IDHAR UDHAR KI BAAT 58 - WISDOM OF VETERANS

 

"Kisi bhi Jawan ko kabhi gali mat dena (Don't abuse a Jawan)," said Subedar Bhagat Singh (Retd) when I met him during my first leave after passing out. Subedar Bhagat Singh met me when I was coming back from the shop after purchasing milk.  I had touched his feet. As advised by my father I was to touch the feet to pay my respects to all the ex-servicemen of the village, when I met them in public,  irrespective of the rank they retired.

It was already twenty minutes and the discourse of Subedar Bhagat Singh was not coming to an end. I could get away only when someone called, "Tipu teri mummy bula rahi hai (Tipu your mother is calling). On the second day again, I met Subedar Mela Singh and he took off. All this while my mother was waiting for the onions for the tadka. After four days my mother got fed up of my standing in the street, listening to the ex-servicemen. She banned me from leaving the house. In those four days I got some good practical lessons from the veterans. 

"Who is the most powerful officer in the unit?" Asked Havildar Diwan Singh. I couldn't have answered that, so he said, "It is the duty officer. He can improve the food. He can improve the efficiency of the unit by bringing things to the notice of Commanding Officer. And he can also put the Commanding officer on the spin.

In the Madras Regiment I didn't have to shout at anyone. The Jawans did things much better than my expectations. But those lessons from the veterans came very handy when I was sent to officiate as the Camp Commandant in the Brigade Headquarters with just two stars on my shoulder. To my horror I found the Subedar Major Saab (SM Saab) there was the father of an officer who was one year senior to me in the academy. SM Saab would take me as lightly as permissible. The discipline of the jawans was far from satisfactory. Fortunately, I was made the duty officer the first week. The Deputy Brigade Commander was jumping as soon as he saw the duty officer form submitted by me. There were fireworks and the Brigade Camp started giving me my due. Then there was an effort to give me undue privileges. But I remembered Bhagat Singh's words, "More than being honest you have to be seen as honest."

When I had asked him how. He said, "for example if you have to send a personal letter take out money and give it to the dispatcher to buy the postal stamps. Don't rely on the service labels. Your personal vehicle should never be seen near the fuel dump. The word will soon spread that saab bada dasturi (loosely used for honest) hai."

But I was also a pain in the neck of this wild lot in the camp. Especially a JCO who was close to the Deputy Brigade Commander. He tried to create trouble a couple of times. Based on the advice of my first leave I went to the main gate to check the luggage of the leave party on the day my trouble maker JCO was proceeding on leave. Surely, I could find ten cakes of issue-wala hamam soap, two packets of issue-wali chai patti (tea leaves), a dozen issue-wala torch cells and ten meters of JWD cable in the JCO's bedding. The items were taken back but I didn't report the matter. 

So far so good. I didn't have to use gali (abuses). But the trying time was the day when we went to the exercise area in the desert. We reached the area early in the morning.  By twelve all the tents were pitched. But my luggage was still lying in the open. The obvious alternative was to abuse or sort of plead. But I  invoked Havildar Tara Singh whom I met on the fourth day of my first leave. He had said, "Our jawans detest bhashan when they are hungry."

I blew the whistle and collected all the camp personnel under a Kikar tree (where the shade is good as no-shade). I started with a lesson on ‘defence in the desert’. After forty minutes I allowed a five-minute break. The SM Saab walked up to me and said, "Main samajh gaya saab (I have understood)".

"Okay Saab," I said without feeling the necessity to explain.

In the next four minutes my tent was pitched and the luggage was properly laid out. 

In my subsequent chhuties  the veterans were not so forthcoming with the advice. I wish my mother had allowed me more interactions with veterans during my first leave.

Note :- Do you think the Veterans (specially PBOR) are the mines of wisdom going unexplored and unutilised?