THEY ALSO SERVE WHO ARE IN NAVAL HEADQUARTERS!

If you are amused at the title of this post being similar to the 17th century poet John Milton’s famous last line in the sonnet ‘When I Consider How My Light is Spent’, the similarity, I hasten to add, is intentional. As we go along, you will understand.

The business end of the navy is at sea and that is where you want to be; that’s where there is life, order, sanity and some justification for being what you are: a sea-warrior. However much you dislike, you can’t be at sea all the time and have to serve ashore some time or the other. And whilst ashore, you have to either serve at headquarters or deal with one. That’s the time you learn, if you are doing it for the first time, how different navy life can be; you acquire a totally different perspective and environment (Earlier, I have written two articles on the subject: ‘The Tail Wags The Dog And How!’ and ‘The Tail Wags The Dog And How! – Part II’)

Ten days ago, the Navy was in the news for having appointed a Flag Officer Delhi Area (FODA) without the consent of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). MoD, unlike what people think, is actually a fighting or combat organisation. It is at all times at war with the armed forces. Here, however, it patted itself on the back (something that it has mastered over years) for having caught the Navy on the wrong foot. The Navy justified the appointment, but, insisted that FODA is now to be called Flag Officer Administration:

“We required such an office as we are very soon going to start work on the construction of Nau Sena Bhawan which will be a big task and otherwise also, the workload had gone up quite considerably in the national capital,” senior Navy sources explained. (The pic on top is of the foundation stone laying ceremony on 20 Aug 14).

The tail is now considerably larger and the poor dog at sea (sea-dog) is ready to be wagged violently and continuously.

In the Naval Headquarters at New Delhi the phrase Navy is not a vocation but a way of life is not entirely reflective of the true picture; for most it is a nine-to-five office job. The gap between theory and practice there is even greater than between the peninsular India and the land-locked capital. One of my course-mates, for example, landed up at NHQ immediately after undergoing the Staff Course at DSSC, Wellington (Nilgiris). In the staff course, he was converted into a Sahib with such theoretical things as Whitehall system of filing and other norms of handling correspondence. At the end of his first day, as he approached me in my ramshackle office (I had joined about a year before him and hence knew my way around there), he had tears in his eyes. Let alone not being able to locate a single file as per the Whitehall system, he was unable to find a chair or table for himself.

They also serve who are in Naval Headquarters!

I remember how amused I myself was when I attended my first meeting at NHQ on the all important topic of ‘The use of Hemp ropes on board ships’. The meeting was to start at 2:30 PM immediately after lunch. By about 3 PM everyone had trickled in except Commander A Singh. The chairman of the meeting, a senior Commodore, waited for everyone without once losing his temper. On the ships, he would have taken everyone’s pants off for keeping him waiting even for five minutes. Now, here, he was just drumming his table and asking, “Should we wait for A Singh or start the meeting?” and the senior officers around him kept saying, “Lets wait for A Singh”. By 3:15 PM, the Commodore’s limit of patience had been reached and he said, “Lets not wait for A Singh anymore. Lets start the meeting. He can join in when he comes.” Everyone acquiesced with this decision. The Commodore began the meeting by welcoming everyone and then he asked for someone to read out the minutes of the last meeting. Everyone said that there was a problem here since the minutes had not been circulated by A Singh (In NHQ, I quickly learnt that the absent member is to be blamed for everything. After leaving the Navy, when I joined the corporate sector, once I attended a meeting in the North Block (the business end of the government; the MoD and the armed forces headquarters are in the South Block) on the issue of ‘Security of SBMs’ (Single Buoy Moorings; whereat great percentage of crude oil is received from VLCCs or Very Large Crude Carriers). The chairman kept saying that this security had been handed over to XYZ. No one had any objection to it. I was quick to notice that the XYZ representatives weren’t attending the meeting. When I pointed this out, it was explained to me that it was deliberate since if the XYZ reps were to attend the meeting, they would have serious objections to it; now, they would learn of the decision through the minutes of the meeting. Naturally, in Naval Headquarters, we quickly learn the ways of our civilian counterparts rather than making them learn our disciplined and orderly ways). After an hour of the meeting on the subject of ‘Use of hemp ropes on ships’ the meeting was called off since A Singh, the most important member of the meeting hadn’t arrived.

They also serve who are in Naval Headquarters!

If you are wondering what I alluded to by the ways of the civilians in the last paragraph, I would like to point out that these are not just to be seen at the top levels. At the ground level (almost all the secretarial staff in the directorates is civilians), it is to be seen to be believed. My office clerk, for example, vanished for 114 days without informing me and I had to do most of my typing myself. When I pointed this to the DOA (Directorate of Administration) guys, they said due to manpower shortages, no relief could be provided. How about taking action against the clerk? They said this would be possible when the clerk would report back on duty. There is never any urgency for anything at the headquarters; things get sorted out on their own.

What about the gallant sailors who do wonders on the ships, who produce results against all odds? Well, in Naval Headquarters, these are mostly from North Indian states who are on home or closer-to-home postings. They are, therefore, least likely to complain about anything even if asked to fetch canteen items or movie tickets.

If I have painted a somewhat dismal environment of Naval Headquarters, I hasten to correct the view that great and difficult things actually happen at the headquarters. Whilst the Navy at sea is only preparing or training to fight against the enemy, in Naval Headquarters, the guys are actually fighting to obtain things for the Navy from the Ministry or ministries. How important this exercise is can be made out from the awards and honours list: a large percentage of those serving in Naval Headquarters find their names in the list.

They also serve who are in Naval Headquarters!

A few years back, when I was still in the Navy, the citation of a Commodore for Nausena Medal (Devotion to Duty) actually read that: “He obtained sanction for ‘ABC’ from the ministry against all odds, thereby accomplishing something beyond the ordinary call of duty.”

The Navy is a combat service, indeed; the MoD ensures we stay that way.

“ARE YOU GOING TO RUBI’S PARTY?”

A news item, at the end of the year 2016, from a small village called La Joya in Mexico is probably manifestation of a phenomenon that has had far-reaching effects that the world has seen lately, in the fields of popularity, talent and fame. The invitation for ‘quinceanara‘ party or coming-of-age party of a 15 years old Rubi Ibarra by her father Crescencio went viral (the expression used in the Internet age for something that spreads with the speed of the viral fever from person to person). Whilst Crescencio meant by the words: Everyone is invited, people in the neighbouring communities, the local event photographer who posted the invitation video on Facebook omitted to mention that. The result: everyone landed up for the birthday party. The media and social media, both domestic and international, covered it as the event of the year.

Rubi Ibarra, not seen, arrives at the site of a mass that is part of her down-home 15th birthday party, surrounded by a horde of journalists and a drone flying overhead, in the village of La Joya, San Luis Potosi State, in Mexico, on Monday, December 26, 2016. Photo: AP

Five years ago, at the end of the year 2011, we had a variation of this phenomenon in India. A Tanglish (a hybrid of Tamil and English) song titled ‘Why this Kolaveri Di?‘ The song was sung by Dhanush on his own lyrics and composed by Anirudh Ravichander. Outside Tamil films, no one would have heard of them, not even the name of the 2012 psychological thriller simply called: ‘3’ (the shortest name of a movie in the world!). However, the success of this song on YouTube made it phenomenal (here is it from Wikipedia):

“Upon release, the hashtag #kolaveri topped the Indian trends in Twitter on the evening of 21 November 2011. Within a week of the official release of the video, it received more than 3.5 million views on YouTube, more than 1 million shares on Facebook, while trending in India on Twitter the whole time. By 30 November 2011, it had more than 10,500,000 YouTube views. By the start of 2012, it had crossed 30 million YouTube views. The song and versions of it account for more than 75 million of YouTube’s total views. The song became the top downloaded song on mobile with 4,100,000 downloads within the first 18 days of release.”

Dhanush, the singer, was invited as a guest of honour by the Prime Minister. Various parodies of the song also became viral (You can read my own parody: ‘Why This Valentine Valentine Di?’ on the subject of opposition to celebrating a foreign fest in India). Here is the song for you, again: Why this Kolaveri, Di? (Why this killing rage girl?):

What do these two phenomenal events tell us? Simply this that there is – what I term as – democratisation of talent – and one can be a star overnight. First, lets compare it with the olden times:

Even if one were very talented, it would be years before one became popular or achieved fame. William Shakespeare, the greatest author in English language, for example, during his years of struggle, used to go incognito to various bookshops in London, asking for his plays, so as to influence demand for his works. There are many factual stories of actors around the world who paid (instead of being paid) for acting in movies and plays before they became famous.

And, very few became popular and famous. For authors, poets, playwrights, speakers and actors, one had to wait for years before their works were noticed; sometimes merely by fluke. Ordinary people – except for the rare ones who made big – couldn’t even dream that someone, other than in their immediate and local community, would see or read the product of their art or skill. Overnight success was a rare occurrence. As an example, in the 16th century, just think of an ordinary street play in Bengal becoming famous all over India, let alone world-wide or for that matter a bard in say, Punjab.

Similarly, amongst the great speeches of the world, we only had to read about great personalities delivering these and at best we could read the text unless parts of such speeches found their way into some documentary or movie.

Nowadays, everyone, is a writer, actor, speaker, singer, photographer, poet and playwright (‘All Photographers And Writers, No Viewers And Readers‘). And if you have talent, suddenly the social media makes you famous without your having to stand on your head to be noticed. Everyone of us, for example, sees a number of videos everyday of unknown authors, actors, speakers and singers. As another example, earlier ordinary people would not have access to worldwide listeners and viewers until platforms like TED Talks made it possible. Recently, we heard an Indian Army major convincing us of the rationale of deploying army in Kashmir.

One of the valid critical observations on this phenomenon is that media-savvy people (that being their only talent) can make themselves or others famous who have little or no talent. Conversely, there are still many talented people still to be discovered. I have only this to say to it that any new video game that you buy also has a cheat program. In democracy, talent would sometimes suffer because it is based on majority acceptance and majority is not always the best judge of the quality of art, skill or talent.

However, the chances of ordinary but talented men and women being watched everyday by millions have increased manifold. How many of us, for example, listened live to Beatles or Mohammad Rafi or seen live great dancers like Gene Kelly? However, these days, ordinary but talented singers and dancers reach us on the telly, cellphones and other devices and we watch with bated breath to see their talent on, say, America’s Got Talent or Sa Re Ga Ma; literally millions of us, many more than those who watched the famous and the popular in the olden days.

What about the dilution of real talent due to this democratisation of talent? Well, there are both sides of the coin here. The good view is that excellence is pegged even higher than earlier since you can instantly see who are better and worse. The reverse view is that popularity often gets the mask of fame and excellence.

Lastly, whilst it is easy to be Good these days, it is equally easy to be Bad and Evil. One can learn, in fairly easy steps on the net, how to make a molotov cocktail or even a dirty bomb. Similarly, one can visit darknet or tor browser with impunity leaving no footprints to be traced whilst engaged in sinister things.

However, with some exceptions, I feel that democratisation of talent is a good thing, indeed. Whilst we, keep saying, largely erroneously, that God made all men and women equal (Please read: ‘Debatable Philosophies Of Life’ that I wrote on the last day of last year), the fact is that those who were born with silver spoons in their mouths often achieved success, fame and popularity. However, now, there is the beginning of an effort to make all men and women equal. Who knows, a time will come, when evolutionary changes would make everyone equally good singer, writer, actor, player or speaker?

And then, perhaps, everyone would be invited for and attend everyone’s party rather than being asked, just by accident: “Are you going to Rubi’s party?

VOTE-BANDI, NOT NOTEBANDI, IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR

खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

हर चीज़ खरीदने पे लगा दिया है महसूल,
और कहा के यही है कफ़ायत का असूल,
तुम्हारे पैसे पे मुल्क का भी उतना ही है हक़,
जितना औरत का मर्द की कमाई पे है मरने तक I
देश को ज़रुरत है देश वासी हों तुम जैसे I
खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

पहले थोड़े में गुज़ारा था, ज़रूरतें भी थीं कम,
बीवी को रोज़ सैर पे ले जाया करते थे हम,
अब ब्यूटी पार्लर का हो गया है आना जाना,
मल्टी प्लेक्स में पिक्चर और होटलों में खाना I
क्या सुहाने दिन थे गरीबी के, बीत गए वह कैसे?
खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

पहले वज़ीर आज़म दूर से ही नज़र आते थे,
मुँह पे लगा के ताला, कुछ भी न सुनाते थे I
उनका मुँह न खुला जब वज़ीर पूरा खेत चर गए,
और देश की जागीर अपनी तजोरियों में भर गए I
अब जाने मन की बात सुनाने आ जाते हैं कैसे?
खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

पहले होनहार पुलिस वालों को सौ दो सो का था इंतज़ार,
अब उन्हें पता है जेब में नोट हैं गुलाबी दो हज़ार I
पहले बद-अमली नेता और उनके मुलाज़िम भी थे भोले,
अब हमारे पुराने हज़ार ओ पांच सौ के नोट देख कर बोले:
“लगता है खाली हाथ आ गए हो जैसे I”
खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

क्या होगा इस मुल्क का, कभी आता है ख़याल,
हर एक के होंठों पे बस एक ही है सवाल:
क्या हमारा किरदार नोटबंदी से बदल जाएगा,
या कुछ सालों बाद वह पल भी आएगा,
जब इंक़लाब के बिना कुछ न बदलेगा ऐसे,
खुश थे जब जेब में न होते थे पैसे,
अब हैं तो कुछ अजीब लोग मिले हैं ऐसे I

उठो तुम्हें तुम्हारा ईमान बुला रहा है,
मुल्क की सरहद पे खड़ा जवान बुला रहा है:
“मुल्क की हिफाज़त सिर्फ मेरा ही नहीं है फ़र्ज़,
मुल्क और भारत माँ का तुम पे भी है क़र्ज़ I ”
आओ सब मिल के देश को बचाएं,
जितना हमारे हक़ का है बस उतना ही खाएं I
बद इखलाकी लोगों की कर दो वोट – बंदी,
ता के दुबारा न आये इस मुल्क में नोटबंदी I

(Cartoon courtesy: indiandefencenews.com)

Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Har cheez khareedne pe laga diya hai mahsool,
Aur kaha hai ke yahi hai kafaayet ka asool,
Tumhaare paise pe mulk ka utna hi hai haq,
Jitna aurat ka mard ki kamaayi pe hai marne taq,
Desh ki zaroorat hai desh waasi hon tum jaise,
Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Pehle thode mein guzaara tha, zaroorten bhi thin kam,
Biwi ko roz sair pe le jaaya karte the ham,
Ab Beauty Parlour ka ho gaya hai aana jaana,
Multiplex mein picture aur hotlon mein khaana.
Kyaa suhaane din the gareebi ke, beet gaye woh kaise?
Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Pehle wazeer azam door se hi nazar aate the,
Moonh pe laga ke taala, kuchh bhi na sunaate the.
Unka moonh na khula jab wazeer pura khet char gaye,
Aur desh ki jaagir apni tajoriyon mein bahr gaye.
Ab jaane Man Ki Baat sunaane aa jaate hain kaise?
Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Pehle honhaar police waalon ko sau do sau ka tha intezaar,
Ab unhen pata hai jeb mein note hain gulaabi do hazaar.
Pehle bad-amli neta aur unke mulazim bhi the bhole,
ab hamaare puraane hazaar aur paanch sau ke note dekh kar bole:
“Lagta hai khaali haath aa gaye ho jaise”.
Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Kya hoga is mulk ka, kabhi aata hai khyaal,
Har ek ke honthon pe bus ek hi hai sawaal:
Kya hamaara kirdaar notebandi se badal jaayega,
Yaa kuchh saalon ke baad woh bhi pal aayega,
Jab inqlaab ke bina kuchh na badlega aise.
Khush the jab jeb mein na hote the paise,
Ab hain to kuchh ajeeb log mile hain aise.

Utho tumhen tumhaara imaan bula raha hai,
Mulk ki sarhadd pe khada jawan bula raha hai:
“Mulk ki hifaazat sirf mera hi nahin hai farz,
Mulk aur Bharat Maa ka tum pe bhi hai karz.”
Aao sab milke desh ko bachaayen,
Jitna hamaare haq ka hai bus utna hi khaayen.
Bud-ikhlaaqi logon ki kar do vote-bandi,
Taa ke dobaara na aaye is mulk mein notebandi.

NOT LETTING THE GOVERNMENT WORK – INDIAN OPPOSITION STYLE

Finally, last week, we had Shri Pranab Mukherjee, telling the Indian parliamentarians that continued disruption of parliament by the opposition to protest against demonetisation is not acceptable at all. He reminded them that the ways of the street are ill-suited for the parliament and that crores of rupees are wasted when the parliament is disrupted in this manner.

The fact is that the Congress has been so used to ruling the country that it has come close not to believe in democracy at all. Hence, whenever it loses elections, it wants to believe that the people have made a terrible mistake in electing an alternative and that the country should get back to being ruled by it as quickly as possible. And, if the people can’t do it on their own, it would leave no stone unturned to facilitate conditions for its rightful return to ruling the country. In this it has been helped by various factors:

  • The country-wide movement against the imposition of Emergency in the country by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after Allahabad court found her guilty of electoral malpractices although succeeded in installing a non-Congress government (Janata Government) for the first time in 1977, it lasted for only two years due to various factors such as internal squabbles, and the Hindu-Muslim riots due to external machinations by the Congress trying to portray that it was the only secular front in the country and that the country was doomed if it was to go the RSS way.
  • Generations of bureaucrats in the government have obtained reflected glory, power and influence by being as loyal to Congress governments as wazirs have been to the rajas. The Congress kept them in good humour soon as it was elected or re-elected to power. This arrangement worked so fine that I remember when in 1978 the first non-Congress was formed in Maharashtra, there was a news item that brought out that the babus, loyal to generations of Congress MLAs, didn’t let the newly elected non-Congress MLAs to transact any meaningful business.
  • Successive Congress governments shared the largesse with a number of think-tanks in the capital and elsewhere who mastered the art of pleasing their masters by carefully concocted theories that only secular (read Congress led) government would be the country’s saviour. And this, even after it facilitated the massacre of thousands of Sikhs in the capital and elsewhere after Indira Gandhi was killed by her own security-guard, a Sikh. Predictably, after Modi government was installed, Congress engineered the people’s movement against intolerance. At this juncture, it was helped in no mean measure by the Hindu revanchists who translated BJP victory as their licence to have a Hindu rashtra with supremacy of cow and other purely religious ideas. (Please read: ‘Is Communal Disharmony A Challenge To India’s March To Greatness?’ that I wrote in Feb 2015).

And just a week before I write, there is a newspaper item about Prime Minister Modi directly reaching out to the people since, he says, he is not allowed to speak in the parliament. It seems that the governments in India and the opposition take turns in denigrating the parliament. It also appears that the Indian parliamentarians take the word opposition very seriously and feel compelled to oppose anything and everything that the other party or front proposes, even if the idea was mooted by them in the past.

Why does the opposition feel compelled not to let the government duly elected by the people to function thereby questioning democracy as well as people’s verdict? I think the precedence of obtaining independence by disobedience movement engineered by Mahatma Gandhi goads it to employ similar tactics against all rulers as the father of the nation employed against the British. That we are already an independent country doesn’t direct it to change tactics more readily suitable and even acceptable in a functioning democracy. Hence, many a times, the opposition doesn’t mind putting the ruling party or even the nation to shame internationally as long as it can score points with the voters as an opposition. Consider the following:

  • In order to infuse new thought in a stalemated Indo-Pak diplomacy, when the BJP PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, started a Sada-e-Sarhand (Call of the Frontier) Delhi-Lahore Bus on 19 Feb 1999 (on the inaugural day as the world watched agog, the Prime Minister Vajpayee traveled by the bus to attend a summit in Pakistan and was received at Wagah Border by Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif), the opposition, as soon as the Kargil War started, protested on Delhi streets by displaying a large rubber-inflated bus, upside down. Even some of its own party men felt that it was in very poor taste; it showed as if it hated the enemy of the country less than the BJP:
(Pic courtesy: India Today)
  • In order to prove that despite people’s verdict a non-Congress government wasn’t qualified (read experienced; since the only party that had any experience of ruling the country was the Congress), when Vajpayee government took over, it rejoiced in onions (staple food for the poor in the country) being made scarce by hoarders loyal to it and put his government to shame for mishandling the onion-crisis in 1998. The BJP, having quickly learnt from the opposition (Congress) how to bring the government to heel on the issue of onions, returned the favour in 2013:
BJP workers protest onion price rise in 2013
  • After the Uri terror attack on 18 Sep 16, the opposition took the Modi government to task for not coming equal to its pom-pomed speeches when it was in opposition to the effect that if voted to power it would teach a lesson to Pakistan if it indulges in proxy-war that it had got used to. So, on 29 Sep 16, eleven days after the terror attack at Uri that killed 19 Indian soldiers, Indian Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Dilbir Singh declared it in a press statement that the Indian Army had made a preemptive strike against “terrorist teams” who were preparing to “carry out infiltration and conduct terrorist strikes inside Jammu and Kashmir and in various metros in other states.” (Please read: ‘Cross- LOC Surgical Counter-Terrorism Strikes, A New Indian Psyche And Resolve?’) Seeing this as a national issue of high-import internationally, the opposition (led by Congress) initially declared full support to the government, but later relentlessly made a mockery of the government for its false assertion. What was the trigger? The BJP government tried to get credit for the surgical strikes so as to sway the voters in the largest Indian electoral state of Uttar Pradesh. In retaliation, the Congress very quickly showed the government and hence the nation in poor light globally (Please also read: ‘ “India Retaliates” – The Aftermath And The Consequences’).
  • After the so called ‘Surgical Strikes’ by the Modi government, the Congress and any number of  think-tanks that it had so assiduously promoted during its tenures (which I mentioned in the beginning of this essay) including retired armed forces officers, claimed that such strikes had been carried out many times earlier too under Congress rule except that the Congress never talked about it in national interest (Ha! Ha! How the average Indian hopes that sometime or the other the political parties (all of them) would actually be guided by national interests and not electoral gains).
  • The Congress led opposition ensured that the complete winter session of the parliament was a wash-out on the issue of protesting against demonetisation of high-value currency notes of 1000 and 500 rupees, announced by PM Modi on the night of 08 Nov 16. That its Manmohan Singh government had mooted this in 2012 was soon forgotten. As far as Modi government is concerned, it took enormous credit for the courage to go in for demonetisation in order to rid the country of corruption and cross-border terrorism conveniently forgetting that in 2012, when in opposition, it had opposed it tooth and nail on the issues of distressing the common man and doing nothing to net the big fish who would, in any case, find ways and means to circumvent such demonetisation.

It can be seen with these examples that there is no consistent policy with any of our major political parties. The only consistent policy that it has is to denigrate the other party for whatever it does even if when it was in power it did or mooted exactly what it is opposing now. It ridicules the government when it is in opposition to have come up with some hare-brained idea but, finds merit in the same idea when it comes to power.

Who suffers? We, the people of India, suffer irrespective of who is in power and who is in opposition. And, this suffering is in many different ways:

  • First of all, our political polarisation makes us divided as people as we or they; either you are with us or against us. The politicians of all hues and parties rejoice in such divide and rule policy that was mastered by our erstwhile rulers: the British, and now perfected by our own rulers. The real issues facing our country are lost track of when we make everything into political or worse, electoral issues (Please read ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic At 62?’ an essay written by me on Republic Day in 2011 and bringing out how Indian democracy and elections work and make us at the bottom of human growth indices.)
  • Such polarisation also ensures that we are unable to discuss the merits or otherwise of issues without taking sides. The debate on the television is all about the opposition holding a charge against the government about their wrong-doings and the government spokesperson bringing out that the opposition, when they were in power, did worse. It is as if all is forgiven and forgotten in the light of the misdeeds of the previous government.
  • Take the present issue of demonetisation for example. The country is divided squarely into mainly two types of people: the Modi-Bhakats (Disciples or Worshippers of Modi who feel that even at times when people are put into extreme hardships, Modi can’t do any wrong and will ultimately lead us all to pots-of-gold as soon as achhe-din (good days) are ushered in) and the Congress-Bhakats (Disciples or Worshippers of Congress) who feel that the sooner the nation returns to Congress rule and normalcy, the better. Very few have discussed, at any length, the merits or demerits of it objectively and whether there were other and better means available to achieve the same objective. Indeed, the objective (or the goal post) itself is still not clear: from tackling corruption to cashless society, the goal-past has been frequently shifted.
  • Granted that corruption in our society has reached such gargantuan proportions that some extreme measures were required, why is it that the Modi-Bhakats are silent about Modi government having exempted political parties from any adverse effects of possession of 1000 and 500 rupee notes? Doesn’t it realise that the mother or gangotri of all corruption in India is funding of political parties? Doesn’t it make mockery of the claim of Modi government that the travails undergone by the common man due to demonetisation would be well worth it since it would largely do away with corruption?
  • The common man, therefore, always makes sacrifices and the big fish (such as the political parties) laugh all the way to the bank or wherever they store their money, at his cost.

I would want the Modi government to be given a chance to prove its credentials. I salute the people’s verdict in its favour in the last Lok Sabha elections in April-May 2014. Afterall, before that the country had been plunged into a morass of almost total corruption, inefficiency, hopelessness and cynicism. The majority voted Modi into power to bring about a change. However, most Indians tend to forget that once brought into power the Prime Minister or the government ceases to represent only those (often as little as 9 percent of the electorate; please see these calculations in the article quoted earlier:  ‘How Proud Should We Be Of Indian Republic At 62?’ ) that voted for him or it. The PM or the government when in power represents and is answerable to all the people of the country who have every right to discuss every issue on its own merit, without taking sides. For example, however fond I may be of Modi’s promise to bring about changes, as a retired defence forces person, I can never forget the fact that he and his government allowed the armed forces personnel to be denigrated, publicly abused and assaulted on the issue of OROP? How can I forget that whilst finding faults with the Congress for superseding LtGen SK Sinha in favour of Gen AS Vaidya, it did exactly the same with LtGen Bipin Rawat superseding two others?

In all these issues, follies and announcements, this time, though, there are bigger stakes. The people gave Modi government a clear majority to bring the country out of the pit of hopelessness that it had plunged into before him. If he fails and/or made to fail, we have a revolution waiting around the corner that is likely to be bloody, brought about by the people who are fed up of all governments and oppositions in the country; whose numbers include the vast majority of Indians.

Lets hope the government and the opposition keep this ominous warning in mind whilst blithely reducing every issue that the country faces into crass politics.

 

 

 

HOW WE SHOT STARS WHEN WE WERE YOUNG NAVY OFFICERS

If the title suggests to you that we went around with our Kodak or Agfa cameras (the prevalent models in the 1970s) to take pictures of our favourite film-stars like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Vyjayanthimala or Nutan, you are as far away from the mark as someone who thinks pineapple is an apple-like fruit that grows on the pine trees. Worse, if you think, we – the navy officers – had decided to get rid of the bad guys or the villains in the Indian movies from Jeevan to Pran to Amjad Khan in Sholay and carried guns for that specific purpose, once again, you are wrong.

Shooting Stars is simply the process of bringing down to the horizon the images with the help of a marine sextant (see picture) of some of the 57 navigational stars given in the nautical almanac at the times of morning and evening nautical twilights (when both the stars and the horizon can be seen by the naked eye), thus measuring their exact angle with the earth’s horizon in degrees, arcminutes and arcseconds. The idea was to fix the position of a ship at sea, far from shore objects, in comparison to the known position of some of these 57 navigational stars. Naturally, in order to fix the position of the ship with some accuracy, one would have to get more than two bearing lines. The accuracy and the fastness of the observations would ensure that most of the bearing lines (from more than two stars) would meet at a point and that would be the fixed position of the ship. Without boring you with complex details, this in essence is the theory of the celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation. During our formative years in the navy, all of us had to learn the intricacies of the astronavigation.

Shooting the sun (Pic courtesy: wpclipart.com)

What about daytime? you will ask me. Well, one would shoot the sun! Aha, but sun is only one, you will persist. Yes, thank God, it is only one. However, if you measure the angle of the sun at different times of the day, allow for the changes in dead-reckoning (or DR) positions of the ship, you will get as many bearing lines as the number of times you shoot the sun, and then, once again, you can fix the ship. Fair enough, you will now ask, but, what exactly is a dead reckoning (DR) position. If you ain’t seeing the stars until now, a DR position is:

DR Position (Pic courtesy: sailtrain.co.uk)

the process of calculating one’s current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time and course. The corresponding term in biology, used to describe the processes by which animals update their estimates of position or heading, is path integration.

I remember the time, when I underwent my higher-command course with the army at Mhow, and we joked about army in the mountains advancing with the speed of the mules (they provide logistic support to the army and no army can reach a place or sustain itself unless and until the mules carrying the logistics have cought up). We used to have any number of cartoons about the pongos (naval slang for army infantry guys) and mules. Little did the army guys know that some of our own methods also originated from the animals!

If you are with me so far, with or without stars in your eyes, you would then ask me if we already have the DR position, why to then further fix the ship? Well, DR positions are nowhere near being accurate. As with the animals, you would have to track all the various paths and speeds that the animal took and then arrive at his/her final position after a few hours. First of all it would depend upon the accuracy of the initial position and then on the accuracy of measurement of all the courses and speeds and drifts due to currents and winds and then arrive at the final position.

For example, lets say, the three or more plotted lines if they don’t meet at one point, they would form between them a figure called cocked-hat. Most often than not, all of us busying ourselves in astronavigation would land up with more cocked-hats than in the complete wardrobe of, say, Nelson.

 

Hence, astronavigation was for us the process of finding the ship’s position more accurately than the dead-reckoning (DR) position. A final question that you would ask me is that weren’t there modern technological means available to fix the ship? Well, there were, but, we were to learn astronavigation just-in-case in the same manner as we kept learning sails and masts even after the advent of steam-ships.

Finally, I might as well tell you that being at sea is very much different from anything that you can imagine. You have no idea of how lost you can get after spending a few hours or days at sea. All directions appear the same and there is nothing to differentiate one from the other. The only analogy that I can give you is the one given by my armoured course mates (how the poor guys miss out on becoming the army chiefs unless it is by accident!) in desert warfare; at times you have no idea of whether you are coming or going. Anyway, let me add that this confusion of being at sea has led Fleet Navigating Officers (the most qualified navigators in the fleet) of leading an entire fleet into waters and even harbours different from the ones that they had intended (as an example, please read: ‘Poor Communicator Had The Last Laugh’). In a major tactical exercise at sea, as another example, when the fleet at sea was divided into Red (enemy) and Blue (own) forces, two ships of the Blue forces encountered each other after going on different tracks and shot missiles at each other thinking of the other as Red ship.

A navy officer, of my era or earlier, would therefore be well versed with recognising navigational stars at sea and would rattle out star names such as Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Pollux, Aldebaran, Capella, Spica, Arcturus and the Belt of Orion simply by looking at the sky.

Other than that, let me assure you, there is a vast difference between the theory and the practice. For those of you who think it is ancient and outdated, let me tell you that the most modern navy in the world – the US Navy – discontinued (in part only) celestial navigation being taught to its officers in formative years only. And what is the part that they discontinued? Well, the part of physically calculating and drawing bearing lines ( a 22 step process that we all learnt). Instead, nowadays, the shooting star data (the physical data) is fed into a computer and a fix is obtained almost instantly. There are clearly advantages in astronavigation such as its signals cannot be jammed or stopped (unlike that of a radar or even satellite), it is globally available (stars and sun are available everywhere) and the process doesn’t give out any signals that can be detected by the enemy.

However, the inaccuracies of the process (two people are required at the same time to shoot stars: one for bringing the star to the horizon and the other for accurately noting the time of the observation with a chronometer) are many such as inaccurately calibrated sextant or chronometer, great inaccuracies in the last known position, misidentified stars, horizon not being clear due to many reasons (such as choppy seas) and inaccuracies in calculating and plotting. And these led to some hilarious situations at sea.

One that we had often heard was about these young Royal Navy officers trying out celestial navigation in the Thames river in the olden days. After the position calculated by them was plotted on the chart, the Navigator told them gravely that they would have to remove their hats as the ship had landed up in the middle of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

In our case too, many a times the fix was plotted on the land. Minutes and even hours of shooting stars or the sun, calculating and plotting, would be of no use to the ship.

During my higher command course with the army, the only use for the navy that my army course mates found was to help them in their operations on land. Little did they know how often we had been helping them during the course of astronavigation by landing our ships just next to where they were busy fighting land battles!

 

SAB AJANABEE HAIN PAR KUCHH TO HAI APNA

रोने से कुछ न बन सका तो हसने की आयी बारी,
कुछ इस तरह से हमने है ज़िन्दगी गुज़ारी I

वह जब करीब आये तो हम दूर हो गए,
जीती हुयी ये बाज़ी खुद से है हमने हारी I

ज़िन्दगी की कश्म-ओ-कश में यह भी भुला दिया,
फिर कभी न मिल पायेगी, यह ज़िन्दगी हमारी I

साये बढ़ते गए आफताब चले जाने के बाद I
महताब की किरण भी दिखा गयी लाचारी I

दुनिया के शोर-ओ-गुल में परायों से क्या हो शिकवा,
अपने तो जान लेते मेरी यह बेक़रारी I

चमन के फूलों की यादें भी अब मुरझा गयीं हैं,
अब तो खिज़ा ही लेकिन लगती है मुझको पयारी I

सब अजनबी हैं, रवि, पर कुछ तो है अपना,
तन्हाई की यह दौलत मेरी ही तो है सारी I

Rone se kuchh na ban saka to hasne ki aayi baari,
Kuchh is tarah se hamne hai zindagi guzaari.

Woh jab kareeb aaye to ham door ho gaye,
Jeeti huyi ye baazi khud se hai hamne haari.

Zindagi ki kashm-o-kash mein yah bhi bhula diya,
Phir kabhi na mil paayegi, yah zindagi hamaari.

Saaye badhte gaye aftaab jaane ke baad,
Mehtaab ki kiran bhi dikha gayi lachaari.

Duniya ke shor-o-gul mein paraayon se kyaa ho shikwa,
Apne to jaan lete meri yah beqraari.

Chaman ke phoolon ki yaadein bhi ab murjha gayin hain,
Ab to khiza hi lekin lagti hai mujh ko pyaari.

Sab ajanabee hain, Ravi, par kuchh to hai apna,
Tanhayi ki yeh daulat meri hi to hai saari.

RIVER RAFTING DOWN THE GANGES

I had never done this before even though I always wanted to. I have spent 37 years in the Navy; but, that’s like a person joining the air force on the strength of his having travelled on the upper deck of a double-decker bus.

My wife and I were visiting Haridwar and Rishikesh after our Course Get-together at Dehradun. The day before attempting to make true our fantasy we visited the place called Shivpuri (23 Kms from Rishikesh towards Badrinath), the launching ground of most river rafting done in that area except for the really intrepid ones who go much further up the river.

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Next day, we decided that we had to undertake a rapid quickly enough so as to get over the fear rather than launch ourselves from this location. So we went a kilometre further up and came to this spot:img_20161120_100243 img_20161120_100250 img_20161120_102806 img_20161120_105204

We were staying with the army at Raiwala and with their help, it wasn’t difficult to book the rafts at reasonable prices. There are of course a number of rafting operators readily available charging you as little as Rupees 500 per head and about Rupees 3000 for the entire raft. We had a little difficulty because on the morning of our adventure, the operator told me that we (my wife and I) were both on the other side of sixty and regulations permitted him to permit people up to 38 years of age to undertake the rafting. He somberly added that a few years back a qualified rafting guide had lost his life when the raft toppled (capsized) in a rapid. Even the Wikipedia talks about whitewater rafting as extreme sports that may result in fatality.

Lyn (short for Marilyn) and I however convinced the operator that we would be very very careful. With me being from the Navy, our guide soon gained confidence and I negotiated one of the rapids standing up in the raft. I also enjoyed jumping in the river and swimming.

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Lyn and I with a person from the army (Parmeswaran) to help us and our guide (Aryan) and his assistant soon formed a reliable team (the primary spirit of the rafting) and trusted one another with our lives. I learnt that the international rafting association, the governing body of rafting anywhere classifies the rapids into six classes with Class 1 being those rapids that require slight manoeuvering, with small rough areas, and not requiring  anything more than basic skills to the most dangerous rapids being of Class 6 with risk of serious injury and death being very high. But then, if there is no risk, there is no fun (Please read my: ‘The Lure Of Going On A Limb’ after my rappelling experience). They say only the most tortuous paths lead to the most beautiful destinations and in case of whitewater rafting, it is very true.

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There are of course a number of rapids by the time you get to the destination (Ram Jhoola at Rishikesh) and one of the fearful ones is called Roller Coaster. Here is a video made by me of other rafts going through this rapid (whilst you are in the raft and negotiating it, clicking videos is the last thing that you’d want to do. Hence, I don’t have videos of our negotiating these rapids):

Here is the first of the rapids called ‘Camel Top’ that we negotiated (the video is shot by me of another boat doing the same thing):

It is not just the rapids that give you thrill. Every once in a while you come across calmer waters (of course with strong under currents) and then you get to look out and admire the scenery and your other mates in the raft:

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In the above pics, you would have noticed a man on the bank, in maroon robes playing on the flute. He was playing the popular arti Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram. My video couldn’t capture the notes but I could capture the atmosphere:

Whilst paddling through the rapids, the technique that we used more often than not was to continue with the momentum as much as possible by rapid paddling called punching. High siding (leaning out as much as possible on the higher side in order to right the raft going through the rapid) was used only once or twice and we didn’t use low siding at all. For a navy-man, who has done these enough at sea in a sailing boat, there was nothing new, however. I must, at this stage, have a word of praise for my partner, my wife, for not just the daring but enjoying the adventure thoroughly:

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I was reminded of the time, seven years ago, when we went to Andaman and Nicobar islands and I offered her to do snorkelling with me in Chidhiya Tapu. She was apprehensive of lowering herself into the sea because she doesn’t know swimming. However, after she learnt the technique and saw the beautiful choral underwater, she didn’t want to get out:

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Rafting can actually be that kind of fun and more. One doesn’t ever want it to get over. It is like going through the river of life with all its ups and downs, dangerous and risky times, calm and happy occasions and of course the joy of having been there and done that.

Soon we had crossed the last of the rapids called Doble Trouble, the name having derived from the rocks in the middle of the river, dividing the river into two. At this point we started seeing first the Laxman Jhoola and then our destination the Ram Jhoola:

We had had an experience of a lifetime and as we saw the Ram Jhoola and the places around, wanted it to go on and on and never finish:

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The notes of the final part of the aarti of the evening before for Gange Maa echoed in our hearts and ears and we felt fortunate that Ganga Mata (Mother Ganga) gave us the opportunity to be with her and witness her kindness, loveliness and enchantment even if for just two and half hours:

Be part of this enchantment and do this adventure at least once in your life. As far as my wife and I are concerned, it has prepared us for bigger and greater adventures.

Zindagi na milegi dobara (You can’t get your life again).

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