Thursday, December 30, 2021

2021 - A SEESAW YEAR

 


The last two years have been dominated by Covid-19. 2020 was totally shutout by the harsh lockdown resulting in no activity at all. This year began on a promising note with the numbers going down and by end-January, it was being proclaimed that India had achieved complete victory over the dreaded disease.

Apart from immediate family, Akhila and I had met no one in the past 11 months. Then some very close friends of my cousin Anjula decided to host a lunch on her birthday on 14th February and invited us. Overcoming reluctance built over almost a year, we decided to go for it encouraged by the fact that it was in the open. That was our first outing of the year and a good time was had by all.

Soon after, I decided to resume golf and recall the pleasure of the nervous first drive going straight and to a fair distance. One felt life was getting back on track.

There was further hope with the opening up of vaccinations for senior citizens and we got our first dose on the 3rd of March. We undertook a trip to Jaipur during which Capt RN Singh hosted a dinner for us in Diggi Palace and surprised us with around 20 guests including my St. Xavier's and Navy mate, Admiral Madhvendra Singh. So far so good!

Back in Delhi, the Covid numbers started rising again while we got our second jab on 27 April.  Soon the graph became almost vertical and India was completely caught off guard having believed that the disease had been conquered. Horror stories about lack of hospital beds, oxygen and medicines and increasing fatalities abounded frightening the hell out of us. The peak of the second wave came in end-May/June but, by mid-July thankfully, the numbers began to show a sharp decline.

In the next few months, hope mounted and we gladly accepted the ‘new normal’ with masks, social distancing (read anti-social!), avoiding crowded places and preferring open restaurants and cafes to enclosed ones. A couple of trips to Jaipur followed and end-September, we were bold enough to go and spend two nights in the beautiful Samode Palace. For a few  dinners on special occasions, we went to the splendid Rambagh Palace sitting in the spacious verandah with its spectacular view and lighting.

As far as eateries are concerned, the discovery of the year was two adjoining restaurants in Narain Niwas, Jaipur. There is the Bar Palladio with its fascinating peacock blue Mughal design, serving Italian food both indoor and outdoor. Next to it is the Shikaar Baagh with Indian cuisine which also has outdoor seating on static buggies, coaches and rickshaws. A unique ambience to savour!

Satisfying ourselves that it was reasonably safe and that a James Bond film had to be seen on the wide screen, we went to a cinema hall after a year and a half to watch “No Time To Die” in Jaipur in early October. There were 10 people in the 200-seater theatre! We expected a lot from the movie but were a bit disappointed. Then in Delhi, we saw “House Of Gucci” in Director’s Cut, again with about 10 fellow watchers. We didn't expect too much from this one but it turned out to be quite interesting with great acting by Lady Gaga.

This lull in Covid incidents in India though in the face of rising global cases again led to conjectures among many responsible people that India would perhaps avoid a third wave. After a forced miss last year, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) held the customary Navy Day Reception on 4th December at his residence. Then on the 16th, he hosted a lunch in Kotah House for veterans of the 1971 War as part of the Swarnim Vijay Parv celebrations. It was a delightful surprise to meet Vice Admiral SH Sarma who in his 100th year is perhaps the oldest living naval officer. Ordinarily resident in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, he took the journey for this event at the insistence of the CNS. To recap, he was the first Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet and I was his Fleet Communications Officer (FCO) on board Vikrant during the war. The Admiral’s memory is still sharp and he amazed me by not just remembering me but recalling some details which showed that he had continued to follow my career even after my FCO tenure. We exchanged precious memories of the war days and he presented me with his autobiography and a set of picture post cards capturing highlights of his naval career. I also met some other war heroes including SK (Gigi) Gupta, Maha Vir Chakra, leader of the first air attacks on Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, and Inderjit Sharma, Vir Chakra, leader of the first missile attack on Pakistan Navy ships and Karachi harbour.

It was around early December that the spectre of a new Covid variant, Omicron, started rising. With the fear of its spreading three times faster than the earlier Delta, restrictions are multiplying day by day. Delta too is showing an increase particularly in west and north India including Delhi. Ruchir had planned a trip for us, close relatives and friends to the Gir National Park to bring in the New Year and we were all looking forward to it eagerly. But after deliberating on the present situation and the growing numbers, the older generation of my cousins and the two of us decided to give it a miss with a heavy heart. 

That is the story of 2021, a seesaw year of hopes and disappointments. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Thursday, December 23, 2021

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY-A CHRISTMAS SONGS STORY

 

‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la,

Strike the harp and join the chorus, fa la la la la, la la la la.’

So goes a popular Christmas song-“Deck The Halls”.  Let the joyous yuletide spirit flow as I take you to a ride on my favourite Christmas songs.

We begin on a nostalgic, sentimental note with “White Christmas” which has numerous versions and I like Bing Crosby’s the best. A few lines-

‘I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know,

Where the tree tops glisten, and children hasten to hear the sleigh bells in the snow….

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write,

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.’

Bing Crosby was at his best with Christmas songs. His “Silent Night” sung in his calm, soothing voice, touches the core of one’s heart and is unforgettable.

‘Silent night, holy night, all is calm, and all is bright,

Round yon virgin, Mother and Child, holy infant so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.’ 

On a humble note is “The Little Drummer Boy-

‘I’m a poor boy too….I have no gift to bring….that’s fit to give our King….

I played my drum for Him, pa-rum pum pum pum….

Me and my drum, me and my drum.’

No Christmas song list would be complete without “Jingle Bells”. 

‘Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

Oh what fun it is to ride, in a one-horse open sleigh.’

Children love Christmas with its gifts, sweets, songs and merrymaking and wait for it to come impatiently throughout the year. In the late 1950s, a group called Alvin and the Chipmunks emerged. Their voices were modulated to sound like squirrels squeaking. They were immensely popular with “The Chipmunk Song”-

‘Christmas, Christmas time is near, time for toys and time for cheer,

We’ve been good, but we can’t last,

Hurry Christmas, hurry fast….

We can hardly stand the wait, so Christmas don’t be late!’

The festival is fun for all. So how can Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer with his shiny, glowing nose be left out! All the other reindeers used to laugh and call him names till 

‘One foggy Christmas eve, Santa came to say,

Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight.

Then how the reindeers loved him, as they shouted out with glee,

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, You’ll go down in history.’

For Santa to bring them gifts, children are supposed to be good throughout the year. They are warned of this in “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”.

‘You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I’m telling you why….

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice….

He sees you when you’re sleeping, and knows when you’re awake,

He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake….

Santa Claus is coming to town.’

The gift which a child wishes for can be a personal need as in “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth”. The poor kid complains that everybody stops and stares at those teeth which are gone and the kid does not know who to blame for this catastrophe. So-

‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth….

It seems so long since I could say,

“Sister, Susie sitting on a thistle”,

Gosh, oh gee, how happy I’d be, if I could only whistle….

Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,

Then I could wish you, ‘Merry Christmas’.’

Children can be very naughty too. Listen to-

‘I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe last night,

She didn’t see me creep, she thought I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep….

Then I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus, underneath his beard so snowy white,

Oh, what a laugh it would have been, if Daddy had only seen,

Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.’

And so, “We Wish You A Merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”.



P.S. It was 11years ago on Christmas day that Mummy transcended with a smile on her face.

 

  


Saturday, December 18, 2021

AFTER THE WAR - AN UNSCHEDULED STAY IN CHITTAGONG


Pakistan surrendered on 16 December 1971 and the war came to a joyous end for us. Spirits on Vikrant were at an extreme high and all of us looked forward to going back to celebrate with our families and friends. An aircraft had flown to Vizag and came back with a month-long awaited mail. I too got a few letters and season’s greetings and wedding cards, past and future! It was good to know that life was carrying on as usual back home.

HQ Eastern Naval Command ordered the fleet to return and Vikrant set sail for Madras. Just then we received a personal signal from the CNS to the Fleet Commander that his task was not over and that he should proceed to Chittagong and ensure that the harbour channel was clear of any mines and open for shipping. This really was not a Fleet Commander’s job nor did we have any minesweepers with us. But ours was not to question why, ours was but to do….. So the staff was herded onto a helicopter and flown to Chittagong.

At Chittagong, we were received by some Bangladesh personnel who took us to a swank hotel named Agrabad. We had a nice long bath, ate well and had a good night’s rest after a long time. 

The next day we were taken to the naval base which was totally deserted as all Pakistani personnel had been taken prisoners. There were all sorts of abandoned imported vehicles lying around but no keys! We found rooms where we could set up our offices and living accommodation. Furniture and mattresses etc. were left behind, so the bare necessities were available. The landing ship, Gharial, with its shallow draught had been able to enter harbor safely and would take care of our meals. 

Admiral Sarma did not want us to impose ourselves on the hotel and after another night, we shifted to rooms in the base. All well except that in the latter half of December, Chittagong was pretty chilly particularly at night. For clothing, all we had was two sets of summer uniform and what is known as Red Sea Rig where the shorts are discarded for trousers and a cummerbund. Remember, the summer uniform comprised of shorts at that time as trousers were introduced much later. I don’t know how we survived the cold- perhaps whisky on Gharial was the saving grace!

To get on with our task, Cdr Vyas, Fleet Operations Officer (FOO), and Lt Cdr Bikash Ghosh, Fleet Torpedo and Anti-submarine Officer (FTAS), huddled together in a room with senior sailors to decide how to minesweep without any equipment. Soon, Bikash got out and seemed to be in a rush. I asked him where he was going and he said in his heavily accented voice, “I am going to look for some ‘whair’.” I asked him what kind of ‘ware’ and he replied somewhat irritably, “Whaair, not where.” Someone then whispered to me that what he meant was ‘wire’. 

We had been told that the mines laid by Pakistan Navy were floating ones just below the surface and moored to the bottom of the sea. FOO, Bikash and their advisers decided that they would trawl a big length of wire towed by two boats in order to trap the mines and destroy them. Bikash and a few sailors accompanied by some local men went to the market to buy the wire and other equipment and requisition two boats. 

The next few days, Bikash and Lt Cdr Mohan Chandy, Fleet Gunnery Officer (FGO), went up and down the channel in the two boats sweeping the wire between them. Cdr PP Sivamani, Fleet Navigation Officer (FNO), and I kept ourselves busy sifting through publications and documents left by Pakistan Navy and writing the war report. If we needed to go anywhere, we would pick up any stranded car and start it by directly putting together the two starter cables and triggering the engine. Petrol was available from idle pumps in the base. I drove plenty of Mercedes and Toyotas in those days!

By 31 December, Bikash and Mohan had done a good number of sweeps up and down. It was decided that they would do one final check sweep on New Year’s Day and mark it before declaring the channel safe for shipping. That night, we were invited to the new year eve dance at the Chittagong Club. While the Bangladeshis sang, danced and made merry, we without partners dreamt wistfully of home and contended ourselves with the available whisky. By about 11 pm, my colleagues said they had had enough and headed back to the base. I decided that having come all the way, I would stay to bring in the new year. At midnight, Auld Lang Syne was sung and I headed back to my room looking forward to a long sleep.

When I reached my room, I found Cdr Vyas waiting for me. He said that Bikash and Mohan were going for the final check sweep at 7 a.m. They felt that a rescue boat was needed in case any boat struck a mine and an extra boat had been requisitioned for this purpose. I was required to be in that boat.

That put paid to any hope of a long sleep and I got up at 6 in the morning of 1 January 1972 and joined the others to go to the harbour. When I was directed to the rescue boat, I saw to my horror that it was the biggest of the three with the deepest draught. While the shallow draught sweeping boats could sail over the mine, the rescue vessel was more likely to hit it. However, there was no time to protest and we set off to carry out our task.

My boat in-charge was an oldish guy who could only speak Bengali. Communication was a problem as I tried to explain to him that he should keep his vessel at a safe distance behind, in the centre of the two sweeping boats. Having watched him for some time, I decided I had nothing much to do and might as well go down for much needed sleep. I was taken to a cabin and hit the hay for a few hours. At about noon, I had had enough sleep and went up to the bridge. I was stunned to see that instead of following my directions, the boat was sailing almost abreast of one of the sweeping ones on the outer side and not the centre of the boats. Some more frenzied instructions to the non-understanding man and we got back to where we should have been. For the rest of the sailing I stayed on the bridge not taking any further chances.

Fortunately, we did not strike any mines, marked the swept channel and returned safely to the jetty at about 6 p.m.

By that time, it was pitch dark and we were hungry and tired. A bus was supposed to pick us up and we waited impatiently for quite a while but there was no sign of the vehicle. I noticed there was another bus parked on the jetty which we had also seen in the morning. I offered that if anyone could start the bus, I would drive it back to the base. A number of sailors jumped to the task and did the wire trick to get the engine running. I took over the wheel and drove the bus successfully making it the one and only time I have driven a bus in my life!

The swept and marked channel was declared safe and open for shipping. No case of a mine striking any ship was ever reported although there were a few merchant ships that were struck at the harbour entrance wide off the channel.

Our task completed, we embarked on the landing ship Gharial for our journey back to Vizag. We were given camp cots to sleep in the huge tank space in what was the biggest bedroom I have ever had!


Friday, December 17, 2021

A LUNCH TO REMEMBER

 


As part of ‘Swarnim Vijay Parv’, a festival commemorating the golden jubilee of the glorious victory of our Armed Forces in the 1971 War, the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) hosted a lunch on 16 December for naval officers who were part of the action, and their wives. Akhila and I were invited.

As we walked in, wondering how many veterans I would meet, I sighted an old man (by which I mean older than me!) sitting on the sofa. After all these years, he would not have been easy to recognise but fortunately, I had received a few WhatsApp messages about him recently including his photographs. He was Vice Admiral SH Sarma who was the Eastern Fleet Commander during the War. He entered his 100th year on 1 December and I never expected to see him as he is a resident of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. But the CNS persisted on his coming and he graciously accepted and came accompanied by his younger son, Navin, and daughter-in-law.

I went up to greet him and started introducing myself. He cut me short saying “I know who you are, you are Ravi Sharma and you were my Fleet Communications Officer. I remember you were also part of our minesweeping effort. After the War, you went to Staff College and stood first in the Course.” 

I was astounded at his memory particularly the last bit as Staff College rankings are not usually disclosed although Cmde JG (Podgy) Nadkarni, then Chief Instructor (Navy) and later CNS, had hinted at that during my final interview at the College.

I was absolutely delighted to meet Admiral Sarma and we chatted for a long time recalling the War and Vizag days including his later stint as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command when I was commanding Katchall. He then presented me his autography, “My Years At Sea” and a bunch of picture post cards with photos of himself and ships he had commanded.

Sitting with him was Commodore Inderjit Sharma who had commanded Nirghat, the missiles of which sank the Pak destroyer Khaibar, the minesweeper Muhafiz and a merchant ship besides setting a few Karachi harbour oil tankers on fire. He was awarded Vir Chakra for his actions. Inderjit and I were neighbours in Bombay during the ‘80s and his charming wife, Rekha, taught Ruchir in Cathedral School and remembered him fondly.

Then there was Rear Admiral SK (Gigi) Gupta, Squadron Commander INAS 300, who right at the outset of the War on 4 December, led the Seahawks in air attacks on Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong. I remember the anxious moments on board Vikrant during the first time they were in the air. All of us on the carrier were overjoyed when they returned safely and the air handlers garlanded Gigi as soon as he alighted from his Seahawk. He was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra.  

It is worth recalling that Gigi Gupta and Inderjit were the first in their respective sectors to carry out attacks on Pakistan, Gigi with air attack in the East and Inderjit with missile attack in the West!

Among others, there was Cdr RK (Rocky) Mehta, Signals Communications Officer, Vikrant. He and I worked closely during the War and he was most co-operative and helpful to me during those days. As he is a resident of Delhi and an avid golfer, we have played a lot of golf together including a game in which he was attacked by a bird much like in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie!

A lady walked up to me and introduced herself as the daughter of Cdr Kulbhushan (Ustaad) Sood. Ustaad was the First Lieut on Vikrant, a champion golfer and my mentor and senior companion in my early years of golf. In the days before the War when we were lying off the Andaman Islands with time on our hands, he had rigged up a net on the quarterdeck of Vikrant where we could swing a club and hit balls with all our might without causing any damage to the ship or losing a ball.

Among serving officers, I met some who had just entered the Navy in my final years and remembered me. Vice Admiral Adhir Arora, Chief Hydrographer, recalled his time as Midshipman on Trishul in 1985 when I was commanding the ship. He said he cherished the memories of those days and they had a great time on board besides learning a lot.

It felt nice to know that at least for some, I am not 'that easy to forget'!


 



Wednesday, December 8, 2021

LESSER TOLD STORIES OF THE 1971 INDO-PAK WAR

 (This piece appears in today's Times Of India online edition under the heading 'How INS Vikrant Cleverly Evaded A Pak Submarine'. I had given it the heading as above. The sub-heading in TOI is their own too though I don't quite agree with it. Anyway, here is the main piece as it is printed there.)


The 1971 war was the first time that the Indian Navy was pressed into action, with it having been kept out of the loop during the 1965 Indo-Pak war due to some obscure fear of escalating the conflict. Our largest ship Vikrant was in fact undergoing repairs in a dry dock when war broke out in 1965. The Navy had been hurting ever since; in peacetime, the Armed Forces exercise regularly to be ready for war. When war comes, and if an arm is not assigned a role, then what is the purpose of that Arm? Pakistan naval ships in 1965 had fired a few shells at random on Dwarka port in Gujarat. The shells caused no damage, but Pakistan’s huge publicity of the attack made our Navy seem inept. Vice Admiral SM Nanda, who was then commanding the Western Naval Command, prophetically stated in a 1969 interview to the Bombay tabloid ‘Blitz’ that “...if war comes again, I assure you that we shall carry it right into the enemy’s biggest ports like Karachi”.

That assurance was fulfilled by the missile boat attack on Karachi two years later, and in fact spearheaded by Admiral Nanda, who was now Chief of Naval Staff. He insisted and succeeded in obtaining a major role for the Indian Navy in 1971. Despite the short operating range of our missile boats, innovative planning was devised for attacks on Karachi and Pakistan ships in the Arabian Sea, while a far more effective role was seen for Vikrant by deploying her off East Pakistan to provide support to our Army and attack coastal targets leaving the Air Force to focus on inland targets. The ships, led by Vikrant and its air surveillance, would bottle up the Bay of Bengal and prevent reinforcements of men and material either reaching or escaping East Pakistan.

Vikrant had been facing a persistent problem with a leak in one of her four boilers, but after repairs to the extent possible in Bombay, it was ordered to sail for the eastern coast to be ready for quick action if war was to be declared. Utmost secrecy was required to keep her movements concealed from Pakistan to preserve the element of surprise, as well as for Vikrant’s own safety as she was the main target for Pakistan’s Navy. For us, the carrier’s deployment off the east coast had an added advantage: only one Pak submarine, Ghazi, had the endurance to operate that far from its home base at Karachi.

Covering such a large ship’s tracks aren’t easy, however, and an elaborate plan was conceived to conceal Vikrant’s movements. Dummy signal traffic was generated from other locations to give the impression that the carrier was operating elsewhere. This was backed by other ruses: for example, with dummy signals indicating that Vikrant was near Cochin, food and other supplies purportedly to meet her demands were rushed to Cochin even though the carrier had already crossed over to the east.

Until 1971, our Navy had just one fleet based in Bombay. Admiral Nanda decided that for better control and coordination, there should be two fleets, Western and Eastern. Consequently, the Eastern Fleet was formed on 1 November 1971 with Vikrant as the flagship and a few other warships. Rear Admiral SH Sarma was appointed Eastern Fleet Commander and I, the Fleet Communications Officer on his operational staff. At that time, I was busy with my job as an instructor in Signal School, Cochin, and was unaware of these new developments. So when my boss, Commander ‘Clinker’ Karve, told me about my new appointment, I told him to quit playing April Fool 6 months late – or early for that matter – as there was no such thing as an Eastern Fleet! He had to show me the written orders to get me to start packing my bags for Vishakhapatnam (Vizag), which was designated as the base for the Eastern Fleet.

Admiral Sarma, along with his staff, embarked on Vikrant on 6 November by helicopter off Vizag and we sailed for Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. The Fleet eventually moved to the northernmost island, Port Cornwallis, to be within hours of striking distance at enemy shore targets. Throughout all this while, the Fleet followed a strict regime of radio discipline in order not to give away our position to Pakistan, which could intercept our radio communications and thus fix our location. No signals to shore authorities were made while at sea; instead, naval facilities ashore at Port Blair were used for communicating with Naval Head Quarters and the Eastern Naval Command HQ at Vizag. Port Cornwallis lacked any naval organization and when the need arose to contact Vizag for some urgent supplies, I found a police wireless station on the island to transmit our signals from.

Meanwhile, Ghazi kept operating off Vizag in search of Vikrant, believing it to be there thanks to the dummy traffic and radio silence, when, in fact, the carrier had already moved to the Andaman Islands. Ghazi sank off Vizag on the night of 3-4 December, ceasing to be a threat. Vikrant launched air attacks at Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong and other ports immediately on commencement of war, catching Pakistan by complete surprise and our Fleet was exercising total control over the Bay of Bengal.

When planning for the war, Indira Gandhi and the three service chiefs considered the possibility of a third country intervening. China was thought to be a risk as it could potentially come to the aid of Pakistan by creating tension along the Sino-Indian border, thus tying up large numbers of our forces. Winter was chosen for the operations so that snow would prevent any meddling by the Chinese.

As it happened, it was the US that threatened intervention. On 10 December, it announced with much fanfare that the Seventh Fleet, normally operating in the Pacific Ocean, would enter the Bay of Bengal. Gandhi summoned Admiral Nanda, who told her that if the US Navy interfered with our ships, it would be an act of war. He wondered if the US would really want that but believed that the US was only trying to bully us, and that we should fearlessly continue with our operations. He also said that he was going to tell his ships that if they come across American ships, they should exchange identities and invite their Captains for a drink! Gandhi was quite satisfied with the Admiral’s answer.

At sea, we learnt that a US Task Force led by their biggest aircraft carrier, the nuclear- powered Enterprise, had been directed to sail into the Bay of Bengal. US National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, wanted this widely publicized with the ships sailing through the Malacca Straits in broad daylight. The Commanding Officer of one of our Fleet ships, Beas, sent a signal by light to the Fleet Commander, Admiral Sarma, asking what our ships were to do should they encounter the Seventh Fleet. The Admiral’s reply was short and crisp: “Exchange identities and wish them the time of day”. Morale on Vikrant was high and everyone’s attitude was, ‘Let’s carry on with our job and tackle any situation as it develops’. As it happened, we never encountered any US ship and saw the war through to the birth of Bangladesh.

Admiral Nanda and Admiral Elmo R Zumwalt, who was then head of the US Navy as Chief of Naval Operations, have described these events in detail in their respective autobiographies. Admiral Zumwalt wrote that despite diplomatic pressure by the US on Gandhi, nothing deterred her from going to war. Henry Kissinger was enraged and ordered Enterprise and other ships to be deployed in the Bay of Bengal. When Admiral Zumwalt asked Kissinger what his ships were supposed to do if they came across the Indian ships, Kissinger replied: “That is your problem”. Admiral Zumwalt wisely told his ships to stay away from East Pakistan and to operate south of Sri Lanka. Nowonder we never even saw them on our radar screens.

Years later, after both Chiefs had retired, Admiral Zumwalt came to India and met Admiral Nanda. The former stated that he was worried that should the ships of the two Navies meet during the war, it might lead to an inadvertent situation. When Admiral Nanda told him that his instructions to Indian ships were to invite the US Captains for a drink, Admiral Zumwalt responded, “We need not have worried!”

It seems the ordered entry of US ships into the Bay of Bengal caused more anxiety to their naval personnel than it did to ours.

Tailpiece: The meeting between Gandhi and Admiral Nanda on entry of the US ships took place when the Eastern Fleet was at sea. Any instructions from Admiral Nanda to Admiral Sarma could only be through a radio signal which would have been seen by me. I do not recall any such signal and Admiral Sarma’s reply to CO Beas seemed to be totally on the spur of the moment. I have often wondered at the similarity of the language of both the Admirals- was it just pure telepathy?

Ravi Sharma is a retired naval officer who now lives in New Delhi and enjoys blogging his memoirs.




Monday, December 6, 2021

TO EACH HIS OWN

 It's amazing how a remark in passing can trigger a totally different memory!

The old man was playing golf with two friends. In front of them was a foursome. After four holes, two of the foursome called it quits while the other two continued. After one hole, they cut short to the 8th hole and finding the tee occupied, moved somewhere else out of sight of the old man's threesome. Confused by this odd behaviour, one of the threesome remarked, "To each his own."

That was enough to take the old man 70 years back in time. In the early 1950s, there used to be a programme on Radio Ceylon which played numbers requested by its listeners usually dedicated to a near and dear one on a birthday, anniversary or just to express love. The signature tune for the programme was a 1946 hit, "To Each His Own", sung by a group called The Ink Spots. That song itself was good enough to be heard again and again as a sheer poem of delightfully lovely verses. It was short and sweet, so here it is in full:

'A rose must remain with the sun and the rain

Or its lovely promise won't come true,

To each his own, to each his own

And my own is you.


What good is a song if the words don't belong

And a dream must be a dream for two.

No good alone, to each his own

For me there's you.


If a flame is to grow there must be a glow,

To open each door there's a key

I need you I know, I can't let you go

Your touch means too much to me.


Two lips must insist on two more to be kissed

Or they'll never know what love can do.

To each his own, I've found my own

One and only you.'


Friday, November 26, 2021

A SEA VIEW

Repeating my piece published in Times of India on 30 November 2010. May interest you .


26 November will mark two years since terrorists struck the Taj in Mumbai and tried to decimate the hotel. They failed to break the spirit of the Taj and whatever damage they caused has been repaired and the hotel functions smoothly again. As an old seadog, I have my own memories of the hotel.


In the years before the old Bombay shoreline got cluttered up with ungainly skyscrapers, naval officers were familiar with the Taj as a navigational landmark whether they visited the hotel or not. The Taj Dome was a prominent spot on the naval chart (map) and was frequently used for taking a bearing to fix the position of the ship, checking the compass error by using it as a transit with another landmark such as the Rajabhai Clocktower, or for making a run-in for anchoring the ship. 


The Taj though is within walking distance from the Naval Dockyard and that makes it very accessible to naval personnel. The Sea Lounge was a frequent haunt from where one could look back at one’s own ship and at ships coming in and out of the harbour.


On one occasion we had a cocktail party on board which went on late into the night. Three of us, Jayanto Roychowdhry, Tally-ho Talwar and I decided to go out and eat at the Sea Lounge. We ordered Swedish Open Sandwiches and the waiter brought a big tray with a large assortment of them. We all had one each and were hesitating to have more when Roy Chow averred we could eat as many as we liked and would only be charged for one much like a buffet. So we had three to four each and when the bill came we were stupefied to see that we had been charged for each and every piece! As only Tally-ho was carrying his wallet, he had to shell out the cash for which he curses us to this day!


When one wanted to impress a girlfriend, there was the Blow-Up, India’s first real discotheque. The music and the psychedelic lights were mind-blowing. With songs like the Rolling Stones’ “I can’t get no satisfaction”, the night would be most satisfactorily spent.


Very late at night with all its restaurants closed, the Taj provided a reference point for the Bade Miyan stall which was located just behind the hotel building. Fresh, succulent kababs could be had there till the early hours of the morning at very affordable prices. The Navy was introduced to it by 'Pedro' Khanna, a roly-poly bachelor who frequented the place often. Bade Miyan became so popular that he would be called on board to cater for parties. I believe his son is following in his father's footsteps.


I am now only an occasional visitor to Mumbai. When I do, I hope the Sea Lounge will serve Swedish Open Sandwiches and this time I will happily pay for more than one! 


Sunday, November 21, 2021

REMEMBERING ADMIRAL CHATTERJI

 

Today, 22 November, is Admiral A.K.Chatterji's birth anniversary. Time to remember this extraordinary naval officer. 

I had written two pieces on him which were included in the book "The Admiral Who Shed His Vice". The title was based on his promotion from Vice Admiral to an Admiral. Here, I have combined my two pieces in one for those who may not have seen them and may be interested to read about him and my association with him.

In May 1965, I was cooling my heels in a cushy job as a Divisional Officer at 'J' Squadron, NDA Kharakvasla, looking after 100-odd cadets. Out of the blue, one fine morning I was summoned to the Battalion Commander’s office and told to catch the first available train to New Delhi for an interview for the appointment of Flag Lt to the Commandant, National Defence College (NDC). At that time, I did not even know what NDC stood for and who its Commandant was!

On arrival at the NDC, I met the incumbent Flag Lt who eyed me commiseratingly and hastened to add that he had played no part in disturbing me out of my peaceful stay in Kharakvasla and that the Commandant, Vice Admiral AK Chatterji had picked my name out of the short list forwarded by the NHQ. With that, I was ushered into the Admiral’s office and that was the first time I saw him.

Without any preamble, the Admiral shot the question, ‘will you take up the job as my Flag Lt?’ I was stunned by the suddenness of it all particularly as I did not know I had an option! Nobody before or thereafter, ever gave me a choice and all my appointments were by an NHQ letter directing me to such-and-such appointment DTBR, which all knowledgable naval personnel know stands for ‘date to be reported’ on assuming the appointment. A ‘yessir’ shot out of my mouth and I was told to go back to NDA, pick up my belongings and return to Delhi pronto.

As it turned out, that ‘yessir’ was the smartest reply I ever uttered for it gave me the opportunity to be close to, observe and learn from perhaps the most intelligent, professional and affable person I have known. It would be presumptuous on my part to list his numerous attributes and achievements. Very briefly though, he was the architect of the modern Indian Navy and a lot of credit for the Navy’s success in the 1971 war should be attributed to him as the acquisition of the missile boats was his brainchild with the project aptly named ‘AK' boats after his initials. Also, the acquisition of submarines and the concept of two fleets each with an aircraft carrier were proposed by him in a ten year plan paper as early as 1947 when at the age of 32, he was Director of Naval Plans in the NHQ. Although approved by the government of the day, the plans remained largely in limbo till fittingly, Admiral Chatterji took over as Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) in 1966 and began the process of implementing them..

Among his other accomplishments, he was the first Indian Captain of the cruiser Delhi at the age of 35. His handling of that large ship was legendary. He was the first full Admiral in the Indian Navy and after a 4-year term, retired at the age of 55. Today the retiring age of the CNS is 62 and not all are able to complete their 3-year term!

A big benefit of being his Flag Lt was that it gave me an opportunity to be close to his wonderful family. My engagement took place in Delhi and immediately thereafter, Akhila and I proceeded to his house to seek his and Mrs. Chatterji’s blessings. Both of them had always been extremely kind and loving and Mrs. Chatterji continued to shower us with her affection and gifts even after the Admiral had passed away. His elder daughter Bula (Purobi) and her husband Deb Mukharji I have known from the time of their engagement while I was at the NDC. The wedding took place soon after and I never fail to remind them that I was responsible for organizing the ceremony! The younger daughter Tuktuk (Probhati) and her husband Shantanu Mukherjee, who was with Air India, were together with us in Singapore when I was posted in the High Commission as the Defence Adviser and their son Mohit and our children studied together at the United World College. So a short appointment of a year as Flag Lt laid the foundation of a lifelong relationship which Akhila and I strongly cherish.

In a lighter vein, I must recount an unforgettable incident. I was told on taking over my appointment that the Admiral had a very short temper. Somehow, I was lucky never to have been in the firing line while at the NDC. But the fear lurked and I missed incurring his wrath a year later by a hair’s breadth or should I say, by a few rail level crossings!

The Admiral had become the CNS and Avinash Bhatia was his Flag Lt. I learnt that they were proceeding to Kanpur for some official function which coincided with my friend and coursemate, Premvir Das’s wedding. I asked Avinash if I could hitch a ride in the IAF aircraft and he got the Admiral’s OK.

On arrival at Kanpur airport, Army personnel met us, quickly escorted us to a couple of staff cars and spirited us away to far-off Kamala Retreat where arrangements were made for our stay. En route, we encountered a number of level crossings most of which were open so that we made the road journey quite fast. On reaching the Retreat, Admiral and Mrs. Chatterji were taken to their suite and Avinash and I to ours. We then asked the Liaison Officer about our baggage whereupon he retorted, “What baggage?” In all the hurry and flurry, the baggage had been completely forgotten and so was the Admiral’s steward! Frantic efforts were made to contact the airport but given Kanpur’s telecommunications of those days, the efforts were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the Admiral kept ringing us up to inquire about the baggage and we kept putting him off by reminding him of the level crossings. But we could sense that the Admiral’s fuse was getting shorter by the minute! 

Finally, we got through to the airport and were told that the aircraft had flown back to Delhi and the ATC had no knowledge of any baggage or the missing steward! The earth shook under our feet and Avinash and I started contemplating a career out of the Navy. There was nothing left to do except make a clean breast of it to the Admiral.

Just then, a 3-tonner arrived with the very harassed Admiral’s steward. Fortunately, the worthy had offloaded the baggage from the plane, contacted the Army and requisitioned a vehicle to get to us!

The Admiral was not told of the near disaster, the level crossings were blamed for the delay and the rest of the stay proceeded smoothly. We not only kept our jobs but lasted in the Navy till long after the incident. The Steward was told that he would go far if he kept his mouth shut which he did!

The Admiral was a simple and honest person who endeared himself to all. He would drive to the NDC and back in his personal car eschewing the use of staff car. On tours, gifts such as a bottle of scotch would be shared with the team of officers accompanying him.

Incredibly, our government never conferred any award on him!



Saturday, November 13, 2021

DORIS MARY ANNE KAPELHOFF or simply DORIS DAY

Thoughts come and go but some linger. Presently, my mind is on Doris Day and so I decided to revisit her songs.


First, a little about her life. Of German heritage whose grandparents migrated to the US, Doris Day was named Doris Mary Anne Kapelhoff at birth. She wanted to be a dancer but a car accident injured her right leg badly and she decided to switch to singing. She took lessons and her inspiration was Ella Fitzgerald. Soon, her tremendous potential was recognized and she was hired as a professional singer. Her employer, Barney Rapp, felt her name was too long and after her rendition of the song “Day After Day”, shortened her name to Doris Day. Her first hit was “Sentimental Journey” in 1945 after which she went from strength to strength and was considered a singer as good as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. From 1949 to 1958, she was No. 1 female vocalist on the US Billboard winning Oscars for Best Original Song for “Secret Love” in the movie “Calamity Jane” in ’54 and and “Que Sera Sera” in ’57.


In the ‘60s, she earned fame as a top actress and made many films with Rock Hudson such as “Pillow Talk” for which she won an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, “Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers”. Rock Hudson was her lifelong friend but they never married perhaps because, as we surprisingly learnt only after his death, he was gay. In later life, she became an animal welfare activist and lived to the age of 97. She passed away on 13 May 2019, coincidentally 2 1/2 years to the day!


Her married life was not happy and she had four unsuccessful marriages. Fortunately, that does not seem to have affected her singing which was sweet, soft and hopeful though touchingly emotional and romantic.


Reflecting her positive outlook, her songs were not about heartbreaks. But she sang about being careful in giving her heart only to someone who would promise to give all his love in return. “If I Give My Heart To You” has the following lines-

‘If I give my heart to you, will you handle it with care,

Will you always treat me tenderly and in every way be fair,

If I give my heart to you, will you give me all your love,

When you promise all these things to me,

Then I will give my heart to you.’


Love did have her in a spin. In “Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered”, she sang-

‘I’m wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again,

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, am I….

Lost my heart but what of it….

I”ll sing to him, each Spring to him,

And long for the day when I cling to him,

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, am I.’


And then “You Do Something To Me”-

‘Something that simply mystifies me,

Tell me, why should it be, 

You have the power to hypnotize me,

For you do something to me,

That nobody else could do.’


In “Secret Love”, she wished to keep her love within her heart but her lover ‘became impatient to be free’-

‘So I told a friendly star, the way that dreamers often do,

Just how wonderful you are, and why I’m so in love with you….

At last my heart’s an open door,

And my secret love’s no secret any more’.

Just by telling it to a star!


One of the most romantic songs I have ever heard is her “Beautiful Music To Love By”. Switch on the video in which she features with Rock Hudson and waltz the night away with your loved one. In this song, she again goes for a heady spin:

‘There goes the room, round and round like a spinning top,

And my heart’s going dizzy, but don’t let it stop,

Oh, your lips are so thrilling to cling to.

I don’t care, if it’s right or it’s wrong,

This is beautiful music to love by.

Hold me tight, kiss me sweet, love me long.’


In keeping with her optimistic nature, she did a number of light numbers. One of them is “Guy Is A guy”-

‘I walked down the street like a good girl should,

He followed me down the street like I knew he would….

He asked me for a good night kiss,

I said it’s still good day,

I would have told him more instead,

His lips got in my way….

So I walked down the aisle like a good girl should,

He followed me down the aisle like I knew he would,

Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be….’


Then there is “Enjoy Yourself” where she exhorts us to do that before it’s too late-

‘Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think,

Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink,

The years go by, as quickly as a wink, 

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.’


Her laissez faire attitude stood out in the number which promptly won everyone’s heart. It was “Que Sera Sera” which she sings while putting her son to bed in the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. I am sure many mothers still sing it to their children and the lyrics are known to most us. But I loved it when Vinnie Mama used to sing his Hindi translation-

‘Jab mein ek chhoti ladki thi, maine Amma se poocha mera kya hoga,

Kya mein khubsurat banoogi, amir banoogi, Amma ne yeh bola,

Que sera sera, jo hona hai so hoga,

Aage ki kuchh pata nahin hai,

Jo hoga so hoga, Que sera sera.’


To end, let’s go back to her first hit, “Sentimental journey”-

‘Gonna take a sentimental journey….

To renew old memories, 

Gonna take a sentimental journey,

Sentimental journey home.’


And I am headed for Jaipur!


P.S. I don’t follow present day pop music much. But by chance, I discovered someone who appealed to me as a modern Doris Day. She is the Belgian dinger Dana Winner. Her “One Moment In Time” is brilliant-

‘Give me one moment in time, when I’m racing with destiny,

Then in that one moment of time,

I will feel, I will feel eternity’.

There is more where that comes from!


Thursday, October 28, 2021

SONGS THAT MELT MY HEART

 


I don’t know if I could ever have qualified to be amongst “Hearts (Made) Of Stone” as the Fontaine Sisters sang in my youthful days. But I know that with age, my heart seems to be transforming into butter with an ever decreasing melting point which reaches its lowest with music and certain songs. The songs don’t need to be sad nor are my tears that of sorrow. It is just that some emotional chord gets touched by some tunes, lyrics and nostalgia.


Lately, the song which has been stirring my emotions is Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World”. I have always loved that song but its revival with the movie “No Time To Die” has brought it back in my thoughts. It was very touching to learn how its composer John Barry specially sought the ailing Satchmo to record virtually the latter’s last song. Satchmo was not even able to play the trumpet which was typical of most of his songs and the instrument was played by a member of the orchestra. The lyrics of the song are great but it is the trumpet piece ending the song which keeps blowing my mind.


Another John Barry composition that I find extremely touching is “You Only Live Twice”. Its opening bars leading to Nancy Sinatra’s superb vocal rendition make it irresistible. Its intriguing lyrics say, “You only live twice…. one life for yourself and one for your dreams. You drift through the years and life seems tame, till one dream appears and love is its name.” Love may be dangerous but if you think of the danger, the dream will be gone and you will continue to live only one tame life!


Two Christmas songs sung by ‘the old groaner’ Bing Crosby have always overwhelmed me. ‘White Christmas’ is pure nostalgia and ‘Silent Night, Holy Night’ movingly emotional. These songs transport me back to my school days and I can picture old Father Mackessack, my class teacher when I first joined St. Xavier's Jaipur, teaching us these songs.


Another old song that never fails to choke my throat is “If I Loved You” from the musical “Carousel”. Two lovers, Julie and Billy, ponder over what life would be like if they were in love but are hesitant to admit the attraction they feel for each other. “If I loved you, ….Words wouldn’t come in an easy way, round in circles I’d go….Soon you’d leave me, never never to know, how I loved you, if I loved you”.


In early 60s came the movie “Lovers Must Learn” with “Al Di La” hypnotisingly sung by Emilio Pericoli in a restaurant in which Troy Donahue and Susanne Pleshette walk in. I would like to think that it was this song that made them fall in love in real life and get married. I find the song touchingly romantic.


One of my personal favourites is “Feelings” originally sung by the Brazilian singer Morris Albert in 1974 and further popularized by Shirley Bassey and a host of top artistes from Frank Sinatra to Julio Iglesias. Despite its popularity, its lyrics have been criticized by many as insignificant. I, however, find them moving, aided by the way the song is sung. Its theme is the singer’s inability in ‘trying to forget my feelings of love’ followed by ‘feelings like I’ve never lost you, and feelings like I’ve never have you again in my arms’.


Most people are moved by the song “Memory” from the musical “Cats”. The original was by Elaine Paige but a very popular version is by Barbara Streisand. The famous Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the music while its hugely emotional lyrics by Trevor Nunn were based on poems of TS Eliot. I often listen to it driving from Delhi to Jaipur making efforts to keep composed with Akhila watching silently as she is quite used to this by now and has stopped inquiring if something is wrong! Let me recap a few lines:

“Memory, All alone in the moonlight,

I can smile at the old days, I was beautiful then,

I remember the time I knew what happiness was,

Let the memory, live again.

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise

I must think of a new life....

When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too

And a new day will begin....

If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is,

Look, a new day has begun."


Like I said in an earlier post, most songs by ABBA tug at the heartstrings because of their emotional lyrics. Here, I will confine myself to two which are touching for the resolve, hope and urge to look at the brighter side of life. The first one is “Chiquitita” which is about supporting a friend and exhorting her to get over her heartache. The lyrics would melt the hardest of hearts-

‘Chiquitita…. You’re enchained by your own sorrow’

In your eyes there is no hope for tomorrow….

I’m a shoulder to cry on, your best friend , I’m the one you must rely on….

Heartaches come and they go and the scars they are leaving….

But the sun is still in the sky and shining above you,

Try once more like you did before, sing a new song, Chiquitita.’ 


In the second song, “I Have A Dream”, the singer is determined to getting over life’s difficulties and reach the desired destination at the right time:

‘I have a dream, a fantasy,

To help me through reality,

And my destination, makes it worth the while,

Pushing through the darkness, yet another mile,

I believe in angels, something good in every thing I see….

I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me,

I’ll cross the stream, I have a dream.’


In addition to the vocals, what stimulates the tear ducts is the brilliant instrumentation at the beginning of “I Have A Dream” and towards the end of both songs.


We were in Singapore when the movie “Top Gun” was released in 1986. Its theme song was “Take My Breath Away”. The sweet melody is particularly touching when the characters superbly played by Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis have a misunderstanding and make up soon after. Whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to the wonderful years we spent in Singapore watching Ruchir and Shumita grow up from kids to their teens.


Then there is the Demis Roussos classic “Goodbye My Love Goodbye”. Beautifully sung in his romantic, sentimental style, its lyrics are hugely emotional:

“Goodbye my love goodbye, Goodbye and au revoir,

As long as you remember me I’ll never be too far.

Goodbye my love goodbye, I always will be true,

So hold me in your dreams ‘til I come back to you.”


There are more such songs but for now, my hanky is wet- I’ll go get a towel!

 

P.S. Surfing through YouTube on the TV, I chanced upon Dana Winner- ‘One Moment In Time’ performed live. The audience consisted of very young people and everyone was in tears entranced by the song. I found it reassuring- it is not only old geezers like me but the youth too who get emotionally affected by songs!















Wednesday, October 13, 2021

COLOUR BLIND PASSES COLOUR VISION TEST WITH FLYING COLOURS

 


Talk about a sailor less qualified, here is an amazing true story.


I was undergoing my Sub Lt’s courses in Cochin in 1960 and was on duty one evening under the Officer of the Day (OOD), Lt BR Bakshi. The duty room was facing the Ernakulam Channel and I noticed a vessel displaying some coloured lights passing by. I pointed this out to Lt Bakshi and asked him if he knew whether the lights signified anything or were just for decoration. His reply, “I can only see white!”


I was a bit flabbergasted and asked him if he could not see the colours and he replied “No, I can’t.” I then asked him how he managed to be in the Navy and that too in the Executive Branch where colour vision is of the utmost importance for night watches at sea where the entire Rules of the Road (Sea traffic rules) are based on distinguishing between colours particularly red and green. Here is Lt Bakshi’s story.


Bakshi joined the Navy as a non-commissioned sailor. He was very intelligent and his talents were recognized early by his seniors. He was made a CW (Commission Worthy) candidate and he passed all tests required to qualify to become an officer of the Executive branch. Finally, there was the medical examination which included a colour vision test.


To recap how a colour vision test is conducted, the doctor has a book of about 50-60 pages. On each page which are as usual numbered in black and white, there is a diagram of multi-coloured dots enclosing a random number in one particular colour which the candidate has to read out.  If the reader is colour blind, he would not be able to discern the number.


Bakshi knew he was colour blind. So he got hold of the book that was going to be used for his test and got someone to write the coloured number and memorized it corresponding to the page number. For example, he committed to memory that on page 15, the coloured number was, say, 23. During the test, he read the page number and rattled off the memorized coloured number! As you would appreciate, an excellent memory was required to perform this task which Bakshi obviously possessed and he passed the test with ease.


The cat was out of the bag when Bakshi was posted on a ship for his watchkeeping ticket. He had then to confess that he could not see colours. I guess the Navy could have dismissed him but recognizing his other good qualities and taking a benevolent view, the authorities decided to use his talents elsewhere. So Bakshi was not sent to sea and branched off to become a Physical Training Instructor ashore.



Saturday, October 2, 2021

WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD-NO TIME TO DIE

In February 2020, Akhila and I saw "Little Women" in Jaipur. Then the pandemic struck, cinema halls were forced to close down and an about-to-be released "No Time To Die", the latest James Bond movie, had to wait as, quite rightly, such a movie had to be seen in a theatre and not on the telly screen. After 18 months, picture halls have opened up again and James Bond is back. So we plucked up courage and went to see it back in Jaipur as that is where we are now. In a hall of 400 capacity, I counted 14 viewers including us. That would meet the approval of Mr. Modi as far as sosal distancing or 'do gaj ki doori' is concerned.

In an extraordinary coincidence as the movie well-preceded the outbreak of Covid, the story revolves around the theft of an engineered DNA through which the villain wants to develop a weapon of mass destruction. Talk of the theory propounded by many that Covid broke out of a Chinese lab!

The movie is typical modern James Bond stuff: technical brilliance, exquisite cinematography with a lot of scenic Italy and icescape, breathtaking car sequences, innovative gadgets developed by Q and almost non-stop action portraying the apparent invincibility of Bond though with a little more than usual emotional scenes of love, trust and family on the part of the normally stoic 007. Lasting over two and three quarter hours, it sets a record for being the longest Bond movie. Largely, critics have praised it as a fitting finale to Daniel Craig as he has declared that this is the last Bond movie he is doing. Remains to be seen if like Sean Connery he may be reminded in future "Never Say Never Again"!

Frankly, we did not think that highly of the movie. Maybe we are a bit old for this kind of stuff and prefer something simple and romantic like "The Last Letter From Your Lover", for me the best movie I have seen in recent times. But I did love Bond movies of old made even more enjoyable with the music of my top favourite movie music composer, John Barry. Again, I guess age comes into play for I know that my daughter and grandchildren love Billie Eilish's rendition of the theme song "No Time To Die". But for the life of me, I cannot imagine it merits comparison with Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever", Tom Jones' "Thunderball", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice" or "Louis 'Satchmo' Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World".

Even the makers of the latest movie have harked back to the past by reviving the last named song. Not only is the song played in full during the final credits but is referred to a number of times in the dialogues. For instance, Bond's love interest Madeleine asks him in a car drive to go faster eliciting his reply, "We have all the time in the world". In another scene, Madeleine says, "We need more time" only to be told by James, "You have all the time in the world".

That is the big irony of it: in the end, neither James Bond nor Daniel Craig playing his last Bond film has time on his side! This irony has its origin in the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1969 with Louis Armstrong singing the song while a tearful Bond cradles his dying young wife in his arms. "We have all the time in the world" are also Bond's final words both in the book and the movie.

But the biggest irony was in real life. John Barry homed in on Louis Armstrong because he felt that only the latter could deliver the lines with the required irony. By that time, Satchmo was very ill and the song had to be recorded in a single session. Satchmo was too weak to pick up his trumpet which was then played by a substitute in an enchanting refrain. Satchmo was running out of time and this was his last recording session as he died shortly after. John Barry fondly recalled the pleasure of working with Satchmo and himself considered it the finest piece of music he wrote for a Bond movie.  

So tell me, do we really have all the time in the world or is it just a self-delusion?

P.S. A dear friend told me after one of my blogs, "Ravi, I now know what you are; you are a romantic." Careful not to hurt my feelings, a qualifying adjective like 'pseudo' was conveniently omitted!


Thursday, September 9, 2021

ABBA- BITTERSWEET LYRICS THAT TUG AT THE HEARTSTRINGS

 


An announcement made the other day has thrilled music lovers – a new album of ABBA, ‘Voyage’, will be released on 5 November. To our delight, two songs from the album have been pre-released and have hit the music world by a storm. The songs are ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, classic ABBA titles indicative of their emotional appeal. Soon after the announcement, on just one music channel, YouTube, the former song had over 12 million views. And immediately on joining Tik-Tok last week, they had 5 million followers. Shows the cross-generational appeal of ABBA even after 40 years of their break-up in 1982.


What is so fascinating about ABBA’s music? I recall this question was asked of an old man in the 1977 film, ‘ABBA The Movie’ and his reply was something like this, “Well, they are different, fresh, clean”. That is the summary of a number of factors including the enchanting singing of the beautiful singers Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad (A..A), the lush orchestration led by Benny Andersson on the keyboard and Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) on the guitar, and the songwriting of Benny and Bjorn with lyrics simple and easy to sing along, sad yet spurring hope and happiness with feelgood vibes and a feeling of falling in love. 


For me, the magic of ABBA is really in their highly emotional lyrics that tug incessantly at the heartstrings. The lyrics are true to life as a result of their own life experiences of breakups and separations and also, some turbulence in childhood, which gives a depth to the songs hinting at deep sadness.


Let’s look at the lyrics and start with what is one of the greatest break-up songs ever, ‘One Of Us’, appropriately written when both the couples had separated:

‘One of us is crying, one of us is lying in a lonely bed…

One of us is lonely, one of us is only waiting for a call,

Wishing she had never left at all’.


Another breakup song is ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’:

‘Memories, good days, bad days, they’ll be with me always,

Knowing me knowing you, there’s nothing we can do’.


‘The Winner Takes All’ is a sad song reeking of fatalism in which the singer has been left for someone else but sadly has to accept it:

‘Nothing more to say, no more ace to play,

So the winner takes it all, and the loser has to fall’.


But things really come to a head causing the singer to resort to the international distress signal, ‘S.O.S.:

‘Where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find,

I tried to reach for you but you have closed your mind,

The love you gave me, nothing else can save me, S.O.S.,

When you are gone, how can I even try to go on’.



Hoping for the tide to turn on ‘a dark and dreary night’ leads to ‘Ring, Ring, Ring’:

‘Staring at the phone on the wall,

Ring, ring, why don’t you give me a call,

Ring, ring, the happiest sound of them all’.


Maybe a call came to give a chance to plead ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’:

‘I wasn’t jealous before we met,

Now every woman I see is a potential threat, 

Don’t go wasting your emotion,

Lay all your love on me,

Don’t go sharing your devotion.

Lay all your love on me’.


One step further is the invitation to ‘Take A Chance On Me’:

‘If you change your mind, 

I’m the first in line,

Honey I’m still free,

Take a chance on me’.


And so came what many think is the perfect falling in love song, ‘The Name Of The Game’:

‘Your smile and the sound of your voice,

Got a feeling, you gave me no choice, but it means a lot,

What’s the name of the game?

Does it mean anything to you?

But I think I can see in your face that it means a lot’.


Time off from self to offer a shoulder to cry on and someone to rely on to ‘Chiquitita’ which is Spanish for ‘little one’. The latter has suffered heartaches and scars so her spirits are sought to be raised with:

‘ You’ll be dancing once again and the pain will end,

You will have no time for grieving….

Try once more as you did before,

Sing a new song, Chiquitita’.


From heartaches and love to a song full of hope and resolve, ‘I Have A Dream’. Some think the song has a deeper meaning hinting to a life beyond the present one but I am content to think it is all about courage and optimism to overcome strife and tribulations in this very life:

‘I have a dream, a song to sing,

To help me cope, with anything,

If you see the wonder, of a fairy tale,

You can take the future, even if you fail….

I have a dream, a fantasy,

To help me through, reality,

And my destination, makes it worth the while,

Pushin’ through the darkness, still another mile,

I believe in angels, something good in everything I see,

I believe in angels, when I know the time is right for me,

I’ll cross the stream,

I have a dream’.


The lyrics of the two new songs seem intently personal and reflect the desire of the two couples and the group for a reunion and a fresh start. In ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, the singer pleads to be accepted as she has changed: 

‘And now you see another me, I’ve been reloaded….

I’m like a dream within a dream that’s been decoded….

I’m not the one you knew, I’m now and then combined….

I’m not the same this time around,

I’m fired up, don’t shut me down.’



Having gone through the ups and downs of life and the breakup, the realization of the preciousness of the relationship is the theme of the powerful song ‘I Still Have Faith In You’:

‘I still have faith in you,

It stands above the crazy things we did,

There was a union of heart and mind, 

The likes of which are rare and oh-so hard to find,

It all comes down to love…

We do have it in us, new spirit has arrived,

The joy and the sorrow, we have a story

And it survived.’


Finally, as they themselves often do, I end with ‘Thank You For The Music’:

‘So I say thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing,

Thanks for all the joy they are bringing,

….Thank you for the music, for giving it to me’.


ABBA’s four are in their 70s now. But the heartening fact is they have reunited. One hopes they will continue to stay together and keep tugging at our heartstrings for many more years before they eventually ‘cross the stream’.









Monday, August 30, 2021

A SAILOR LESS QUALIFIED

 


The other day I chanced upon a well-made documentary on the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala. It showed in detail the training the naval cadets are imparted and the tests they have to clear before graduating from the Academy. It suddenly dawned on me that if my instructors had insisted on my clearing all those tests, I would never have made a naval officer.


To start with, swimming. I have disclosed in an earlier post that I can’t swim, period! Passing a swimming test was compulsory even in the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, where I did my cadet training. To recount briefly, here is what happened. One day while learning to dive, I developed a severe headache. The headache reappeared in all its ferocity the next time I went into the pool. Bravely, I went to the pool again after a few days when the swimming instructor looked at his sheet and informed me that the records showed I had already passed the test. A fast, happy retreat to my cabin never to attempt to swim again! How and when a tick appeared against my name is a mystery that will never be solved.


Fortunately, in my 30 years in the Navy, I never needed to swim. There was one occasion, though, when I fell from a boat into the sea off the Andaman Islands. Providentially, there was another boat secured to our ship right next to where I fell and as soon as I came up for the first time, I saw the boat and climbed into it, safe and sound!


Was I ever scared that I could not swim? No, I had faith in my ships and never ever thought that the ship would sink and I would need to swim to save myself.


Next, sailing. The term here refers to a sailboat with no engine. Sailing is compulsory in the Naval Academy but in our NDA days, it was not so and it was treated more as a hobby. Aware of my inability to swim, I was hesitant to sail as these small boats are notorious for capsizing. Of course, we had to learn the theory of sailing and in that field I was quite proficient as I could tell the difference between a mainsail and a spinnaker. I was au fait with sailing terms too and knew a bit about port and starboard tacks, being ‘in irons’ and running free!


Thirdly, knots. Cadets have to learn to tie a whole lot of knots - reef knot, sheepshank, clove hitch, this hitch, that hitch! My main hitch was that I could not tie a knot; all I could do with a rope in my hands would be to get all knotted up. My knot tying skill is limited to tying an elementary one in my pajamas and shoelaces. If they ever get knotty, I need help! As an important part of our marriage customs, just before the ‘pheras’, a ‘bua’ or a sister ties a thread called ‘kangana’ on the wrists of the bride and the groom. Once the ceremony is complete, the groom is supposed to unknot the bride’s kangana and vice versa. Well, I could not unknot my wife’s and quietly pleaded with her to do it herself. Nobody saw us so the legality of the marriage was never questioned.


Back to our cadet days and, yes, there was a practical test for knots. How did I pass the test? My memory is not very clear on this and I can only guess a few possibilities. Perhaps I was next to an adept knotter who would quickly tie the desired knot on his rope, surreptitiously exchange ropes with me and tie the knot again on the new rope. The examiner either didn’t notice or decided to take a benevolent view and ignore it. Or maybe the theory and practical marks of Seamanship were combined and I obtained pass marks overall.


One other disqualification. Not having a girl in every port.


Saturday, August 21, 2021

THE ALLURE OF SPAIN

 


Right from my young days, I was fascinated by two countries, Italy and Spain, and had always desired to visit them. The Navy was kind to find some work for me in Italy which I visited thrice on official work. I had enough time to visit various places in the country so much so that in 2004, I took Akhila on an extensive tour to Italy with no aid from a tour operator or a guide. Spain remained.


Why was Spain so alluring to me? To start with, Spanish beauty. Ravishing Spanish women have been the subject of many songs and operas. Popular songs include the adorable ‘Lady of Spain’ and blue ’Spanish Eyes’. Bizet’s Carmen’ is a well-known opera about a captivating Spanish gypsy girl. Then there is the music of Spain which I find enormously appealing. Tune in to Ravel’s pulsating ‘Bolero’ or Rimsky-Korsakov’s lively ‘Capriccio Espagnol’ based on Spanish folk songs and you would be tempted to see the land to which the music belongs. (Curiously, all the composers of these works are not from Spain; Bizet and Ravel were French and Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian!) There is also the exciting ‘Corrida’ music which brings the bullring to you. Ernest Hemingway’s books ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ and ‘The Sun Also Rises’ with their bullfighting stories had also evoked my interest in that sport supported by the movie ‘Blood And Sand’ with the handsome, swashbuckling Tyrone Power as the matador and the voluptuous and seductive ‘Lady Goddess’ Rita Hayworth as his love interest. Both actors were Americans but they played their Spanish roles to perfection. In fact, Rita Hayworth’s father was originally Spanish hailing from a small town near Seville and Rita’s real name was Margarita Carmen Cansino!


So in 2010, Akhila and I decided to visit Spain on our way back from New York where we had gone to spend the summer with Ruchir. We reckoned that to see the country properly, we should stay in three places. Barcelona was an automatic choice given its connectivity, popularity and modern architecture. As a beach resort, Mallorca was chosen thanks to the song ‘Majorca, Isle of Love’. We decided that the third city had to be one from the south. Two contenders came to mind: Granada backed by Mario Lanza’s song and Seville prompted by Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ and Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ the characters of which are based in Seville. Finally, the two operas beat one song and Seville it was.


Ruchir’s knowledgeable assistant, Paul Weiner, was a great help with his advice on selection of hotels and we landed in Barcelona on 3rd August. Our hotel was overlooking the waterfront with a beautiful view of the coastline, La Costa Brava. We were also within walking distance from Barcelona’s most famous street, Las Ramblas, with its shops, street artists, cafes and the colourful Mercat de la Boqueria, a large public fresh market. Nearby was the Museo Picasso with more than 3000 of the artist’s works.


Barcelona is the home of Catalan architecture and its landmark building is La Sagrada Familia, a church designed by perhaps the most famous architect of Spain, Antoni Gaudi, the greatest exponent of the movement known as Modernisme, a combination of Gothic and Art Nouveau designs. The foundation of La Sagrada was laid in 1882 and Gaudi took over the project in 1883. Though Gaudi died in 1926, the cathedral is a work in progress in accordance with his design and after many delays, the latest being the Covid pandemic, is expected to be fully completed in 2032, a full 150 years in the making! When fully finished, it will have 18 towers more than 100 metres high. We took the elevator to the top of one of the steeples to view the vast expanse of Barcelona, the sea and the surroundings. We had to climb down the narrow 300 steps which was a tough task.


Driving through the city, we saw more of Gaudi’s designs which stand out for their uniqueness.


Another landmark of the city is Camp Nou, home of the famous football club, F.C. Barcelona. The stadium is the largest in Spain and can seat nearly 1 lakh spectators. Football is so revered in Spain that visiting Camp Nou is considered akin to visiting a temple. So that had to be done and we could feel Lionel Messi’s aura around the Stadium!


After 4 days of Barcelona, we flew down to Mallorca. I have already described our activities in the island resort in detail in a preceding post. We had an exquisite hotel set in its own cove to stay in, visited many historic sites and walked through the old town with its quaint shops and cafes. The island is breathtakingly picturesque and a feast for the senses. Inadvertently, we also landed up on a nude beach and embarrassingly hurried away from it! 


We took the flight to Seville, or Sevilla as the Spanish call it, on the 9th where we were booked in a nice hotel near the river, Rio Guadalquivir, guarded by a watchtower at our end of the bridge, Puente de San Telmo. We were also close to the former Jewish quarter called Barrio de Santa Cruz with its maze of narrow streets and cafes. We visited the lavishly decorated Cathedral of Seville and the adjoining tower, La Giralda, of 12th century vintage which was once a minaret of the main mosque of Seville and in its time, the tallest building in the world! It’s a hard climb to the top but once one gets there, the view of the whole of Seville is spectacular.


Other landmarks visited were Alcazar built in the 10th century as a Muslim fortress. It is home to beautiful gardens as is another dedicated garden site, Jardines de Murillo. We loved Plaza de Espana with its fountains among buildings in ceramic tiles set in a semicircular design.


The highlight was a visit to Seville’s famous bullring, Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza. There were no bullfights scheduled when we were in Seville, so we were saved from the Hobson’s choice of seeing or not seeing the gory spectacle of the blood sport. A visit to where it all takes place was adequate for our experience. The bullring has a museum displaying an array of splendid costumes of matadors embroidered with gold and silver threads, capes, lances, banderillas, picadillos and swords. There were many paintings including those of Joaquim Costillares, the 18th century matador from Seville, who founded the modern style of bullfighting with cape movements and maneuvres. Just being in the bullring was an experience of a lifetime.


No trip to Spain can be complete without witnessing the Flamenco and we attended an unforgettable performance feasting our eyes and ears on the Spanish guitar, the singing and the dancing with the dancer in her shining white, flowing dress starting with slow movements and accelerating gently till the frenzy of movements, palmas (handclaps) and loud tapping of feet led to the finale.


We frequented many cafes and were delighted that there was a good variety of vegetarian tapas available. We gorged on them frequently and I indulged in an occasional Spanish Omelet. Besides, the coffee was super.


After covering Seville quite extensively, we found we had a day to spare and decided to go to Cordoba, former capital of Islamic Spain and located up river on the banks of the same Rio Guadalquivir. A fast train got us there in half an hour and we headed for the main attraction, La Mezquita, which was built as a mosque in the 8th century. In 1236, its central part was converted into a church and now both the mosque and the church exist under one roof, a remarkable feature perhaps without a parallel. The architecture is exquisite consisting of a number of two-tier arches painted with red and white stripes and resting on columns resembling palm trees.


We also visited a fortress, Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos, and Juderia, a Jewish quarter similar to but much smaller than the one in Seville, with its own set of narrow lanes many with blind alleys. The lanes were lined with cute houses with pretty and colourful flowers on the patios.


We could do all this by lunch so we decided to go to Madrid which so far had not been on our itinerary. Another fast train and we were there in an hour and 45 minutes. We reckoned that the best way to see Madrid in the time available would be by taking a Ho-Ho (Hop on-Hop off bus) which took us all around Madrid and allowed us to drop off and see what we fancied. So we covered this city of vast plazas and lush green parks and saw Patacio Real, the official residence of the then King Juan Carlos, Catedral de la Almudena built in the 19th century, Monumento a Miguel de Cervantez with a stone statue of the famous author and bronze statues of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and the busy Plaza Mayor with a statue of Felipe III on horseback and cafes all-round. We also found time to visit Museo Nacional del Prado to view paintings of Goya and Velazquez.


A two and a half hour late evening fast train ride brought us back to Seville. The next day we bade adios to Spain flying back to Delhi with a day’s break in London where we visited Greenwich and stood astride the 0* Meridian with one foot in the East and one in the West!


Only regret, we missed ‘Lisbon Antigua’ perhaps because it was not ‘April in Portugal’!


Looking back, my defining moment in Spain was standing in the bullring in Seville, closing my eyes, imagining the bugles announcing the beginning of a bullfight, trumpets blaring, drums beating, castanets clicking, the band striking the fiery ‘Espana Cani’, the matador in his splendid costume waiting in the centre of the ring, the bull entering and charging for the matador who waves the blood red cape and deftly sidesteps and pirouettes so that the bull passes harmlessly by and the crowd led by the matador’s senorita roars a huge ‘Ole’.




Sunday, August 15, 2021

FADING MEMORIES OF AUGUST 1947

 


I was all of 8 years in Bharatpur when August 1947 arrived. The atmosphere was one of excitement and joy as 15 August approached. There was also an air of uncertainty and anxiety at home- Pitaji and Mataji were wondering what the future held for them? What would happen to Pitaji’s job as a Judge in Bharatpur High Court? What would happen to the state of Bharatpur and its Maharaja?


There was tension too because of the communal riots. Although we were far from the border, there was some violence in Bharatpur which had a sizeable population of a Muslim sect known as Meo (Mev). I remember that on one afternoon when I was walking back alone from School, I saw a group of men with spears coming in my direction. I had heard that Hindus identified people by the ‘chutiya’ (pigtail) and I didn’t have one. So I quickly hid behind some bushes while they passed by. After they disappeared, I wondered whether that was the correct thing to do- if they had discovered me, would they have taken this as a sign of guilt? I had no proof of my identity!


One day, a few Army tanks passed by our house. That was the first time I saw a tank and the track marks were visible on the road for a long time to come. The tanks probably had a dual role; firstly to quell the riots and secondly, to warn the Maharaja of any wild thought he might have indulged of his own independence!


A few friends of mine from Punjab have recounted their ghastly experiences of witnessing the killing of their close relatives and details of their bold and dangerous escapes from what became Pakistan. Those accounts are chilling and make one’s hairs stand even now.


15 August came and we lost ourselves in celebrations. Pandit Nehru’s famous ‘Tryst With Destiny’ was played on the radio again and again and was splashed on all newspapers. It was truly an emotional and inspired speech.


Happy Independence Day!


Saturday, August 7, 2021

MALLORCA, ISLE OF LOVE


'Just off the coast of Spain, there lies a lovers’ lane,

And it’s known as Majorca, isle of love’.


So went a hit song of 1955.


In 2010, when Akhila and I were planning a trip to Spain, the song flashed in my mind and I immediately thought of including Mallorca (as it is more commonly spelt) in our itinerary. Some people suggested that as a beach resort, Ibiza was more hep but following my dictum of visiting places which I was familiar with through songs I had heard, I stuck with Mallorca. Another song to be fulfilled!


That was 11 years ago and almost forgotten when we happened to see the movie ‘The Last Letter From Your Lover’ on Netflix the other night. I loved the movie which is so like the romantic movies of the 1950s-60s. In fact, the main story is set in the ‘60s and is reminiscent of ‘An Affair To Remember’. An emotional movie I would recommend to all who enjoy plain, simple romantic stuff. I only wish the movie had a theme song like ‘An Affair To Remember’ or ‘Lara’s Theme’.


But why Mallorca? Strangely, the large part of the movie story that is set in the French Riviera is for some reason shot in Mallorca! And that brought back memories of our lovely trip.


We stayed in an exquisite hotel set in its own cove. The island is full of coves and beaches and one just has to step out and be overwhelmed by the scenic beauty. There are, of course, historical spots to visit and among them is Santa Maria Cathedral overlooking the Bay of Palma. In line with the common Spanish trait of having Christian and Muslim monuments together, next to the Cathedral stands Almudaina, a Moorish-style Arab fortress now converted to a royal residence. Then there is Bellver Castle, a 14th century medieval structure with its unique circular design. An old watchtower is located on top of a hill on the seaside and it is worth the climb to take in miles and miles of spectacular scenery all around.


A walk through the old town is a must with its quaint cafes, art galleries including one of Salvador Dali, boutique hotels and designer shops. Beaches are plenty with one right next to the city itself.


We saw many hoardings of Mallorca’s favourite son, the Tennis star Rafael Nadal. At that time he had won 5 French Opens and 3 other grand slams. Today, with 13 French Opens and 20 grand slams overall, his image must be plastered all over Mallorca!


While driving to our hotel, we saw a small house with a signboard saying Gandhi Restaurant advertising Indian food. We stopped to inquire and found it belonged to a Punjabi from Ludhiana who prepared food on order. We asked him to make some Kala Chana, Dal, Gobhi Aloo and Nan and came back in the evening to have dinner in a homely environment.


Our hotel had its own beach but we wanted to go to a bigger one. The concierge told us there was a public one just 10 minutes bus ride in the direction away from the town. We went there and saw a big crowd of bathers. We walked along the beach hoping to find a spot with less people. Suddenly we found we had walked into a nude beach where people were frolicking in the altogether. We have never felt so embarrassed as then for being well-dressed. We beat a hasty retreat and took the bus back to the hotel to wash and purify our eyes!


It was a fun trip!



Friday, July 30, 2021

JIM REEVES- NOT THAT EASY TO FORGET

31 July 1964. Popular singer Jim Reeves, piloting his own plane and accompanied by his business partner and manager, Dean Manuel, takes offr from a town in Arkansas for Nashville for a business deal. En route, the plane runs into a violent thunderstorm and goes missing. 2 days later, a search party locates the wreckage of the plane and two bodies. Jim Reeves and Dean Manuel are declared dead. A pall of gloom descends over millions of Jim Reeves fans all over the world.

In early 1950s, when I first started listening to English popular music, 'crooners' were the rage. The advent of better microphones gave rise to a new soft and intimate style of singing which came to be known as 'crooning'. Singers like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Perry Como were its top proponents with romantic songs which touched the heart and on which one could do a close slow foxtrot or waltz with a chosen partner!

Then music became loud, and for many, raucous, with a heavy beat. Rock and Roll made its entry with Bill Haley and His Comets hollering 'Rock Around The Clock' in 1954. Other artistes followed: Little Richard (Good Golly Miss Molly, Tutti Frutti) with his screaming voice and Jerry Lee Lewis (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Great Balls Of Fire) stepping on the piano and playing with his feet while singing in rapid fire mode. And the top of the pops, Elvis 'The Pelvis' Presley with his gyrating hips and distinct style of singing and mumbling numbers like 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'Hound Dog', 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'Don't Be Cruel'. The youth had moved from slow, close dancing to frantic jiving.

But they wanted more. So Chubby Checker came with 'The Twist' getting them to shake one's whole body and legs to twist and rotate. Older people tried to follow suit and it is said that no other dance form has caused more injuries than the Twist!

A movie titled 'Fire Down Below' popularised another craze- the 'Limbo'. My generation would be familiar but for today's youth, to do the Limbo, one had to pass under a low horizontal bar without dislodging it. Consider it the opposite of high jump, but here instead of jumping, one had to bend one's body backwards parallel to the floor and shuffle the legs under the bar usually with music and a drink in one hand! The popular exhortation was, 'How low can you go?' I was amazed to read that the world record for Limbo is held by a Denis Walston passing under a bar at a height of 6" from the ground. Unbelievable!

Amidst all the noise and wild dancing, James Travis Reeves, better known as Jim Reeves or 'Gentleman Jim', was creating his own niche and a big one too! He started off as a standard country and western singer and scored his first no.1 hit on the US country charts with 'Bimbo' in 1954. Soon he developed his own style with low volume and soft tones of his voice accompanied by lush strings and background vocals which came to be known as the Nashville sound. His baritone voice was rich, velvety and smooth that made it ideal for deeply emotional, romantic and passionate songs. What a welcome and refreshing change it was to listen to his soothing voice in contrast to the loud and frenzied Rock and Roll music. One could romance with a slow foxtrot or waltz once again!

'He'll Have To Go' was Jim Reeves' biggest hit which remained on top of music charts the world over for months with the lovely lines, 'With your sweet lips a little closer to the phone, let's pretend that we're together all alone.... and you can tell your friend there with you, he'll have to go!' A song which enchanted me was 'I'd Like To Be' which he sang in a happy, peppy way with delightful lyrics which go-  'I'd like to be...That lucky chair that holds you every night, I'd even like to be the apple that you bite... And when you're old enough to want to marry, I'd like to be the one who steals your heart away'. 

His range of hits went from 'Welcome To My World' to 'Adios Amigo' and included 'I Love You Because' (I love you for a hundred thousand reasons, But most of all I love you 'cause you are you), 'Am I Losing You','Danny Boy', 'Distant Drums' and 'Four Walls'. He also sang a number of Christmas and gospel songs which were hugely popular.

Mostly, he was his own songwriter and sang many songs with 'forget' as the theme. There was 'I'm Beginning to Forget You....like you forgot me'. Then 'Trying to Forget....the times you broke my heart.... but I'll forget, I'll forget, I know I will'. In 'I Won't Forget You' he sings, 'I"ll forget many things in my lifetime, but my darling, I won't forget you'. And the most touching, 'Am I That Easy to Forget.... Before you leave be sure you find, You want his love much more than mine, 'Cause I"ll just say we've never met, If I am that easy to forget'.

Did he fear he would be forgotten? Well, his songs kept hitting the charts for more than 20 years after his crash. He remains popular with his old fans even now.

No, Jim Reeves, you needn't have feared: you are not 'That easy to forget'!

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

SONGS VINNIE MAMA AND I SANG TOGETHER

Vinnie Mama was my mentor in music. 

It all started in Bharatpur in mid 1940s when I was about 7. Vinnie Mama, nine years my elder, was studying in Allahabad University and used to come home during vacations with a handful of 78 rpm records to be played on our HMV gramophone. They were mainly Pankaj Mullick songs supplemented by KL Sehgal (Aye Qatib-e-taqdeer, mujhe itna bata de, kyoon mujhse khafa hai tu, kya maine kiya hai) and Kanan Devi (Toofan mail, duniya, yeh duniya, toofan mail). I have never come across anyone so fond of singing as Vinnie Mama who could launch into a song at the drop of a hat. So he used to catch hold of me to sing himself and get me to sing along.

He was, of course, enormously fond of Pankaj Mullick and his favourite songs were 'Piya Milan Ko Jana', 'Aayi Bahar Aaj Aayi Bahar', 'Chale Pawan Ki Chaal' and 'Yeh Kaun Aaj Aaya Sawere Sawere'. He would coax me to sing and I learnt 'Maine Aaj Piya Hoton Ka Pyala', 'Yeh Raaten Yeh Mausam' and 'Aaj Apni Mehnaton Ka Mujhko Samra Mil Gaya' specially after I did well in some exam!  Thoughts of joining NDA and Navy were yet to germinate but I learnt to march to the beats of 'Pran Chahe Nain Na Cha-a-hey'.

In a lighter vein, there were two Hindi songs which were very popular with us - 'Gori Gori O Banki Chhori' and 'Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday' which we used to call our national anthem. What fun lyrics the latter had: 'I love you, bhaag yehan se tu, tujhe Paris dikhaoon, tujhe London ghumaoon, aur khilaoon murgi ke, murgi ke, ande re ande, aana meri jaan, meri jaan, Sunday ke Sunday'. Incidentally, to live the song, I did Paris and London with my dear wife but couldn't get her to eat any 'ande'!

Then Vinnie Mama joined the Navy, made a few trips abroad, I joined St. Xavier's in Jaipur and we enlarged our scope to include English songs. Records that he brought home became songs we would sing. One of the oldest was 'The Rich Maharajah of Magador who had ten thousand camels and maybe more, he had rubies and pearls and the loveliest girls, but he didn't know how to do the rumba!' 

Another one was 'Irene Goodnight, Irene Goodnight.....I"ll see you in my dreams'. It had a tacky line in which after parting with his wife, the singer says 'sometimes I take a great notion, to jump in the river and drown'. Vinnie Mama always thumped my back smilingly when we came to those words.

We sang 'Clementine' who was light and like a fairy though her shoes were number nine. She fell into the foaming brine 'but alas, I was no swimmer (like me!), so I lost my Clementine'. 'Dreadful sorrow, Clementine' until ' I kissed her little sister, I forgot my Clementine'.

I remember us singing Vera Lynn's 'Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Of Dover'. The song was resonating in my mind when Akhila and I took the ferry from Dover to Calais in 1987 and found the lyrics true to life: the cliffs of Dover were shining white and bluebirds were actually flying over them. A song fully fulfilled!  

A sailor ditty he taught me was 'She Wore A Yellow Ribbon' which went like-                           'In her hair, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore a yellow ribbon in the merry month of May,                                                                            And if you ask, oh why the hell she wore it, she wore it for a sailor who is far far away.             Far away, far far away, for she wore it for a sailor who is far far away'.

He knew I was a keen listener of Radio Ceylon and every time we met, would ask me what new songs I had learnt. While we did some regular hits such as Perry Como's 'Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes' and Doris Day's 'Que Sera Sera' or old ones like 'If I Loved You' from Carousel (Vinnie Mama had a deep baritone voice which could give Mario Lanza a run for his money), we preferred lighthearted songs which would keep us in good spirits. We loved 'Down By The Riverside' with the lines,                                                                                                         'Down by the riverside, I met my little bride,                                                                               Well, down by the riverside, I asked her for a little kiss.....                                                                                She said have patience little man, I hope you understand, I hardly know your name,                         I said if I can have my way, maybe some sweet day, your name and mine will be the same'.     That would earn me another thump on my back!

Another fun song, 'Daisy, Daisy....I am half crazy all for the love of you,                                                              It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage,                                                                 But you'll look sweet, upon the seat of a bicycle built for two'.                                                         But Daisy wasn't convinced. 'Michael, Michael.... I'm not crazy over the likes of you.             If you can't afford a carriage, forget about a marriage,                                                              'Cause I won't be jammed, I won't be crammed, on a bicycle built for two.'

At Christmas time, after going through the usual 'White Christmas' and 'Silent Night, Holy Night', we loved to sing the Chipmunks' 'All I want for Chriffmus is my two funt teeth...so I could whiff you, a ferry merry Chriffmus.'

For remembering old friends, there was 'Heart Of My Heart' which                                                   'Brings back a memory, when we were kids on the corner of the street,                                       We were rough and ready guys, but oh, how we could harmonise,                                                         Heart of my Heart, meant friends were dearer then, too bad we had to part,                                   I know a tear would glisten, if once more I could listen,                                                                      To that gang that sang Heart of my Heart'.                                                                                                              

Our sessions usually ended with Vera Lynn's famous signing off number:                                                            'This lovely day has flown away, the time has come to part.....                                                     Auf weiderseh'n, sweetheart'.

Postscript: An incident to recall his love for singing. During Shumita's wedding reception in January 2007, he said to me, "Let's go up to the stage and have a singsong". I said it wouldn't be feasible with people crowding around to wish the newly married couple and all the noise. I got busy and after some time, looked for him. Not to be denied, he had gathered some family members and friends and was sitting in a corner of the hotel lobby singing his Pankaj Mullick evergreens.

I wish I had let him sing on the stage!