A NAVAL ICON - ADMIRAL RONNIE PEREIRA

A quote well known in the Navy is that of George Bernard Shaw which goes as follows-

"Men go into the Navy thinking they will enjoy it,

They do enjoy it for a year, at least the stupid ones do, riding back and forth quite dully on ships....

Gradually they become crazy, then they become crazier and crazier....

They are the ones who become Captains....

And the maddest of them become Admirals."

Seriously, becoming an Admiral is no joke and 'maddest' could perhaps be amended to read 'most capable'. We have had some outstanding ones like Admiral Chatterji who, as Director of Naval Plans at the age of 32, envisioned a two aircraft carrier Indian Navy way back in 1947. It took 40 years for his vision to come true. As Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), he was responsible for the acquisition of missile boats which were brilliantly employed by his successor Admiral Nanda, a great strategist, to bring Pakistan and its Navy to its knees.

This year, 2023, marks the birth centenary and 30 years of passing away of another exceptional Admiral, RL Pereira, CNS 1979-82. He was a born leader. Blessed with good height and build and handsome features, he had an impressive personality, always smiling but oozing authority. His honesty and integrity were beyond question even in golf where most people turn a blind eye to any transgression made by their caddies. Not Ronnie P (as he called himself), who broke his hand slapping a caddie who had kicked his ball to a better lie. Ronnie was completely unassuming and would walk into the wardroom bar like any other officer and sign not only for his own drink but for all around him.

He was very accessible and anyone could go and see him without an appointment in office or at home. He would inspire all under him to give off their best as evident by the fact that a ship under his command always won the Fleet Pulling Regatta, considered the ultimate test of morale of a ship's company. There is the often told story that when he was commanding the cruiser Delhi, his Best Whaler crew mistakenly rowed to victory in the wrong race and were disqualified. They had to row again immediately after in their correct race but were completely exhausted. Ronnie himself took over as Coxswain and exhorted them to victory that got them the coveted trophy, the Cock.

With all that, Ronnie was a strict disciplinarian and had a fine sense of right and wrong. Any lapse would earn an exemplary punishment. But Ronnie also had a heart of gold and once the punishment was awarded, Ronnie would forgive and give the man a fair chance to redeem himself. When he was commanding the Eastern Fleet, a Lieutenant commanding a patrol craft was dismissed from service and put in prison. Ronnie addressed his Fleet COs and said that while the youngster had rightly been punished for his offence, he was still one of 'us' and each ship in turn would send a meal daily to the officer in jail. 

In another case when he was the Deputy Commandant in the National Defence Academy, a cadet was relegated by a term for some offence. However, in a French Exam, he had come first and was entitled for a prize. The Principal withheld the prize but Ronnie ordered all the cadets to assemble and personally presented the cadet his due award with an apology that the prize was not awarded earlier.

Ronnie had a great sense of humour too. When he was CNS and I was Director Naval Signals (DNS), quite often there were complaints from senior officers' about their telephones not working. Although I had little to do with P & T, the blame would be put on my shoulders and I would be at the receiving end of their anger. One morning, I saw a cartoon in a paper showing a man on a telephone with the caption, "This is the Director P & T. Your telephone is working and you haven't thanked me yet." I changed 'Director P & T' to 'DNS' and inserted a copy of the cartoon in the senior officers' morning signals pack. The only person to react was Ronnie who rang up and said, "Ravi, my phone is working, thank you very much" followed by a full-throated guffaw.

I knew him well as I had the privilege of serving as Fleet Communications Officer when he was commanding the Eastern Fleet and playing golf with him. Ronnie had all the qualities of leadership and a lot of charisma. He was a true naval icon.

 

P.S. There was another Admiral, a colleague of Ronnie's of about the same seniority with many similarities who would also be considered by many to have been a naval icon. I hope to write about him some day.

 

SHRINATHJI AT NATHDWARA

The urge to visit Nathdwara for Shrinathji's darshan was irresistible.

It had been five years since we went there last. It was time to go again.

Shrinathji is the central presiding deity of the Vaishnava sect and the 'Ishta-Devata' or personal deity of the community of Suryadwaj brahmins to which our family belongs. The idol of Shrinathji is of seven year old Lord Krishna depicting the act of lifting a hill with his left hand to protect his home town of Govardhan from a deluge of rain.

Legend has it that in 1409, a stone appeared on Govardhan hill near Mathura which people thought was a snake deity as it happened to be on the festival of 'naag-panchmi'. Some years later, the stone emerged further out of the hill revealing a human head. When Vallabhacharya, a saint, philosopher and devotee of Lord Krishna, came to know of it, he built a temple in Govardhan to instal the idol which is believed to have self-manifested from stone.

Folklore has a cute story as told by Akhila's mother to her. A little girl named Naro used to take out the family's cow to Govardhan hill every day. Naro's father noticed that on return, the cow's udders were dry. On questioning, Naro said that milk used to flow out of the cow at a particular spot on the hill. The father accompanied her the next day and was amazed to see that happen. He along with some relatives started digging the spot where they believed they heard a child's voice. Finally, the idol emerged.

History records that the idol was shifted from Govardhan to Mathura and then Agra in 1672 to safeguard it from destruction by Aurangzeb. It was then decided to go further south and a special chariot without any metal parts was constructed for the transportation. At a village called Sihad in Mewar, the chariot got stuck in the mud. The Rana of Mewar volunteered to protect the idol and ordered a haveli to be built for housing it. And that is how Nathdwara came into being. Incidentally, the chariot is on display at the temple for viewing.

My first darshan of Shrinathji was in 1949 when Pitaji moved to Udaipur as a High Court Judge on formation of the state of Rajasthan. During '49-'50, we visited Nathdwara for all prominent festivals like Janmashtami, Diwali and Holi. I vividly recall being awestruck at seeing the ceiling-high mound of rice on Govardhan Puja or Annakoot which is celebrated the day after Diwali. 

Another feature on festivals is the playing of drums, trumpet and clarinet at the entrance of the temple. Recorded bhajans of Surdas sung in haveli music style by Pandit Jasraj accompanied by the deep, unique sound of pakhawaj (a type of drum), are broadcast over loudspeakers to create a reverential atmosphere for devotees awaiting darshan. 

Shrinathji's idol is treated exactly as a mother would treat her child. In fact, in another room in the temple, there is a palna (cradle) with a tiny idol of Krishna as a knee-crawling child and the pujaris rock the palna and keep Krishna entertained with tops and other toys. Daily rituals like bathing, dressing, feeding and siesta are followed religiously and Shrinathji adorned with jewels and silk vastras (dresses) with intricate embroidery and designs. The shrine is opened eight times for devotees to have a jhanki or viewing of the idol. Once a vastra is worn, it is not repeated and given away to devotees.

On the road from Udaipur to Kishangarh, there are four temples which are regarded as a mini 'char dham' by our community. Shrinathji is, of course, the most famous of them. 20 kms north of Nathdwara is a town called Kankroli which hosts the Dwarkadhish temple perched on a hill with a beautiful view of Rajsamand lake. The temple was completed in 1676 and houses the idol of Dwarkadhish, a swaroop of Lord Krishna. This idol too was originally in Gokul, near Mathura, and shifted first to Ahmedabad and then to Kankroli to prevent Aurangzeb from capturing or destroying it. Rituals followed for Dwarkadhishji are same as for Shrinathji.

Another 44 kms up towards Kishengarh, just off the highway, is the third leg of the char dham, Charbhuja temple, so-called because the Lord Krishna idol here has four hands. The temple was completed in 1444.

Turning back towards Udaipur and after passing Kankroli and Nathdwara, we come to the final leg of our char dham. Eklingji temple, 22 kms short of Udaipur, is devoted to Lord Shiva. This is the oldest temple of the four dating back to 734 AD. The temple has undergone its share of ravaging and reconstruction and the present idol, Eklingji (Shiva) was installed in late 15th century. The chief patron of the temple is the Maharana of Mewar and Akhila and I have been witness to the Maharana performing the aarti himself on one of our visits.

After leaving Udaipur in 1951, I have visited Nathdwara for Shrinathji darshan many times. Mummy took Akhila and me there soon after our wedding. Mummy's cousin, Santosh Mamaji was the Chief Executive Officer of the temple then. I mentioned to him that people seemed to push around needlessly while doing darshan even when there was not much crowd and asked him if he could stop it. He explained to me that it was a religious custom to push from side to side to create a sense of being amidst the waves of Yamuna river and he would not do anything about it.

A couple of years later, Ruchir's 'mundan' ceremony was performed in the courtyard of the temple.  Two and a half year old Ruchir was resisting and showing his displeasure at the barber shaving his head. However, he was held down while the barber did his job. On completion, the barber happily showed him a mirror but that made Ruchir more angry and he caught the barber by his hair and gave him two tight slaps!

In 2003, Akhila and I took Mummy along with us to Nathdwara. That was Mummy's final trip to the temple. 

On some of those trips, we completed the char dham also. 

And so, Akhila and I made a two day visit to Nathdwara end-September. We stayed at the Radisson hotel commissioned last year. The hotel is just 2 kms from the temple and its staff organised our darshans smoothly and efficiently. Our room also had a fine view of The Statue of Belief or Vishwas Swaroopam, a statue of Lord Shiva, also completed last year and said to be the tallest statue of Shiva in the world. It is 369 feet tall and can be seen from as far as 20 kms. At 8 every night, there is a light show which we could see from our room terrace.

Urge satisfied and mission achieved, we drove back to Jaipur after Eklingji darshan as well.

P.S. For anyone visiting Nathdwara, we highly recommend the tea served in the string of stalls just outside the temple. The tea is made in front of you in a large 'patila' (vessel) with the chaiwala grinding chunks of ginger into a paste and adding it with heaps of fresh pudina leaves to the boiling water, milk and tea leaves. Sugar is added and the tea served in tiny kulhars. The taste is unique and exquisite.

 

DEV SAAB - TEN BEST SONGS FROM HIS FILMS

Dev Anand, or Dev Saab as he was respectfully but affectionately called, would have been 100 on 23 September this year. Sadly, he passed away 12 years ago.

I spotted a similarity between Dev Saab and my Mansi. Both were born in 1923 and lived to be 88. Mansi was not an actor but must have had appropriate genes which she passed on to a daughter and a granddaughter both of them actors. Since Dev Saab was Mansi's age and 15 years my elder, I shall continue to call him Dev Saab.

He was one of the first three superstars of Indian cinema with Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. Raj Kapoor took on Charlie Chaplin's Tramplike figure, poor, cheerful and honest despite adversity while Dilip Kumar acted his way to be known as the king of tragedy. Dev Saab was more versatile as a romantic hero equally at home mostly in comedies but also some tragedies as well as thrillers. He perfected his own unique style of delivering his dialogues in a rapid-fire mode accompanied by nods. Breezy, charming and cheerful, he always exuded hope and optimism. Critics compared him to Gregory Peck and gave him the title of 'Evergreen Hero'. 

Dev Saab was very fond of music and songs were an integral part of his films. He would take personal interest and interact with the composers and lyricists urging them to mould the songs as per his choice. He acted in over 100 films and the number of songs would run into hundreds. With his brilliant acting backed by the top singers, composers and lyricists, it is a tough task to shortlist the best songs. 

Still, choices are personal and so here is my list of ten, not in any particular order. 

"Khoya Khoya Chand" from "Kaala Pani". As Sunil Warrier in Times of India wrote, Dev Saab 'goes mountain-sashaying with legs and arms swinging with abandon as if unscrewed.' Waheeda Rehman was in the female lead role.

"Chhod Do Aanchal Zamana Kya Kahega" (Paying Guest). Filmed with Nutan playfully asking Dev Saab to leave her alone.

"Pal Bhar Ke Liye Koi Hame Pyar Kar Le, Jhoota Hi Sahi" (Johny Mera Naam). Here Dev Saab is wooing Hema Malini in and out of numerous windows for at least a moment of love even if it is a lie! A delightfully mischievous number.

"Hai Apna Dil To Awaara" (Solva Saal). Sung for Waheeda Rehman in a train. Special feature, RD Burman' accompaniment on the mouth organ.

"Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya" (Hum Dono). Dev Saab as an Army officer ruminating how he got over ups and downs in his life.

"Gaata Rahe Mera Dil" (Guide). Dev Saab's acting and Kishore Kumar's brilliant singing make this composition of SD Burman unforgettable.

"Tere Mere Sapne" (Guide). This time it is Mohammed Rafi lending his voice to Dev Saab in an emotional number which he sings for the heroine, Waheeda Rehman.

"Phoolon Ka Taron Ka Sabka Kehna Hai" (Hare Krishna Hare Ram). A sweet song straight from the heart sung by a devoted brother (Dev Saab) to his loving sister (Zeenat Aman). This has become a standard number to be sung or played on a sister's birthday or Rakhi festival.

"Sau Saal Pehle" (Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai). Dev Saab and Asha Parekh with the melodious voices of Mohd. Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar declare everlasting love for each other from 100 years ago to today to tomorrow.

"Abhi Na Jao Chhod Kar" (Hum Dono). Dev Saab and Sadhana picturise this hugely emotional song by Mohd. Rafi and Asha Bhosle. Lyrics penned by Sahir Ludhianvi are outstanding: can the heart ever be satisfied with the time one spends with one's loved one? Let some lines speak for themselves-

"....Abhi abhi to aayi ho, bahar banke chhayi ho,

Hawa zara mehak to le, nazar zara behak to le,

Yeh shaam dhal to le zara, yeh dil sambhal to le zara,

Main thodi deir jee to loon, nashe ke ghoont pee to loon,

Abhi to kuchh kaha nahin, abhi to kuchh suna nahin,

Abhi na jao chhod kar ke dil abhi bhara nahin."

Wah Dev saab, wah! Wish you were still here to keep bringing such numbers to us.