The Delhi Navy Foundation hosted a lunch a few days ago welcoming the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Mrs Tripathi and a few other senior officers recently appointed to the Naval Headquarters. Apart from the welcome, the key feature was honouring nonagenarian veterans, 14 invited, 11 attended.
Navy Foundation get-togethers are fun as they transport one back in time evoking sweet memories of one's younger days. You meet shipmates young and old you haven't met for ages and recall incidents you shared together. I don't remember when I last met Brahma Swarup but we had no difficulty harking back to the time he was Cadet BS Wal and I was his Divisional Officer in 'Juliet' Squadron way back in 1964-65.
Ashok Dewan and I recalled that special midnight watch on 20/21 July 1969 on board Trishul when we were at sea off Madras. I was the Officer of the Watch and he was my assistant working for his watchkeeping ticket. I had got the Voice of America radio commentary of Apollo 11 Space Voyage put on the Bridge intercom and we were thrilled when Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon and spoke those memorable words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
CP Sharma was my Communications Officer when I was commanding Katchall in 1977-78, Mohan, my Electrical Officer and Acharya, Secretary to Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF), when I was CO Trishul. We all had plenty to talk about the good, old days working up to present times.
With Sushil Ramsay, the very efficient President of Delhi Navy Foundation, my association goes beyond him. Our mothers were educators together in Beawar, Rajasthan, and his mother came over to visit Mummy when I was there during my summer vacation in 1957.from NDA. Sushil was just 10 and he did not come. May I bask in the assumption, perhaps false, that his mother liked the cadet she met so much that she became favourably inclined to the idea of her son joining the Navy!
In more recent past, Sushil's charming wife, Shirley, and I interacted frequently when she was Editor Quarterdeck.
A lady I was pleasantly surprised to meet was Nisha, wife of late Loveji Mehta. She was visiting her daughter in Gurgaon and was invited to the lunch. That again took me back to my DO days of '64-'65 in the NDA when Loveji, very fond of Western Classical music, used to invite bachelors Subodh Gupta and me to his house and we used to listen to discs sitting on his lawn while Nisha rustled up a Dhanshak lunch.
On to the nonagenarians. First one miss; Cmde JS Virk and I were shipmates on Trishul in 1969 when he was the Supply Officer and I, Signals Communication Officer. We got along splendidly. After retirement, when I was settling in Delhi and looking for a house, Cmde Virk took me to his flat in 'D' Block Vasant Kunj and was very keen I buy one there. I almost did but finally went for Greenview Apartments, Sector 15A, NOIDA. It was a pity he couldn't come to the lunch as I would have loved to see him.
Being of a vintage close to the nonagenarians, I knew most of them either directly or through my two uncles in the Navy. Cmde KM Kumar and Vinnie Mama (Cmde VK Sharma) did Long 'G' together in Whale Island, Portsmouth, UK, and Vinnie Mama used to tell a story about him. On reaching UK, some of them went shopping for toiletries. Then Lt Kumar was very keen to buy a 'jeebhi' but didn't know how to say it in English. He tried to explain his requirement through physical action which drove the British salesman mad. Finally, Rajapan Bhalla, the seniormost officer, told Kumar to let go and just use the toothbrush for scraping his tongue.
Shashi Mama (Cdr PK Sharma) and Vice Admiral Heathwood Johnson became good friends when they served together in Cochin, aided by the fact that they shared a UP background. Later, in 1987, Admiral Johnson, then (FOCWF) flying his flag on Udaygiri commanded by Captain Tony Sahney, who was also present at the lunch, visited Manila which was my turf as the Defence Advisor in Singapore accredited to Philippines. Sushil Ramsay was there too as the Admiral's Secretary. The Admiral expressed was very keen to see a popular faith healer on the outskirts of Manila. So off we went to this person's house and passed a long queue of people waiting to be treated by him. In the house we saw scenes the likes of which I had never seen nor, I suppose, will ever see again. A patient apparently with a stomach ailment was called in and told to lie down on a makeshift operating table. The healer proceeded to do something with his bare hands and we saw the patient's guts open up with blood oozing out from his innards. Something was then plucked out from the stomach and thrown after which the tummy was sealed up again with bare hands and the patient told to get up and go. The healer then moved to a patient on a chair and did something similar with his eye. We were witness to the eye being plucked out, treated, put back in place and the patient dismissed. Believe me, all this was done with bare hands and no instruments right in front of us without a squeak from the patients. The faith healer then came and chatted with us for a while before returning to the long line of patients.
On my return from Singapore in 1988, I was appointed as Officer on Special Duty to the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command, Vice Admiral Tony Jain. I put in my papers seeking premature retirement and he tried to dissuade me but my mind was made up. He invited me to a farewell dinner and that was that. It was only after 2004 when Ruchir went to New York that I really got to know Admiral Jain. We got in touch as he used to come to US to visit his younger daughter who is married to Ajit Jain, the right-hand man of Warren Buffet, the billionaire head of Berkshire Hathaway, a top multinational conglomerate holding company. In 2015, Akhila and I were in New York and were invited by Admiral Jain for 4th of July US Independence Day celebrations at Ajit's beach house on the outskirts of New York. It was a lavish dinner which included many prominent people and the party ended with a display of brilliant fireworks. 4 July is also Akhila's birthday and Tony Jain frequently teases me by saying that he had outdone me by holding such a huge function for my wife's birthday!
Cdr KK Gulati and I were together in Cochin in 1970-71 when he was Secretary to Flag Officer Commanding Southern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Vasu Kamath, and I was Chief Instructor, Signal School. I will forever be indebted to him for his intervention when the Officer-in-Charge Signal School penned a grossly unfair confidential report against me. Cdr Gulati was instrumental in warning me of the OiC's action and getting the Admiral to overwrite the report.
Rear Admiral Ramendra Sharma and I have been the best of friends since 1960 and thereby hangs a tale. Ramen was a young Lieutenant in B&D School, Cochin, when I was living in the South Wardroom during my Sub Lt's courses. One afternoon, a sailor came and told me that Lt Sharma wanted to see me. I wondered why as I did not know him at all. On meeting him, he handed me a telegram from my grandfather that he and grandma were visiting Cochin shortly. Ramen was initially foxed but then correctly guessed that the postman had handed the telegram to the wrong R Sharma and sought me out. And that started a lifelong friendship buttressed by the fact that we have more things in common than just our initials.
