mysore. Pitaji (Nana) was in Delhi as Chairman Company Law Advisory Commission after retiring from Rajasthan High Court. I was staying with him in 1 Teenmurti Lane sharing a boundary wall with the PM on 1 Teenmurti Marg. The authorities had dug a couple of bunkers on our lawn and I remember herding Pitaji and reluctant Mataji (Nani) into the bunkers on some nights when the air raid warning went off!

Adm Chatterji made a number of trips to NHQ to see Adm BS Soman, the CNS, advising him to convince the PM and the government to let the Navy play an aggressive role in the war. Every time, he returned dejected as the CNS would tell him that the government wouldn’t listen as it thought Navy’s inclusion would escalate the war.

The war ended and normalcy returned. Soon after, we went on a forward area tour and visited Adampur and Halwara, two air bases in Punjab from where air strikes were carried out on Pakistan. Thereafter, we went to the eastern sector and landed at Bagdogra.  After a briefing at the Corps HQ at Siliguri, we drove up to the MES Inspection Bungalow in Darjeeling. I accompanied the Admiral to his suite where we saw a bottle of scotch on the bedside table. The Admiral felt embarrassed and said we should return the bottle. We discussed the matter and thought that might offend the hosts. Finally it was decided to tell all students to get together in the evening and finish the bottle before dinner.

Next stop was Gangtok where we called on and carried out the traditional scarf exchange ceremony with the Ruler of Sikkim, the Chogyal and his attractive American wife, Hope Cooke, the Gyalmo. We then drove to Nathu La and made eye to eye contact with the Chinese. A number of them came out of their bunkers and it was a great photo op for both sides. From there to Kalimpong and finally by helicopter back to Bagdogra marking the end of the tour.

On return, I got busy with preparations for the marriage of Admiral’s elder daughter Purobi popularly known as Bula, with Deb Mukharji, IFS. The wedding ceremony was held at the Admiral’s residence on 27 Tughlak Road followed by a wedding reception on the vast lawns of the College the next day.

The 1965 Course ended in the last week of November. Pitaji had also come to the end of his tenure and had to vacate his official residence and planned to go back to Jaipur. Meanwhile, my cousin Manjula’s wedding was fixed for early-January ’66 in Delhi. As the whole of Raksha Bhavan, residence for NDC students, was lying vacant awaiting the arrival of the ’66 batch, I got a 3-bedroom apartment allotted to me and moved in with Pitaji and Mataji and my dog, Lucky. After the wedding, my grandparents went back to Jaipur and I had to find accommodation for self and Lucky. There were 3 suites in the right wing of the College with one being used as a guest room for visitors and the other 2 vacant. Rather than go to a Mess, I suggested to the Admiral that I move into one of the suites. The Admiral readily agreed as there were many cases of indiscipline among the Class IV staff staying in the outhouses of the College and I could keep an eye on them. So I shifted into Suite no.2 with the whole vast estate mine after working hours! Young Verghese, a bearer staying in the outhouses, became my majordomo as well as cook for breakfast and dinner. Some years later, he was employed as a waiter in the South Block Café and it was a pleasure to see him on my visits to NHQ.

In the meantime, Admiral Chatterji was appointed as the Chief of the Naval Staff to take over from Admiral Soman. Air Marshal R Rajaram, then AOC-in-C Western Air Command, was appointed the next Commandant. I had already been selected to undergo a specialization course in Communications (Long C) mid-66. I requested the Admiral if I could stay on in the College for a couple of months. The Admiral talked to Air Marshal Rajaram and the latter agreed. A temporary arrangement was worked out with his existing Air Force Staff Officer working at the NDC but remaining on the books of WAC.

The start of the ’66 Course was marked by the sudden death of Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at Tashkent in January. Smt Indira Gandhi took over as PM.  The ’66 Course gradually got in full gear and with two aides instead of one, I had enough time to attend lectures and syndicate discussions and spend hours at the excellent College library.

In the evenings, there were plenty of naval and College parties to attend. In the College parties, Mrs Suchanti was urged by all to sing and dance to “Bareilly ke bazar mein jhumka gira re”- just this one line but she did it superbly! Delhi also provided me ample opportunities to attend classical music concerts with legendary names like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan and Allah Rakha in their prime and the next generation performers Amjad Ali Khan and  Zakir Hussain appearing on the scene.

Weekends were spent playing golf. Tiger Talwar was a regular partner before he went to Russia to bring a submarine. Tiger, also a bachelor then, used to stay in Kotah House. One summer evening, I invited him to come to NDC and we sat on the lawn and drank our whisky. Early next morning, I went to Kotah House to pick him up for golf and found him still in bed. He said he had a massive hangover and asked me what whisky I had given him. I told him it was Black Knight, a standard fare in those days which both of us had in equal amounts and I had no ill effects. On return, I had a look at my liquor stock and found that a bottle of gin was empty. Apparently, Tiger had been pouring gin instead of water in his whisky!

Mid ‘66 I met Flt Lt Nanda Cariappa who was ADC to the Air Chief, ACM Arjan Singh.  Nanda’s aircraft was shot down over Pakistan during the war and he was taken prisoner. The story goes that President Ayub Khan who had served under General Cariappa, Nanda's father, in pre-indepenent India, rang up the latter saying he could release Nanda as a special case. Gen Cariappa told President Ayub that Nanda was to be treated as a regular POW and no extra consideration needed to be shown to him. Back in Delhi after his regular release and on taking over as ADC, Nanda became a regular golfer and we had many games together at the DGC. I also had the privilege of meeting General Cariappa, later Field Marshal, at Nanda’s house in Jodhpur Hostel, Delhi.

Meanwhile, I was told by NHQ that my Long C course was postponed to the next year. I apprised the Air Marshal of the fact and he surprised me by saying, “Why don’t you stay on in the College?” He was taken up by the idea of having a naval aide and sent his IAF Staff Officer back to the WAC! So began my deep association with the Air Marshal and his very kind wife and both of them treated me like a son. I was frequently invited to their residence on King George’s Avenue for Sunday lunches where we sat on the lawn sipping beer before delicious South Indian food. After the Air Marshal’s sudden and shocking passing away due to leukemia a couple of years later, I always made it a point to visit Mrs Rajaram at her residence in Vasant Vihar whenever I visited Delhi and we would spend hours reminiscing the good old days.

The College routine kept one busy and days were flying by. Lucky had got used to staying alone while I was at work but once in a while got naughty or angry locked up in my room. One day, I came from work and was horrified to see Lucky, a white Pomeranian, had turned brown. I was at my wit’s end till I saw that the wall in my dressing room was brown too. It transpired that Lucky had torn through a bag of brown suede shoe polish powder and had been flinging it around spraying the powder all over himself and the wall. It took a lot of scrubbing to make Lucky white again!

Come September and my friend and coursemate, Premvir Das, decided to get married and insisted on my coming to Kanpur to attend his wedding. Premvir had been Flag Lt to Admiral Chatterji when the latter was Flag Officer Commanding Indian Fleet before taking over as Commandant NDC. The Admiral had agreed to go for the wedding combining it with some official functions in Kanpur and was taking an Air Force aircraft for the trip. Some official work was found for me in Kanpur and Lt Cdr Avinash Bhatia, Flag Lt Cdr to CNS, got the Admiral’s consent to take me in his aircraft and off we flew reaching Kanpur late afternoon. At the airport, we were received by Army liaison officers who quickly escorted us to our respective cars for the long drive through the city’s disorderly traffic to Kamla Retreat where we were being put up. We were shown to our rooms and waited for our baggage truck to arrive.

But the truck was not arriving! We asked the liaison officers and they had no clue about the delay as they had no contact with the truck. The Admiral rang up Avinash a number of times beginning to lose his cool but Avinash could only give a spiel about the bad traffic and level crossings.  Finally the truck arrived without the baggage. The driver said he did not know anything about the baggage and had only tried to follow us as best as he could. With some difficulty we got through to the ATC who informed us that the aircraft had gone back to Delhi! They had no idea about any baggage and we could only surmise that it was still in the aircraft.

There was total panic. Avinash was worried about his job and how to tell the Admiral who was already late for an evening appointment. I was cursing Premvir for unnecessarily getting me into this mess when I could be relaxing with a drink in my room in the NDC. Avinash was bracing up to give the news to the Admiral when his steward, Inder Lal, who we had forgotten about, turned up fuming at all of us. Inder was left behind in the aircraft and was told by the pilot that the aircraft had to return to Delhi. The worthy steward got the luggage out and somehow managed to inform the Army authorities by phone about the situation. Another truck was sent by the Army to bring Inder and the baggage to Kamla Retreat. Relieved beyond words, we would have given Inder a Very Distinguished Service Medal right on the spot if we could!

I don’t think the Admiral ever got to hear this story!

Marriage ceremony attended and celebrated, we returned to Delhi. The next major event was the forward area tour. I was hoping to visit the Western sector but Air Marshal Rajaram wished to go east and so the tour was a repeat of the previous year with an airlift to Bagdogra and by car to Darjeeling. The Air Marshal and I arrived at the MES Inspection Bungalow and waited for all students to come. However, one car which was in the middle of the convoy was missing and nobody recalled seeing it. A search party was sent and found the Ambassador car stuck in bushes some 50 metres below the road. Lying nearby were the two students who were travelling in the car, Cmde BR Kapoor, IN, and Capt Coleman of the Royal Navy, and the driver. It had rained earlier and apparently the car went too close to the edge and rolled down the slope. Fortunately, the ground was soft and the dense vegetation prevented loss of life. The injured were rushed to the Military Hospital and it was found that Cmde Kapoor had a neck fracture and Capt Coleman’s right little finger had to be amputated. The driver escaped with a few bruises. Arrangements were made to repatriate the officers back to Delhi and the tour resumed thankfully without any further mishap.

Back in Delhi, we learnt of the Air Marshal’s appointment as Vice Chief of the Air Staff. He had to leave immediately on completion of the course end November ’66 and was relieved by Lt Gen MM Khanna. The latter also liked the idea of a naval aide and asked me to continue. But by then I felt that I should get back to the Navy before NHQ forgot about me and I about the Navy and requested the General to please arrange for his own staff officer. I spent a month with General Khanna before Capt Vipin Khanna relieved me.

I have often wondered whether there is any other case of a naval officer, nay, any service officer, being an aide to all three Army, Navy and Air Force flag officers!