August 25, 2023 – the morning brought me the sad news of bereavement of Colonel Baby Mathew.
Colonel Baby Mathew hailed from Pala, Kottayam. He was commissioned in 31 Medium Regiment and later moved to 255 Field Regiment. I met him while he was attending Long Gunnery Staff Course and I Advance Gunnery Course at School of Artillery, Devlali in 1988. In 1992-93, we served together – he with 255 Field Regiment and I with 75 Medium Regiment, then part of 39 Mountain Artillery Brigade.
In 1996-97, he was commanding 255 Field Regiment at Bagrakot and I was with 75 Medium Regiment at Sikkim. During my vacation and official trips, I visited him at Bagrakot. Please read https://rejinces.net/2017/07/23/lungi/
He commanded 255 Field Regiment during the Kargil Conflict. The Regiment played an active role in providing close fire support to the attacking soldiers who captured Tiger Hill and Tololing.
Post retirement, he worked with Federal Bank.
Colonel Baby Mathew was ever smiling with a positive attitude to life. He always remained calm, even in the most adverse situations. He was a great friend, mentor and guide to me during my military service and also during our immigration to Canada and life there after.
Rest in Peace Colonel Baby Mathew. I will ever cherish that smile of yours.
Featuring rust red undulating topography, the Cheltenham Badlands is part of an area designated as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, and it plays a vital role in geographical conservation. It is a series of bare, windswept red hills and gullies in southern Ontario that formed due to overgrazing. In the 1930s, the area was still productive farmlands, but poor farming practices resulted in the creation of the rolling Martian landscape.
It is located at Caledon, about an hour away from Toronto and Mississauga and north of Brampton, on the Old Baseline Road.
The area was once fertile farmland as the settlers grew various crops, but the farming practices caused the erosion of shallow topsoil, exposing the underlying Queenston Shale. The changing seasons further accelerated the erosion of the shale, resulting in this unique landscape.
The Cheltenham Badlands is a landscape of rolling red rock made up of highly eroded and exposed Queenston Shale. The red hills were slowly revealed as the elements wore away the vegetation over the years. The bright red color is due to a high concentration of iron oxide, while the greenish streaks are a result of groundwater oxidizing the red rock.
The shale has now eroded into a series of hummocks and gullies, producing the distinctive landscape. The striking landscape of the Cheltenham Badlands is one of Ontario’s geological treasures and is one of the best examples of Badland topography in the province. As the shale supports little or no vegetation, it has left the area as barren badlands. The exposed geological processes displayed by the Badlands makes it a popular educational site for geology enthusiasts and tourists alike.
Earlier, this distinctive landscape was open fully, allowing visitors to walk over the formation. This resulted in accelerated erosion of the sensitive red shale surface and caused permanent changes to the Badland’s unique appearance. To protect the Badlands from further erosion, the site was in 2015 and developed a boardwalk that closed off physical access to the Badlands by 2018.
Annamma (name changed to protect privacy) is a frail, 85 year widow, on palliative care, due to multiple ailments. She has three sons and three daughters; elder son passed away over 10 years back, in a gruesome accident. The other two are casual labourers, egging out a living by rubber tapping. Augstin, the younger son, with whom Annamma stays, goes out for tapping at 5 am, toiling till evening making rubber sheets, earning a pittance at the end of it. His three children are in 7th, 6th and 2nd standard at a nearby school.
Annamma’s two daughters are nuns serving in a congregation which runs 17 orphanages across the world, including in Africa and India. They look after mentally challenged orphans, many of whom are also physically challenged and fully bedridden. Because of financial constraints, they do not, as a policy, employ outside caregivers. All care is given by the nuns themselves, 24×7. Having been associated with them for over 15 years, my heart goes out to these nuns for their unwavering dedication to these deprived Children of Lesser Gods.
During one of my frequent visits to the orphanages, I heard of the miserable condition that the mother of these two nuns is living in. I thought it prudent to check it out and travelled by bus for four hours and thereafter trekked uphill half an hour to reach their ramshackle hut. What I saw shook my conscience.
Here was the mother of two nuns doing utmost service to the suffering humanity, cuddled on a wet bed and room, due to constant leakage of the roof, due to monsoon rains. The family had no money to repair/ replace the tarpaulin of the leaking roof and other minimum work to make it livable. A cursory discussion with knowledgeable persons revealed it would take approx Rs 5 lac to make the house in a decent state, without constant leakage of the roof.
Humanity at large, particularly the neighbourhood, had every reason to hang its head in shame. But most villagers being in the deprived category, had little means to look after such a neighbour.
I therefore appeal to the good Samaritans of this World, who have the heart, to contribute their might to ensure that this pious old lady has a decent ending, for the contribution she has made to make this world a better place to live for the mentally and physically challenged. Your contributions may kindly be sent directly to the bank account, details as under.
Many Veterans have now turned into excellent Centre Forwards – not in the game of Soccer- but on social media. They forward anything and everything they receive including some of their personal messages; without realising that the group or person to whom one is sending has already received the very same wisdom from someone with a faster finger. The speed at which their finger moves on their mobile screen is akin to applying lime on a betel leaf. In effect, they glance and never read.
The tendency to forward messages on social media could be to prove to themselves that they are Virtually Alive. They tend to forward every kind of message without thinking of its consequences. Most of the messages they forward are far from the truth and are from unreliable/ unverified sources. They are unaware that the truth travels at the speed of sound whereas fakes travel at the speed of light.
Forwarding someone else’s message is plagiarism and a copyright violation. Forwarding a fake or incorrect message is a crime. In 2018, Madras High Court rejected the anticipatory bail of a journalist-turned-party leader for his allegedly derogatory Facebook post on women journalists. The judge noted “Forwarding a message is equal to accepting the message and endorsing the message.”
In another case of fake social media messages in 2020, Justice N Seshasayee remarked, “Mine would be the first vote for freedom of expression. But irresponsible, unverified and unsubstantiated social media posts cannot be tolerated.”
Social media is highly addictive and habit forming. In one’s spare time or breaks between our day-to-day tasks, many are trying to be Centre Forwards on social media. The time they should have spent with their family or friends, engaging in a conversation, pursuing a hobby, reading, exercising etc are wasted by being a Centre Forward. A sure way to kill whatever creativity left in you.
The Centre Forwards on two Whatsapp groups I am a member of, were my superior officers – Majors, Colonels, Brigadiers and Generals – who were either my commanders or my instructors during many army courses I attended. As Cadets at the Academies, we had to come up with ingenious ideas to escape the prying eyes of our instructors. As young Lieutenants, we were asked to be innovative. As Captains we had to be unconventional and unorthodox. As Majors we had to think out-of-the-box and be imaginative. As Commanding Officers our senior commanders expected us to be enterprising and insightful.
Many of these superior officers who wanted me to be Original and outthink the enemy are now spectacular Centre Forwards on Whatsapp. One Veteran Brigadier even justified being a Centre Forward and gave a detailed argument supporting it akin to the use of faculty notes (pinks) by student officers during various army courses. Our academy coursemates, many of whom were instructors at various military institutions and commanders at various levels, are now exceptional Centre Forwards.
In both the Whatsapp groups, it is 99% forwards with 1% original content. These Centre Forwards were never creative while in the army and continue to be so post retirement. Many of these Centre Forwards pass the ball without even reading it, analysing it and evaluating its relevance and truth. They carry out blind passes, many times ending in scoring self-goals.
In this age of unparalleled transparency, it is impossible for anyone to disown a statement or opinion expressed on these public forums. Every netizen is both accountable and responsible for all their actions on social media. Any post once made, becomes the ‘property’ of the social media. Even if you delete or edit the original post, the original remains somewhere. The new generation in Canada do not want any of their photographs posted or tagged showing them smoking, drinking or partying as they feel that their prospective employers might dig into the social media. Some political leaders are now haunted by some innocent photos of their youth that their friends posted on social media.
These Centre Forwards do not realise that their unverified and unsubstantiatedforwards raise many questions about their credibility – if they had any while in service. The most important aspect regarding communication is the credibility and trust your friends and the society bestows on you, especially as a Veteran. While forwarding any mail or making any posts or comments, ensure that this trust is never betrayed.
When in Doubt, Do Not Post It, Always Throw it Out. Never become a Centre Forward.
If you do not read the messages on social media, you are uninformed. If you read them, you are misinformed. Courtesy Mark Twain
REJINCES 