FOR MY EYES ONLY (PART II)

The year is coming to an end surely and not so slowly.It also has been the steepest learning curve for me in terms of my profession particularly in an unit.Learning at times even involves unlearning what one had learned so far.I am writing here because in future when I look back I can at least take a clue.

Lesson No 1.
Unit Administration is not that simple and certainly cannot be ignored.For the first time I probably have a senior who has guided me like a senior subaltern should have done in my first unit.(For this is my second unit only unfortunately or fortunately). Not that my first unit subalterns were not that competent but the boss had a policy East is East and West is west the twine shall never meet.Whenever two subalterns were seen together it was perceived to be a plot being hatched hence the question why are you two here? So like two ends of a dipole we were dispatched in diagonally opposite directions.So much so for my first unit.Unit administration needs more attention at most of the times in our so called Technical Unit.

Lesson No 2.
Meet your command thrice a Day.For lets' not forget the raison d'etre leaders of men.

Lesson No 3.
It is always hard but satisfying to do things what is right rather than work on the fashionable policy of the unit is of the CO and 'sannu ki'.The choice of good and successful officer what we used to hear is I suppose is to be made here.I don't know yet what choice I will make when the days of reckoning will come and when it comes.

Lesson No 4.
Tactical or Technical? I think this is beyond the scope of this diary at the same time I hope to seek the answer at some time in near future.

Lesson NO 5.
Never mix pleasure with work. Would seem contradictory to corporate belief but then we are not one and neither is our social fabric.

Lesson No 6.
Knowing the rules help.It is the only way at times.

My earlier version (see post of Feb 08 )is in total contrast probably this is the coup de theatre before one picks field rank.

SHAMLI OF MY CHILDHOOD

Shamli as a town enchanted me in my childhood not because I have any ancestral association with it but I happened to read Ruskin Bond in my Junior School. His stories of boarding schools and ghosts and nature fascinated me and made my boarding school stay an amorous one. Growing up in Mussoorie had its privileges. One could see the Author come and play Badminton in our School with Principal and students of course who were good at it. This helped me associate better with his stories and I loved them. In one such short story he vividly sketches a small town called Shamli. I always wished I could take a train journey in night to Shamli all alone.Unfortunately in our term break I used to take train to the East of Dehradun. I had imagined and re-imagined the sleepy town many a times in my mind. Time passed and as all good things come to an end I too had to leave the School and the golden age .

Many years later after letting the name of the town go in milieu of my memory I got posted to Meerut Cantonment .As destiny would have it my unit was located on Meerut - Shamli Road. All my reminiscences of the Town came alive. Only thing was that the mental sketch of the town was fogged now. Soon I got an opportunity to travel to Shamli. I was tasked to make a trip to Roorkee, Dehradun and Saharanpur on an Army Truck called ALS. Army calls it 3 Tonner in their diction. Taking the Delhi - Dehradun Highway NH- 58 I reached Dehradun in the evening via Roorkee. As one was in the Army now and somebody had planned my night halt at Saharanpur so taking the Dehradun- Saharanpur Highway I reached my night halt location. Next day morning we stared off for Meerut. I had two options either travel by Deoband to Muzaffarnagar and take NH 58 back or take the road to Shamli. No extra credits for guessing that I took the road to Shamli. The journey was a comfortable one (by Army Standards @ 2008).

By 0800 hrs I reached the small town of Shamli. There was some fog in the fresh morning air. My Imagination was meeting the reality now. So many fond memories passed me that moment or say the time was by my side. In that small time frame I could recollect quite a few incidents and my friends. The town was sleepy indeed but the winds of change had caught it too. The morning tea at the local tea stall gave me a rough Idea that the lucid sketch of the town by Ruskin Bond and my imagination were a thing of the past. Time had changed and things were on an upwards in terms of population and money. I asked him did he Know who was Ruskin Bond? He had not heard of him and neither the school going children passing the tea stall.

After my tea and chit chat I moved on with my party leaving behind the Railway station of Shamli which at least had not changed much since Bond wrote his story. A part of me told me that I wanted to be a child again and read his books once more. At least they fired my imagination more than the talks of the Big Boys. In the end I quote Ruskin Bond ‘And when all the wars are done, a butterfly will still be beautiful’.



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REASONS FOR FLOOD IN BIHAR

Floods in Bihar could be a diplomatic move by Nepal to remind the Great Indian Democracy that how important Nepal’s Prime Minister visit is to India quite contrary to the view what our Ministry of External Affairs is projecting.

BUILT UP TO THE VISIT

1. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ Saturday left for People’s Democratic Republic of China on a five-day official visit to attend the closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics-2008.Prime Minister Prachanda was welcomed at the VVIP of the Central International Airport in Beijing by the Vice-Minister for Population and Family Planning of China. This is the PM’s first international visit.

2. NEW DELHI: Nepal's new Maoist PM, Prachanda, has made his choice clear. Within a week of taking office, he is breaking bread with the Chinese leadership at the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing, preferring it over meeting the Indian leadership in New Delhi. (Source : Times of India).

3. End of August: Bihar’s sorrow kosi floods North Bihar due to breach in embankment in Nepal.

4. Second week September: - Nepal’s Prime Minister Prachanda makes his first official international visit since taking office last month with a trip to India after saying treaties between the two countries should be reviewed. Accompanied by cabinet ministers and business leaders, Nepal's new prime minister is in India for what is termed a "goodwill" visit.

5. NEW DELHI: In the aftermath of the Kosi flooding that has left millions of people homeless in India and Nepal, prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal `Prachanda’ has said he favoured the idea of setting up a high dam on the river Kosi to regulate the flow of water. Mr Prachanda conveyed his affirmation for the hydel power project in a meeting with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar at a lunch hosted by JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav.

6. Water resources management was on top of the agenda during bilateral discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr Prachanda. During the meeting Mr Singh extend Rs 20 crore as immediate relief for flood victims in Nepal.

7. India and the now defunct royalist government of Nepal saw the Maoist insurgency, led by the man who is now prime minister, as a common security challenge. That might be one reason why Prime Minister Dahal is calling for an end to recruitment of Nepali Gurkhas into the Indian Army. The Gurkhas have had a reputation as fierce warriors here since the early 19th century, when they were contracted by the British East India Company. There are about 40,000 Gurkhas serving in the Indian Army and paramilitary forces. Indian military officials say, even if Nepal takes the unlikely step of banning service in the Indian military, it will not significantly affect the force, which has more than one-million personnel under arms.


So my unambiguous assessment of the breach in Kosi embankments is that it was bound to happen in wake of the events in Nepal. The problem is our so called brilliant bureaucracy didn’t foresee it coming or they were too much looking forward for the FLOOD RELIEF PACKAGE BONOUS. For it is no hidden fact the industry of providing relief is quite profitable. And of course the State has an agenda to save the poor.Save the poor when they are only in dire state and not before it.

Other indicators were the regular cry of our neighbours to change a half a century old friendship agreement which was done with a Monarch. Can somebody question our extraordinary MEA what they were doing about it? The culprits covert and overt both must be brought to the punitive end of Law.

Lastly I do see the worst nightmare of INDO NEPAL friendship coming true. As Nepal gets closer to China Indian Army may end up loosing The Nepali Gurkhas. Whatever has to be done by our excellent foreign policy makers it must be done now.


Note: - Built Up to the visit has been picked up from various sources.

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