Long 'C' - At Last

After a delay of over a year, my Long ‘C’ (Communication specialization) course started in September 1967. There were 10 of us including a Malaysian, Mohd. Bin-Shariff who was appropriately called ‘Sheriff’. Along with me he was a bachelor, the rest all married. But the wives of Viji Malhotra and GBS (affectionately called Garbar Singh) Kohli stayed back with their parents for the first half of the year-long course as Viji’s wife, Rita, was expecting their first child and Mrs Kohli decided to leave GBS alone so as not to interfere with his studies! So Viji and GBS stayed with Sheriff and me in the Single Officers’ cabins of Venduruthy Mess.

Cdr Subimal Mookerjee was the Oi/c Signal School with Lt Cdr AK Sood as our course officer. Strangely enough, Sood didn’t like being called by his first name Arvind and was proud to be called and indeed introduced himself with a smooth smile as ‘Crook’ Sood. His designation in the School was V1 and he taught us Fleetwork. Lt RK (Rocky) Mehta took care of Wireless Organisation as W1 with Lt JK (Jack) Suri, later a victim of the ’71 War, in charge of Technical aspects as T1. GBS, who was from the Education branch as against the rest of us from the Executive, was already teaching Radio Theory (RT) in School as M1 prior to the Course, now wore two hats. He would sit as a student with us for most part of the Course but would take over the mantle of a teacher for RT classes. He was, of course, exempted from the final exams from the RT paper!

On the practical side, we had to learn semaphore, morse code and typing. Typing was taught with Pitman’s lessons accompanied by music reminiscent of alphabet learning in kindergarten classes. Many did not take typing seriously which would earn the Oi/c’s wrath later.

The four ‘bachelors’ got along famously with each other. After school, our usual routine was to study till about 9 pm and then adjourn to the nearby US Club for a drink and the then famous ‘club plate’ or ‘club sandwich’. Sheriff was a livewire and would often urge all in the bar to have a drink with “When Sheriff drinks, everyone drinks; drinks all around.” After a few, it was “When Sheriff pays, everyone pays” followed by Sheriff’s quick departure and the barman chasing all present for signatures!

In the heat and humidity of Cochin, classes would often get boring. Smoking was allowed and being occasional smokers, Viji and I would sometimes light a fag. On one occasion, we were sitting behind GBS when Viji could not resist the temptation of seeing what would happen if he touched the lighted end of his cigarette with GBS’s hair flowing out of the back of his turban. To our horror, we watched helplessly as the hair started burning. GBS felt the heat and swiped the hair with his hand fully absorbed in the lecture. Fortunately, the small fire subsided immediately and GBS continued to pay attention to the lecturer without realizing what had happened. I absolutely forbade Viji from telling GBS about the incident and the latter never came to know of it. Alas, he is no more and will not get to read this either.

Viji had a brain ticking (maybe still has!) all the time. One day in his cabin I found him taking out a bottle of scotch from the cupboard and examining it. He declared that his bearer had been swigging whisky on the sly and had diluted it with water to maintain the level. He told me that he had been suspecting it for sometime and to catch the culprit he had put a hair on the inside of the bottle top before tightening it. The hair was missing so obviously the bottle had been opened and nobody but the bearer had an access to the cupboard.

During our course, a couple of Malaysian ships visited Cochin. Sheriff took us on board for a drink and I was attracted by a music system I saw in the Wardroom. Sheriff told me that Crook Sood had approached the Malaysians to sell it to him. I requested Sheriff that if they really wanted to offload the system, could he get them to give it to me instead? He succeeded in doing that and I was the happy owner of the wonderful system for many years. I also bought from them a lot of LPs including the James Bond theme composed by John Barry who became my lifelong favourite composer. Crook Sood was hurt that he had been outwitted but to his credit, took it quite sportingly.

Opposite my cabin stayed RG (Gulu) Kumar doing his Long TAS course. He too had a hi-fi music system with latest discs being brought to him by his fiancée, Reena from her trips abroad as an air hostess. So if you were passing by on the road, you could opt to hear Aretha Franklin on her way to becoming ‘Queen of Soul’ from Gulu’s side to John Barry or Tom Jones from my side.

Meanwhile, the course went on smoothly with interesting lectures on Fleetwork and Wireless Organisation. Radio Theory and Technical were rather boring and the study of the innards of communication sets with their complicated circuitry met with a fair amount of resistance from providing any high voltage current of interest in my veins! However, I managed to survive.

GBS also took some Instruction Technique classes for us. One piece of advice I recall during his lectures was that if you are asked a question the answer to which you don’t know, say “I shall come to it later” and then never come to it!

Soon it was time for final exams. Apart from written papers, we had to undergo a typewriting test with a benchmark of 30 words per minute. As the result did not formally count towards successful completion of the Course, not many took it seriously. At the test, only Viji and I topped 30 wpm. Cdr Mookerjee was livid and held back the results with daily classes for the failed candidates. They had to labour for an extra week to reach the qualifying standard thus cutting into our joining time.

Finally, the results were declared and we had qualified as Long ’Cs’ ready for our next appointment which in my case was Signal Communication Officer, INS Trishul, the senior ship of 15th Frigate Squadron.

Two Extraordinary Schools

In September 1949, Pitaji, my Nana, moved from Bharatpur to Udaipur as a Rajasthan High Court Judge and, of course, I went along with him and Mataji, my Nani. Pitaji knew Shri Mohan Singh Mehta, a renowned educationist who had founded a number of educational institutions among which was the Vidya Bhawan School in Udaipur which I joined in Class VII.

This was a unique school which catered to an overall development of a child than just learning Academics. To start with, it was co-educational for both boys and girls, something remarkable in those days particularly in a largely purdah dominated state of Rajasthan. Boys and girls studied and played together right from junior classes to Class X, the highest class in school.

There was whole day packed schedule for students. As a day scholar, I was picked up early in the morning by a tonga along with 4-5 other kids. On arrival at School, we started with Physical Training followed by a light breakfast. Classes commenced at 9 am till 1.30 pm which was lunchtime when we could have our own tiffin or opt to eat with the hostellers. This was followed by a Rest period for which we had our own bedding stowed in lockers. We would take the bedding out and spread it in the verandah and lie down/sleep for one hour.

At 3 pm, it was time to get up and pursue a hobby of our choice such as carpentry, pottery, folk dancing, etc. A quick snack and it was time for games like hockey, football or volleyball. Cricket was not very popular then but we did play it at times. At 6 pm, it was time to go home in our tongas.

A certain number of days were allotted for going outdoors. When the weather was pleasant such as after rain or cool and sunny, the students and teachers could take a decision to go out and visit a nearby village or farm field. I had my first taste of fresh sugarcane juice on such a day.

In less than a year, the Udaipur bench of the Rajasthan High Court was wound up and Pitaji was transferred to Jaipur. My association with Vidya Bhawan would have ended then but Mummy, who was teaching in Bharatpur,  was selected to undergo B.Ed. in the Vidya Bhawan Teachers’ College in Udaipur. So it was decided that I would continue for another year at the School. Special permission was taken to keep me with Mummy at the Women’s hostel and we were given a small single room instead of a dormitory. It was fun having many aunties showering their affection on the lone boy in their midst!

For their practical training, the ladies at the Teachers’ College were assigned to conduct some classes at our School. As they came from different parts of India, their accents and mannerisms provided some comic relief to the mostly Rajasthani students. I particularly remember a Punjabi Maths teacher holding a geometry class at which she stated, “A suker +B suker =C suker”. Nobody could understand her despite her repeating it a number of times. Beginning to lose her cool, she went to the blackboard and wrote, “A square +B square =C square”. The mystery was solved but the class broke into loud laughter resulting in punishment though the teacher could not fathom what was funny!

Our headmaster, Shri KL Bordia, was a well-known educationist. He was soft-spoken but firm and respected and loved by the students. One outstanding teacher was Shri Devi Lal Samar who conducted folk dancing classes. I was fortunate to have known him for the two years I was at School but shortly afterwards, he left to become the Founder/Director of the Bharatiya Lok Mandal which popularized Rajasthan folk dances and puppetry all over India. He earned national recognition  and was awarded the Padma Shri in 1968.

I spent only two academic years in Vidya Bhawan but loved the concept of the School and remember it fondly. In all these years, I have not met too many people familiar with the School. But in 1987, Shri Jagat Singh Mehta, then Foreign Secretary and son of the founder of Vidya Bhawan, visited Singapore and I invited him for dinner at our house. He was thrilled to learn that I had studied in that School and we exchanged lots of notes about the institution. Over the years I have made a number of trips to Udaipur and make it a point to visit the hallowed grounds of the School. I am glad to see that the old building still exists though it has been extended and other blocks have come up but the general topography with vast playing grounds still remains the same.

After Mummy finished her B.Ed. in May 1951, she was appointed as Asstt Headmistress in Maharaja’s Girls School, Jaipur. So we joined Pitaji and Mataji and it was nice for the four of us to be together again after two years.

Now the question was which school I should go to. Pitaji and Mummy were keen on St. Xavier’s but I protested for two reasons. Firstly, it was an English medium school and as I had so far studied only in Hindi medium ones, I felt I would not be able to cope up with the change. Secondly, Xavier’s followed January-December academic year and joining it in mid-year would mean a loss of one year apart from having to complete the new syllabus in six months instead of the full year. So I was keen on Mahavir School close to our house but Pitaji would have none of it and said one year was a small price to pay to go to a fine school!

And a very fine school it turned out to be! The School was the brainchild of Sir Mirza Ismail, Dewan of Jaipur in the 40s and the architect of modern Jaipur, who wanted nothing but the best for the city. A Christian school named St. Mary’s Boys’ had been started in 1941 and Sir Mirza decided to give charge of the School to the Society of Jesuits in ’43. Then in ’45, the School shifted to its 21 acre present location and renamed St. Xavier’s School.

Apart from following the international syllabus of Cambridge University, what really made the School outstanding was the total dedication and devotion of the founding Jesuit Fathers and the personal attention they paid to each student. The Fathers of those days were legendary and each one of us who studied under them remembers them most fondly and reverently. My earlier post “Fathers who art in Heaven” describes them in detail. To briefly recapitulate, there was the strict disciplinarian but ever smiling Principal Fr. Mann followed by the gentle Fr. Wiizbacher, my favourite teacher the cigar smoking Fr. Pinto, folk singer and cricketer Fr. Mackessack, the Saturday evening movie showman Fr. Cosgrove, the genial photographer Fr. Wilmes who continued to look after the alumni affairs till his passing away not too long ago, the baseball expert Fr. Batson who now has the new School Sports Complex named after him, the man who introduced basketball in Rajasthan Fr. Berney, the small built but muscular live wire on the sports field Brother Nehr etc. etc. All larger than life legends and I remember them so vividly it seems like yesterday!

Some devoted Indian teachers need mention too. Shri Hukam Singh taught us Hindi, Shri Misra geography and the ever popular Miss Francis the junior classes. The last named was still her sweet, charming self when I met her just a few years ago.

Getting back to my schooling, I found the going tough for the first six months and was in the lower half of the class in the VII standard finals. By half-yearlies next year, I had worked up to fifth position and topped the class in the finals. That position I maintained over the next two years ending with a first division in Senior Cambridge exams with As in English Language and Literature!

Out of school hours, I joined Fr. Mackessack’s singing class and learnt American, Irish and Scottish folk songs. That led to my developing interest in Western music. I also made it to the School Cricket team as a batsman and occasional trundler.

St. Xavier's counterpart was the Maharani Gayatri Devi School for girls (MGD). Under the martinet principal of MGD, Miss Lutter, no contact between the two schools was permitted. The only time we got to visit MGD was for the final Senior Cambridge exams for which due to small numbers (in our case in 1954, 9 boys and 4 girls), MGD was the single centre in Jaipur. There too, we were admitted just before the exam, with no contact, not even eye, between boys and girls. No wonder that despite being two top schools, MGD girls and Xavier boys never formed life partnerships. Among the girls that I knew, Tara Mathur, Chandralekha Sahai, and the two sisters Kishen and Bishen, all married non-Xavierites though Kishen and Bishen found two naval officers, RN Singh and Vijai Shekhawat with the latter rising to become the Naval Chief. The other naval chief from Jaipur, Madhvendra Singh, a Xavierite, married Kumud from Nepal and my own wife, Akhila, came from Bijnor.

I remember one other visit to MGD to see a play performed by the theatre company Shakespeareana featuring Geoffrey and Laura Kendal with their daughters Jennifer and Felicity and our own Shashi Kapoor. As we know, Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer soon fell in love and got married.

The Senior Cambridge exams brought an end to my schooling. I consider myself fortunate to have studied in two distinguished and unique schools thanks to Pitaji's insistence.

My own insistence led me to join the NDA!