Naval Operations and Exercises That Went Awry

In actual operations as well as peacetime exercises, things can go awry due to human errors or material defects despite due diligence. Occasionally, the errors can be serious with heavy damage and loss of life. In August 1959, shortly after we, the 14th Course midshipmen, were transferred from Mysore to smaller ships, the former collided with a Royal Navy destroyer, Hogue, during Commonwealth Joint Exercises (JET) off Trincomalee. This happened at night with ships completely darkened. One sailor from Hogue was killed and both ships were damaged with Hogue eventually having to be written off. I was on board Ranjit also participating in the same exercises and it was a scary sight to see both the damaged ships the next morning.

Then there was the Khukri-Betwa collision during fleet exercises early 1964. I was on Khukri till December ’63 and had served under Captain ‘Pat’ Telles who was still commanding the ship when the collision took place. Capt Telles was a fine officer and a gentleman and took the entire blame on himself exonerating the Navigating Officer who many felt was to blame. Captain Telles’ naval career thus came to an untimely end.

Enough of tragic stories. Let me now dwell on incidents where errors resulted in situations which were embarrassing at that time but can be laughed at now.

A story which I cannot guarantee the veracity of but many oldtimers have sworn by, dates back to the 50s when during an exercise, Gomati fired a shell which went through Godavari’s open starboard door close to the Captain’s cabin, through the alleyway and out the port door without causing any damage! This was during what is called a throw-off firing where the gun direction system seemingly points towards the target but the guns are 30* off. Apparently Gomati’s gunnery crew forgot to apply the throw-off but the target, Godavari, had a miraculous escape.

My friend Viji Malhotra tells me of two incidents which took place during the ’65 Indo-Pak war. Viji was on the flagship Mysore as Flag Lt to the Fleet Commander (FOCIF), Rear Adm ‘Chippy’ Samson. The fleet was at sea when Betwa mistook Mysore for Pak ship Babur and started firing at it. The shells fell close to Mysore and Viji says he first thought the splashes caused by shells falling into the sea were whale spouts. In true Moby Dick fashion, he was about to shout, “Thar she blows” when the Fleet Gunnery officer realized what was happening and desperate signals were made to Betwa to stop firing before the required correction was applied to hit the target!

In the second case, Mysore saw an aircraft and mistook it for a Pak surveillance one. Anti-aircraft guns were brought into action before the Fleet Aviation Officer, Cdr Tahiliani, screamed that it was an Air India plane and firing was ceased. Bad aim once again saved the day but the Air India crew apparently saw the shell bursts as FOCIF got an angry signal from the Naval Chief the next day.

In the 1971 war, the landing ship Magar made a crazy signal that delayed landing of troops at Cox’s Bazar by a couple of days. Preparations were afoot for the landing with a number of naval and merchant ships carrying army personnel proceeding to rendezvous (RV) off the landing site. In the midst of all this, Magar made a signal to the Fleet Commander, “Periscope sighted. Confirm friendly”. We knew that none of our submarines were in that area and if at all it was a Pak submarine, defenceless Magar would be toast! Magar took sometime to find that it had mistaken a fishing stake in tidal waters for a periscope and made a corrective signal but its first message was heard by everyone on the radio network and the merchant ships had immediately turned away and cleared the area at top speed. It took some time and a number of messages to convince them that there was no enemy submarine in the area and to get them to head again for the RV.

In early 1971 some ships of the fleet based in Bombay were to visit Cochin. An exercise was planned in which the fleet ships were to attack the Cochin naval base which was to be defended by a couple of ships based there. Captain RS Malia, Commanding Officer Venduruthy, was in-charge of the Cochin force ably assisted by Rolly Lewin of ND School and self of Signal School. Godavari was already at sea and since there was no time to recall her to Cochin, it was decided that she would be joined at sea by Ganga and Gomati and thereafter proceed to intercept the fleet ships.  Details of an RV position designated RR (phonetically ‘Romeo Romeo’) were transmitted by wireless to Godavari and given by hand to the other two ships before sailing.

The exercise commenced and soon Godavari signalled that she was at RR awaiting the other ships which in turn signalled that they were at RR looking for Godavari. Both units were asked to check and recheck their co-ordinates and both confirmed that they were correctly at RR as directed. While these units were searching for each other, the Bombay ships sneaked in and carried out their attack. All ships were told to return to harbor and it was only there that the two Cochin units finally met.

In the debrief that followed, it was discovered that an error had been made in the radio transmission of the position to Godavari and whereas the latter was in the correct position as received by her, the other two ships were in the right position as given to them on paper. East was east and west was west and never the twain would meet!

Early next morning, Capt Malia, Rolly Lewin and I were witnessing a basketball game when the Captain came out with a gem. He said that at night he was reading “Julius ‘Kaiser’” by Shakespeare  and visualizing Godavari, Ganga and Gomati searching for RR uttering Juliet’s immortal lines, “Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” We all had a mighty laugh and Rolly and I would often make fun of the Captain’s mispronouncing of Caesar and attributing Juliet’s quote to the wrong play. It was many years later that I came to know that Captain Malia was an MA in English and the errors were perhaps deliberate to provoke laughter! Incidentally, Capt Malia, a Sikh, spoke perfect English with no trace of Punjabi accent.

In 1973, when I was FCO (Fleet Communication Officer) on the staff of FOCEF (Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet) Rear Admiral Ronnie Pereira, Some ships of the Western Fleet including the cruiser Delhi, the senior ship commanded by Captain Kewal Nayyar, were visiting Vishakhapatnam (Vizag). As usual, an exercise was scheduled wherein the Western force was to attack Vizag defended by Eastern fleet ships headed by Captain AC Malhotra commanding Kamorta. Capt Malhotra came up with a plan in which he would lead his force to intercept the Western ships well away from Vizag rather wait for them to approach the base for the attack. As it happened, he missed the Western ships completely allowing them to carry out their attack successfully. In the debrief that followed, he explained what his intention was and how it could have succeeded. Everyone including the C-in-C Vice Admiral Kulkarni and FOCEF listened intently, impressed by Capt Malhotra’s plan but unfortunate failure. Just then, Capt Nayyar got up and said, and I repeat his exact words, “Gentlemen, as Lord Fisher said, ’farting around the ocean is neither good strategy nor good tactics’”. There was a stunned silence for a while after which the debrief was declared closed. People were seen consulting each other on who Lord Fisher was and whether he could have said what was quoted. For those keen to know, Lord Fisher was the First Sea Lord, head of the Royal Navy, twice, from 1904-10 and again ’14-’15 when he resigned in the midst of the First World War due to differences with the naval minister, Winston Churchill. Extensive research to find the quote attributed to Lord Fisher is still a work in progress!

Ten years down the line, Kewal Nayyar, then Vice Admiral commanding the Western Fleet (FOCWF), was to be at the receiving end. I was his Fleet Operations OfficerFOO). In an exercise, ships were divided into two forces, one headed by Admiral Nayyar embarked on his flagship, Rajput, and the other by Captain ‘Baby’ Anand, CO Vindhyagiri. Rather than operate as a composite force, the Admiral’s plan was to disperse our missile-armed ships so that there was a greater chance of finding the other force and attack with missiles. In the ‘fog of war’ friendly Rana reported detecting an enemy ship and fired its missiles. The exercise was being controlled personally by the CNS, Admiral Stan Dawson, not on best terms with Admiral Nayyar.  The CNS ruled that Rana had actually fired at Rajput which was declared sunk. We were removed from the exercise and ordered to return to harbour which was a big snub to FOCWF.

Six months later, Naval Headquarters scheduled an Anti-submarine Warfare (ASW) exercise with an aim to check the sonar capability of ships in monsoon. With the weather particularly bad during the exercise, over 90% personnel were badly seasick and ships were going all helter skelter. CNS Admiral Dawson was himself on board the flagship and I was still FOO. I remembered a story my father-in-law had told me a number of times which went something like this- at a musical conference, a particularly bad group was on stage. The audience was restive and started hooting when a Pathan climbed up on stage brandishing a sword. The frightened group started getting up and scurrying away from the stage. Pathan calmly said to them, “Where are you people going? You please keep performing, I have nothing against you. I am looking for the person who invited you in the first place.” In the Operations Room, I recounted this to the CNS’s Naval Assistant and said, “Don’t blame the ships, let them do whatever they are doing. Let us look for the person who scheduled the exercise.” The message must have been conveyed to the CNS as for the rest of the time on board, he gave me askance looks whenever he saw me.

To conclude, here is a story which is neither about an operation nor an exercise but is very interesting nevertheless. It was told to me by my good friend Satish Bindra, God bless his soul, who vouched for its veracity and it involves the landing ship Magar again. In the early ‘50s after commissioning in UK, the ship was on its maiden voyage to Bombay with Satish on board. After the ship came through the Suez Canal and entered the Arabian Sea, real rough weather hit them as the south-west monsoon was in full fury. With no satellites and radio aids, navigation was completely dependent on landmarks of which there were none in mid-ocean, and heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon and the stars, which to be of any use, had to be visible. This they were not in those conditions.

So after a couple of days away from land and nothing in sight, the Captain, dependent as the ship was on just a compass, felt distinctly uneasy. Ships at sea drift with wind and current and can actually be quite away from the estimated position as determined by course, speed and any known tidal streams. While the Captain and the Navigating Officer (NO) were pondering over this predicament, a merchant ship was sighted coming from the opposite direction. As per tradition at sea, Magar flashed a signal by light to the merchant ship, “What ship, whither bound?” Came the reply, “Indian ship Sabarmati, bound from London to Bombay. And you?” To which Magar’s signalman replied, “Warship Magar, proceeding to Bombay”.

Now the Captain and the NO quickly conferred and concluded that their compass must have drifted and decided to follow Sabarmati since it was also headed for Bombay. Orders were given to the helmsman to turn around and get into Sabarmati’s wake. Soon however, they were astounded to see Sabarmati also turning around and trying to get in Magar’s wake! Obviously, it was a case of blind leading blind with Sabarmati as unsure of her position as Magar.

It must have been quite a sight to see two ships going round and round in circles for some length of time! Just as desperation was setting in, a fishing trawler was sighted. Magar went close to it and asked the fishermen over a loud hailer in which direction did Bombay lay. Fortunately, the trawler had come from Bombay and gave accurate directions which the good ship Magar followed with Sabarmati following close behind.

Navigating Betwa

From NDC I moved to Betwa in January ’67.  For the first and only time, NHQ personnel branch offered me a choice of ships - Brahmaputra or Betwa. The  attraction of the former was that it was slated to go to Montreal for EXPO ‘67 but since it was the senior ship of the 16th Frigate Squadron, it had specialists heading all departments and I would at best be someone’s deputy. Betwa, equipped with the latest Gun Direction system of that time, the FPS5, had only Gunnery headed by a specialist officer in Lt HKL Sachar. So I opted for Betwa hoping I would be the Signal Communications Officer (SCO) and gain some experience before going for my Long C course. Meanwhile, my friend and NDA coursemate, Suresh ‘Bobby’ Bhandoola, who too had been selected for the Long C course, also got appointed to Betwa. Bobby and I reported on board together wondering which one of us would be given the job of SCO by the Captain of the ship, Cdr RH Tahiliani. We hadn’t reckoned how smart the Captain was- he allotted TAS (Torpedo and Anti-submarine) to Bobby and Navigation to me! SCO went to young Sub Lt Vijay Shivdasani on his first appointment after earning the Watchkeeping certificate. Incidentally, he was also selected for Long C a few years down the line!

I was happy though as navigating the ship under an intelligent and competent Captain was a rich and rewarding experience which stood me in good stead for my own command of ships later. Simple pieces of advice, like when entering the not too well-marked Okha channel with only a lone starboard-hand buoy to guide, Cdr Tahiliani asked me to go close to the buoy rather than the centre of the channel because he said, “Always safer to go close to a known danger”.

Betwa was fully operational and we spent a lot of time sailing independently and as part of the Indian Fleet. We generally performed well and I recall just one incident when we could have been in trouble. We entered Cochin harbor and were trying to secure head and stern to buoys but foul monsoon weather, unfavourable tidal conditions and strong winds prevented us from doing so despite repeated attempts. Finally tugs were called to help secure the ship. We feared we had gone over the buoys and might have damaged our propellers and reported the incident to higher authorities. Thereafter we sent divers to examine the propellers and were relieved to find they were undamaged. As the incident had been reported, a board of inquiry was appointed which too cleared the ship of any damage and the Captain and Navigating Officer of any blame.

A constant source of concern was our gyro compass which often went ‘hunting’ and was unreliable. During a fleet exercise, the Captain told the yeoman on duty to make a signal to the fleet commander (FOCIF), “My gyro erratic”. Something went wrong between transmission and reception of the signal as during the debrief of the exercises, FOCIF, Rear Adm SM Nanda, asked Cdr Tahiliani to give details of the gyro that could go “erotic”. This remained Cdr Tahiliani’s one and only favourite story which I heard him recount dozens of times as he progressed from Commander to Admiral!

Our wardroom was lively and fun. Apart from Bobby Bhandoola, we had another coursemate, Virendra ‘Magoo’ Nehra who was the Supply Officer. Lt Sachar, ‘Guns’ as he was known, had a good sense of humour and kept us in high spirits. In our free time we used to play a game called ‘Liar Dice’ which was a shortened version of poker played with two dice instead of cards. The loser had to pay a penalty and a favourite one after a few drinks was to ask him to jump out of the porthole. Nobody actually could but the efforts were great to earn a riot of laughs!

With Magoo Nehra fond of western pop, music was the other pastime. Apart from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones were hitting the top of pop charts and my favourite number which I used to listen to and sing was “I can get no satisfaction” with Bobby Bhandoola always showing mock sympathy and  asking me why!

The Long C course was finally scheduled for September ’67 and my Betwa spell came to an end after just 8 months.

At the NDC- June 1965-December 1966

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOLF-UNCERTAINTIES GALORE

Cricket fans go in raptures talking about the game being full of uncertainties. They obviously don’t know golf. The uncertainties of this game are common affairs in almost every tournament. A course which regularly produces surprise endings is Carnoustie in Scotland where the British Open is often played. In the 2007 Open, Sergio Garcia started the day with a 3-shot lead hopeful of winning his first major. The lead had reduced to just one when he came to the final hole. He saw his par putt bouncing out after lipping the cup and went for a playoff with Padraig Harrington which Sergio duly lost! But the ‘mother of all’ surprising finishes was the 1999 Open where the frenchman Jean Van de Velde lost his 3-shot lead on the 18th to result in a playoff which he lost to Britain’s Paul Lawrie. No wonder Carnoustie is referred to as ‘Carnasty’ by professional golfers!

True, similar endings happen in Cricket as well.  In the T-20 series played earlier this year, in at least 2 matches New Zealand went into the final over sure of victory with just a few runs required and plenty of wickets in hand but contrived to tie and go to the death over eventually losing to India. But where golf is really unique is in the strange and peculiar situations that occur in the game routinely which would be considered fictional if there were no witnesses. To top it all, they have actually laid down rules to cover such situations!

Take the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club, Akron, USA, a few years ago. On the 9th hole, Tiger Woods hit his second shot into the trees left of the green. The ball dropped on the arm of a 58-year old lady who pulled it close to her body so the ball wouldn’t fall to the ground till Tiger came along. He was allowed a free drop and went on to get his par. Rule 9.1(a) Playing ball from where it came to rest and Rule 11.1 Ball in Motion Accidentally Hits Person Exception 1 are relevant!

More strange was the case of the LPGA pro Elaine Johnson. In a tournament, she hit a tree and the ball bounced back into her bra. Ever the professional, the lady said, “I’ll take a two-shot penalty but I refuse to play the ball where it lies!”

Golfers are constantly scoring birdies figuratively but a few years back, in a celebrity game, Rob Lowe hit a goldfinch in mid-flight bringing down the bird 150 feet short of the green. “That’s my birdie,” quipped Lowe.

Not part of a game but on a golf course was this incident which the great Jack Nicklaus described as the most embarrassing moment in his life. At a tournament of which he was the director, he asked for a portable toilet cabin to be shifted. As soon as the cabin was lifted by the crane, a partially dressed young lady poked her head out of the door furiously screaming her head off complaining that she was not even allowed to pee in peace!

I have had some personal experiences myself. At the Army course at Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, the 11th and 14th holes run parallel but in opposite directions. Playing the 14th, my ball hit the ball of another golfer on the 11th in mid-flight! The balls were played 'as it lies'.

At Bolghatti, Cochin, I hit a palm tree on a Saturday evening only to find that the ball had got stuck high up and could not be retrieved. I took a penalty for lost ball and continued my game with another ball. Playing again next morning, I hit the tree again and to my utter surprise and delight, two balls dropped! Unfortunately, I could not claim to waive off my penalty of the previous day as the rules permit only 5 minutes to search for a lost ball!

For those interested in even more weird and bizarre incidents, I recommend a book I picked up sometime back. It is called “Golf Nuts Book of Amazing Feats & Records”. It describes golf’s most unbelievable shots, astounding feats, silly mishaps and outrageous miscellaneous records by big names such as Lee Trevino, Greg Norman, Sam Snead and Gary Player and, of course, lesser mortals! For those who are frustrated with their game and wish to recoup from the golf bug before throwing away their golf set, there is another book, "How to Quit Golf." And finally, for habitual bettors who hate to lose money, I recommend "How to Win at Golf Without Actually Playing Well".
A small example - on the first tee, ask your opponent casually when he is about to drive, "Do you shank?" If he doesn't, he will!

Did you know that golf can actually produce music? Dr. Robert Grober, a physics professor at Yale University, New Haven, USA, has planted an electronic sensor into a club that transmits an immediate response to a golf swing. A smooth rhythmic swing  produces a sweet sound while a mistimed one results in a wail. A Musical Instrument Digital Interface combining instruments such as a pipe organ, piccolo, oboe and French horn transmits an audio interpretation of the swing to the player through a wireless headset.

Me, I am waiting for a CD of a Tiger Woods concerto, a Sergio Symphony or a Mickelson minuet.

An Odd Indo-Pak Naval Get-Together

Way back in the 1950s and 60s, our Navy used to participate in the annual joint exercises (JET) conducted for Commonwealth navies. The exercises were held off the east coast of Sri Lanka with Trincomalee as the base. Pakistan Navy (PN) also used to participate in JET.

In 1959, I was an officer-under-training with the rank of midshipman, known in the navy as the lowest form of animal life, on board the destroyer Ranjit. Our ship arrived at Trincomalee and secured to a buoy. A big natural harbour, Trinco had a long row of buoys and each destroyer-size ship fastened its head to a buoy with the stern free to swing with the tide and wind. The distance between two buoys was just a little more than the length of the ships.

All was well in normal circumstances when the ships swung in the same direction and the same speed. There were times, however, when due to unpredictable tidal currents, the ships swung in different directions.

One afternoon, our officers were invited for pre-lunch drinks on board a PN ship which was next in line. All our officers including the Captain and the Executive Officer took the ship's boat to go across leaving only the duty personnel, including me, behind. Soon after, our ship started swinging fast in one direction and the Pakistani ship slowly in another, heading for a collision. All the duty personnel were summoned and both ships tried to reduce the force of the impact by throwing out fenders and physically bearing off the other ship by means of oars and wooden spars. Our Captain and officers along with their hosts came on the upper deck of the PN ship watching the unexpected proceedings anxiously but helplessly.

We did succeed in minimising the damage but not in preventing the ships coming together with our heads and sterns in opposite directions! With the ships united head to toe and vice versa, drinks on board the PN ship resumed and extended to lunch. Later, a gangway was put across the ships for our officers who were happy to just walk back instead of having to take a boat. Finally, a tug arrived to separate the ships and put them back in line to restore order.

Back on board, the well-fed officers slept through from around 5 p.m. till the next morning. Vague mutterings were heard suggesting that the drinks had been spiked. Or was it just great Pak hospitality!

55 YEARS OF GOLF

Five years ago while enjoying a round at the Dhaula Kuan Army Golf Course, it suddenly struck me that I had been playing golf for 50 years. Well, make it 55 now!

It all started in 1964-65 while I was a Divisional Officer at NDA Kharakvasla. I was fond of Tennis and Squash and considered Golf to be an old man's game. My knowledge of golf was confined to my reading of PG Wodehouse stories generally recounted in his books by the 'oldest member' of a club! Then one fine day, two of my bachelor mates,  Tiger Talwar and Subodh Gupta literally dragged me to the golf course. My first coach was  ‘Dimmy’ Jouralov about whom I have written in detail elsewhere. Briefly, he claimed to be from the ‘blue-blooded’ czar family and escaped from Russia at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. After travelling through Central Asia, he made his way to India and became the leader of Maharaja of Patialas's band. He then came to JSW Dehradun and finally to NDA Kharakvasla. He taught Russian for a number of years till he was relieved of academic activities and retained as officer-in-charge of the NDA golf course. He was a good coach and player and while in his 60s he could not drive more than 150 yards and played only irons, he was straight as an arrow and unfamiliar with the roughs! The NDA course was raw, the greens were actually 'browns' of hardened sand and the fairways had little grass which made it necessary to play off a mat. Thanks to us hackers, most of the mats were hole-ridden and it was a race to be early on the course so that one could get a decent mat. Fortunately, there were not too many golfers those days.

I was then transferred to Delhi as Flag Lt to Commandant National Defence College and continued my golf at the Air Force Race Course which then was the only golf course in Delhi apart from the Delhi Golf Club. It was a 9-hole course confined to the front of the clubhouse. My mentor and coach was Mohinder who is still seen on the course occasionally and it was a nostalgic moment meeting him again recently. One of my memories of the Course dates back to 1966 when we were told to clear away for the landing of a Caribou plane for trials! Fascinated, we watched it land and resumed our game after it took off.

Meanwhile Tiger Talwar, who had also fetched up in Delhi, and I applied for membership of the Delhi Golf Club which we got within a month. At the DGC, one got to rub shoulders with famous players of the time like Billoo Sethi and Ashok Malik. The latter’s father, HS Malik, was still frequenting the club. Youngsters like Vikramjit Singh and Manmohan Singh were snapping at the heels of Sethi and Malik. My favourite  player of those days, Rajkumar ‘Pit’ Pitamber, a Bombayite, was a frequent visitor for major tournaments like the India Open. At the 1966 tournament, the holder Billoo Sethi was leading the famous Australian 5-time British Open champion Peter Thomson by a stroke after the 9th hole on the final day. On the 10th, Billoo was sitting pretty with his second close to the pin whereas Thomson was barely on the green. That’s when fortunes turned. Thomson made a monster putt while Billoo missed his. Thomson then slotted in birdies after birdies to overwhelm Billoo by, if I recall correctly, four strokes!

Back to the Navy end-1966 and my home course was US Club, Colaba, Bombay.  The feature there was the famous crows which would pick up a ball in one fell swoop and deposit it in the ventilators of the nearby Nursing Officers’ Mess! I believe this still happens though caddies rush to cover the balls with pieces of red cloth.

A lot of forecaddies or 'Agewalas' went around the course bare-footed. A major reason was that after a drive, the well-paid agewala would walk over your ball, deftly pick it up with his toes unseen and leave it 20-30 yards ahead in a nice lie all without stopping. In one tournament, Admiral Ronnie Pereira, honest to the core, saw his agewala do that. The Admiral screamed at him and decided to give him a knock on the head. Unfortunately, the Admiral hit the defending agewala at a peculiar angle resulting in the former fracturing his thumb which kept him out of golf for a few weeks.

Navy had very few golfers then and the Secretary Indian Naval Sports Control Board was hard put to find golfers to form a team for the Inter-Services tournament. In 1968, the then Secretary LCDR Rusi Mehta saw me on the golf course. He asked me if I possessed a set. On my saying yes, he informed me that I was duly selected to be on the Navy team!

The next few years saw me representing the Navy in the august company of later admirals Ronnie Pereira, Tony Jain, Subhash Chopra and Krishen Batta. But our star golfer was Kulbhushan ‘Ustad’ Sood who was the Navy Champion for many years. He was always cool as a cucumber and nothing would faze him. Once when I was playing with him at the Army Course in Dhaula Kuan, he put his second shot in the deep front bunker guarding the 1st hole in those days. On my commiserating with him, he said, “Doesn’t matter. I’ll put it close to the hole and get my par”- and he did just that, not only then but every time his ball went into that bunker which was quite often.

In Cochin in 1970-71, Bolghatti was the only course to play on. 9 short holes around the island navigating through palm trees formed the fare. I was perhaps the only Navy regular with a bunch of tea estate managers and brokers for company. Then came Admiral Vasu Kamath as FOCSOUTH. He was a keen golfer and my weekends were reserved for golf with him. A ride to and from Bolghatti in the Admiral’s barge was a bonus!

Because of the tall trees, Bolghatti was the centre of many peculiar incidents. The one I remember vividly was when on the short 3rd hole I hit a tree high up. The ball remained stuck on the tree and I had to play another. The next day I hit a similar shot and to my delight, two balls dropped including the one of the previous day!

Transferred to Vizag as the first FCO of the newly-formed Eastern Fleet, the golf scene shifted to East Point Golf Course in Waltair Uplands, about 20 kms. from the naval base. When Admiral Ronnie Pereira took over as FOCEF, it was standard practice for him to personally drive up to my flat in Naval Park and pick me up for golf. He would not spoil his staff car driver’s weekend!

The Vizag Course was pretty rocky somewhat like Kharakvasla. Once I topped the ball which travelled close to the ground and suddenly I lost sight of it. After a few moments, I heard a sound from the back. Turning around, I saw that it was my ball which had apparently hit a stone, ballooned up, altered course by 180* and fell about 30 metres behind me. Here too we had 'browns' of sand matted together by oil. An interesting feature was that the ball left prints of the putts on the browns so you could analyse the path your ball took to the hole.

In 1978-80 I was on the Directing Staff in the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Those were excellent golfing days. Kailash Kohli was my regular partner and we were an unbeaten combination. In ’79, I was made the Golf Captain of the DSSC team and with excellent players including the Commandant, Maj Gen Mohinder Singh, our team won almost every tournament we participated in.

1985-88, I was in Singapore as the Defence Adviser in the Indian High Commission. As military attaches, we were given membership of the hilly Sembawang Country Club. We had to pull our own carts and if you could last 18 holes in that hilly terrain and warm and humid climate, you could consider yourself to be in the top naval medical category of S1A1! In 1987, I won the Military Attaches golf tournament and was presented a voucher of 200 Singapore dollars to be redeemed at a crocodile leather shop on Orchard Road. My dear wife promptly went and bought herself a fancy handbag leaving some paltry balance plus out-of-pocket money for a belt for me!

Singapore is an ideal place for golf with around 16-17 lush courses in the island state including the Singapore Country Club and the scenic Sentosa. Towards the end of my stay, the new Raffles Country Club at Jurong started functioning. That course was designed by a sadist with more water hazards then I have seen on any course. A golf get-together was organized there to bid farewell to the departing Malaysian High Commissioner to which all Ambassadors and High Commissioners including our own Sankaran Nair, an avid golfer, and military attaches were invited. All of us sank 4-5 balls in the water hazards but the worst hit was the chief guest who lost a dozen and walked away after 13 holes fortunately without throwing his set in the water!

Once on a visit to Delhi from Singapore, I called on the then CNS, Admiral Tahiliani. Earlier, when he was CinC West and I was commanding Trishul, the Admiral saw me playing golf at the US Club and chided me wondering how naval officers found time to play golf. But now I learnt that he had been bitten by the bug. I asked him how his game was progressing and he said he had shot a 67 at the DGC that morning. I wowed and said that was excellent. His wry reply, “Yeah, for 9 holes?”.

Shortly after my return to India, I left the Navy in 1989 and have settled down in Delhi. For over 30 years now, my home course has been the Army Dhaula Kuan course which over the years has expanded from 12-holes to a full-fledged 18. After 40 years of golf, this course presented me with my first hole-in-one on the 9th in 2005. A couple of years later, I got a second and then a third one on, no April fool, 01 April 2015! Lightning strikes many times and I have added two more and on the fifth occasion, I just shrugged it off with 'oh, another one'!

Dhaula Kuan has provided many curious incidents but a truly rare one happened some years ago. Parts of 11th and 14th fairways are in opposite  directions. Playing the 14th, I hit a fairway wood and started walking. A very excited golfer playing the 11th came running to me and announced breathlessly that his ball had collided with mine in mid-air! On another occasion, my friend Rocky Mehta was walking towards his ball on the 17th fairway unmindful of eggs that a quail had laid on the ground. The mother bird started shrieking and chasing him and it was quite a sight seeing Rocky waving his club and running for his life reminding one of the Hitchcock movie “The Birds”.

For a few years in late 90s and early 2000s when we lived in Noida, Premvir Das, DS Kanwar, DK Sharma and I played regularly on the Noida Golf Course. Late VK Sabhiki also used to join in at times. One game I remember vividly was on 9/11 when I shot a very satisfying 9 over and came home with a 56" chest, switched on the TV and watched awestruck the happenings in New York.

Of all sports, the popularity of golf has really soared exponentially. In the 60s, membership of Delhi GC was just an application away although it was the only proper course in Delhi. Today it will take a lifetime!

As the cliché goes, ‘Golf is a way of life' and I hope I can continue this way as long as I can. Amen!



_____________________________________________________________________

NDA 1964-65

On board Khukri, I received my letter of appointment transferring me to National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla, end-December 1963.

On arrival at NDA, I was told to proceed to ‘J’ (Juliet)  Squadron where I reported to the Squadron Commander, Maj Shyam Rattan.  We found a common link as he was the brother of CDR Anmol Rattan who was the Engineer Officer on board Ranjit where I did my small ship time as a Midshipman in 1959.  My colleague Div Offrs were Flt Lt RS Rana who being a fighter pilot always introduced himself as 'Speedy', and Capt Surjit Kumar of J&K Rifles. Our Battalion Cdr was Wing Cdr ‘Barney’ Fernandes, a  fine officer and gentleman.

One term later, Maj Shyam Rattan was replaced by Maj John Verghese, brother of the well-known journalist BG Verghese.

I was a bachelor and staying at the Officer’s Mess. Life for bachelors at the NDA was very peculiar. A typical day started at about 0630 when one watched cadets at their outdoor training like PT, Drill or Horse Riding. During the day, one was fully occupied with paperwork, cadets’ reports, an odd lecture, interviews with cadets, watching cadets at games, etc., till about 1800 when a total hush descended on the one horse town! The married folks went home happily but the bachelors, before the advent of TV and with entertainment spots far off in Poona, were at a loose end. Inevitably, we fetched up at the bar where drinks and singsong sessions took us well into the night. My bar mates included Mel Kendall, Subodh Gupta, Lalit 'Tiger' Talwar, 'Bogey' Borgonah, 'Laddu' Malik, Sudhir 'Ike' Isaacs and 'Honky' Mukuti among others. While the songs we sang followed a wide range from Pankaj Mullick and KL Saigal to Jim Reeves, Cliff Richards and Beatles, the one I remember the most was the last named's "I Saw Her Standing There" where Bogey Borgonah and I would try to outdo each other on the 'My-eeeeeen' part!

We had many colourful personalities to keep us amused. There was Maj Shyam Rattan who was actually a very senior officer being a colleague of the Commandant, Maj Gen Ranbir Bakshi. He had an enormous number of yarns to tell. My favourite was the one about his time at Monaco where he was posted during WW II. He said the Principality was so small that when he slept at night, his head was in Monaco and his feet in France! He would often come up with some self-made ones like the time he took a lift with someone on a scooter. When it started raining, the driver coolly switched on wipers on his sunglasses and carried on driving fast unaffected by rain.

When Maj Shyam Rattan was blessed with a third daughter in a row, all of us congratulated him but were aghast when Speedy went up to him and smilingly offered his ‘heartfelt condolences’. When we tried to shush him, he laughed us off and said that was how ‘we Punjabis’ view the occasion! To his utter credit, Maj Shyam Rattan took it all very sportingly and thanked Speedy with a smile.

An interview Maj Shyam Rattan conducted in the Divisional Officers' office with the three of us present was the funniest I have witnessed. The interviewee was his nephew, Rajeev Rattan, son of his brother Maj Prem Rattan. The interview was strictly formal following the prescribed format like asking Rajeev's name, father's name, home address and details of relations in the Services' where Rajeev named his father and Maj Shyam Rattan. Maj Shyam asked where the uncle was posted to which the straightfaced reply was, "He is the Sqn Cdr in Juliet sqn." The three DOs were dumbstruck watching this remarkable act of uncle and nephew where not even a trace of smile or familiarity could be seen on the faces of the two. Once Rajeev was dismissed, the four of us laughed our hearts out.

Then there was this lovable person, Dmitri ‘Dimmy’ Jouralov, who used to teach Russian when I was a cadet. He was now too old to teach but fit enough to look after the NDA Golf Club. He along with my friends Subodh Gupta and Tiger Talwar insisted on my taking up golf which I had dismissed till then as an old man’s game. I am indeed grateful to them as I continue to play and enjoy the game till today. One day I said to Dimmy that I got a stiff neck while playing golf. He strongly chided me and said, “Never! You cannot get a crick in the neck if you play proper golf! ”

Dimmy’s other interest was the bar. Those were days of prohibition in Maharashtra. So invariably we used to see Dimmy in the evening searching for someone to stand him a drink with his favourite line, “Water is the best drink in life but I can’t afford the best. So give me the second best, a rum!”

A very likeable Social Studies teacher who shall remain unnamed, was also a proficient tennis player. That probably gave him a good appetite. Once when he was staying in the Mess, he kept asking the waiter for chapatis after chapatis. The waiter got fed up and when the teacher landed up for his next meal, the waiter brought 50 chapatis and plonked them in front of him. The teacher went red in the face and screamed at the waiter inquiring if he thought the former was a pig. He finally dismissed the waiter saying, “Now take one away”.

One of the Battalion Cdrs was Lt Col BD Malhoutra, a proper ‘Saheb’ complete with a fine moustache and a British accent. Once he was in charge of a cadets’ camp for which a route march was to start at 0300. All of us were lined up when Col Malhoutra started inspecting the cadets in total darkness. He stopped in front of one and asked his name. The reply, “Cadet Bewtra, sir”.

“Spell it” said the Colonel.

“B-E-W-T-R-A.”

The Colonel shouted at the top of his voice with some choice abuses in Punjabi ending up with “You Angrez de puttar, can’t you spell your name simply as BATRA instead of  anglicising it as Bewtra?” All of us quietly sniggered wondering why the Colonel had a ‘U’ in his Malhoutra!

The loneliness of bachelors resulted in a few love affairs in the NDA. My colleague Surjit got hitched to a lady doctor posted in K’vasla MH and another Div Off and coursemate Rameshwar ‘Billoo’ Ratra married Roop, daughter of Maj K Rai Singh, the famous test cricketer who was then in the Army Training Team in the NDA. The rest of us had to be content with the  occasional ‘Socials’ where we were lucky if we could find a lady willing to give us the pleasure of a dance. Maggie Fernandes, the pretty wife of our Battalion commander, often obliged us sportingly.

Which brings me back to Wg Cdr Fernandes. I shall always remember a lecture given by him on ‘Leadership’ to the cadets with the unforgettable quote from “Hamlet”:

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day’,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

Well into my third term, life was getting a bit monotonous at K’vasla. Providentially, I was called up to Delhi for an interview with the Commandant NDC, VADM AK Chatterji, later Chief of the Naval Staff, who wondered if I would be his Flag Lt! Would I?! I said yes before he changed his mind and left NDA end-May 65 for New Delhi.

A most rewarding moment these days is when I run into an ex-cadet of mine who recognises me and comes up to greet me.