Artillery Regiment

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Z – The Commanding Officer’s Jeep

The Sacred Vehicle

Commanding Officers (CO) of all Artillery Regiments travel in a Jeep – a light vehicle identified by the alphabet Z painted prominently on all sides. Most other arms and services have COMMANDING OFFICER written on the front of the CO’s vehicle. Needless to say, it is the most decked-up and mechanically fit vehicle in any unit, driven by the most competent and disciplined driver. It carries with it an air of sacred and infallible exclusivity – an object of reverence bordering on mythology.

A Single Parent CO

Our unit was a cooperating unit of the School of Artillery, Devlali. We provided equipment and soldiers to ensure the smooth conduct of training for students of various courses. This was at a time when I was a single parent CO – Marina had already migrated to Canada. The responsibility of bringing up our children rested solely on me.

My residence was about 400 metre behind the unit, with the Officers’ Mess in between. I could walk to the unit or the Mess at any time, and hardly ever used the Z.

A Daughter’s Doubt

One day, our daughter Nidhi, a Grade 6 student, returned from school with a question. “Dad, are you a CO?“

“Yes,” I replied. “What’s the matter?“

“Everyone in my class tells me that you cannot be a CO,” she said.

“But why?” I queried, genuinely curious.

Her reason left me taken aback. “They say that if I am a CO’s daughter, I would be dropped at school on a Z, and not cycling down to school,” she replied, with the innocence only a child can possess.

“OK. I am not a CO, then. You continue to cycle to school,” I said, offering a justification that satisfied her young mind.

A Call from the School of Artillery

One morning, I received a call from a senior Staff Officer at the School of Artillery Headquarters. His concern was delicate but pointed: our Regimental officers were travelling in jeeps while Colonels of the Tactical and Field Wings – many approved for Brigadier rank – were travelling on their scooters. It was not just the officers; even their ladies used the vehicles. This was evidently an eyesore for those Colonels who had commanded their regiments well – else they would not have been posted to the School of Artillery.

I did not mince words in my response. “When some of these Colonels were commanding their regiments, they had five jeeps – one for the CO, one for his wife, one for his daughter, one for his son, and one for his dog. I have only one, and the rest are shared by other officers. This is my command, and I will decide what to do with my jeeps. Henceforth, please keep away from my command functions.“

The matter was not raised again.

A New Officer’s Dilemma

On a Saturday, our Adjutant informed me that the in-laws of Captain Vikrant – who had joined us just a week earlier – were in station.

“Then let us have a get-together in the evening at the Officers’ Mess. Please invite them too,” I suggested. The CO’s mild suggestions are invariably directions to be implicitly followed.

During the evening gathering, I asked Captain Vikrant, “What are you doing tomorrow? It’s a Sunday.”

“My in-laws want to visit Shirdi,” he replied.

“How are you going?” I enquired.

“I have booked seats on the School of Artillery bus leaving from the Club tomorrow morning.“

I paused, then said, “When our officers’ parents or in-laws visit Shirdi, they take the Z. Havildar Suresh, my driver, will report to you tomorrow morning.”

Hearing this, our Quartermaster, Captain Subhash, passed the customary instructions to Havildar Suresh: carry adequate water, soft drinks, sandwiches, and a spare jerrycan of petrol.

The Call Before Dawn

Sunday morning at five, I was quite rudely awakened by the telephone ringing. It hardly ever rang unless there was some very, very important information to be conveyed to the CO – which was indeed a rarity.

It was Captain Vikrant on the other end. “Good morning, Sir. Sorry to disturb you at this hour. Your vehicle is standing in front of my residence.”

“It’s there to take you all to Shirdi,” I confirmed.

“I thought you were not serious when you told me that,” he said, his voice a mixture of embarrassment and apology.

I shot off a volley of the choicest profanities in my vocabulary, ending with, “Now you take the vehicle to Shirdi, and on Monday morning, see me in my office.”

The Explanation

On Monday morning, Major Suresh Babu, our Second-in-Command, escorted Captain Vikrant to my office. “Sir, please don’t get angry with him,” he said. “He is only a week old in our unit. He is yet to know you.”

I looked at Captain Vikrant, and he spoke. “This is my second unit. Before this, I served only in a Field Regiment for five years. There, the Z was regarded as something holy—something of an institution. I have never travelled in a Z till now. That is why I called you early in the morning to reconfirm.”

I dismissed them both with words that summed up my philosophy: “The Z did not come as a dowry to me when I got married to the Regiment.”

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Legendary Lungi

For me, undoubtedly most comfortable evening home wear has always been the down to earth ‘Lungi’.  It is extremely comfortable and is an all season wear.  It is unisex – wearable by both men and women.  It is easy to wear without any hassles of zips, buttons or laces.  One got to  just tie at the waist.  Tying a Lungi at the waist is surely not any rocket science, but to ensure that it remains there is surely an art by itself.  Lungi provides free movement for the lower limbs and also air circulation, especially ideal for the hot and humid climate of Kerala.

A Lungi is a cotton sheet about 2 meter in length and over a meter in breadth and is characterised  by its plain, checkered, floral or window-curtain patterns.  By design, one-size-fits-all, both males and females and surely does not have any caste, creed or religion.  The only variation is that Muslims of Kerala wear it right to left, whereas others wear it left to right.  It is very difficult for a normal eye to make out this subtle difference.  Lungi is worn in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Myanmar and Thailand. ‘Mundu’ is its white cousin and is worn mostly outdoors in Kerala- to church, family functions and even to office.

While serving in the Indian Army, I wore a Lungi to bed, even in remote border posts – at altitudes above 10,000 feet when the mercury dipped to nearly 30 degrees below the freezing mark.  I wore it while serving in the North in Kashmir, in the West in the deserts of Rajasthan and in the humid jungles of Eastern India. It had no combat or camouflaged design or pattern as it was not an Army ‘issue’ item and did not figure in the ‘Dress Regulations for the Army.’

Once on my trip home on vacation from Sikkim, I called on Colonel Baby Mathew who was commanding an Artillery Regiment located near the airport from where I was to board the flight home.  On reaching the main gate of his regiment, the sentry on guard saluted me smartly and said, “Our CO (Commanding Officer) is waiting at his residence for your arrival” and he then gave directions to the driver about the route.  On entering Colonel Mathew’s residence, I heard his voice saying, “Head straight to my bedroom.”  There was Colonel Mathew, sitting on his bed, adorned in his favourite Lungi.  He ordered me to change into my Lungi and join him for a hot lunch of Kappa (Kasava or Tapioca) and fish curry – a Kerala Christian favourite.  While partaking the meal, Colonel Mathew said “I have placed my residence out of bounds for all ranks for the next 24 hours” – meaning no one to come near his house until I was there.  Obviously, the Commanding Officer did not want his command to see him and his friend in their Lungi.

In June 2002, I took over command of our Regiment in its operational location on the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan.  The Regiment was mobilised from its peace location in Devlali (Maharashtra, near Mumbai) on that year’s New Year Eve.  The entire Indian Army had moved into their operational locations after the attack on the Indian Parliament building by terrorists believed to have come in from Pakistan.  The Indian Railways ensured that our Regiment, like all the other units of the Indian Army, were transported to their operational locations at super-high priority in two days.  The Military Special trains moved at speeds greater than that of many express trains and were accorded the highest priority.

The move back to Devlali from Rajasthan was the opposite.  An Army which did not even fire a single bullet, an army which did not fight a war surely  had no priorities in anyone’s mind.  The Military Special trains stopped at every possible station, even to give way to the freight trains.  Now we were the lowest priority in the eyes of the Indian Railways.  The onward move executed in less than two days now was sure to take a week.

On the day of our train’s move from Jodhpur (Rajasthan,) the soldiers loaded all the vehicles and equipment on the train.  After accomplishing the task, the Subedar Major (Master Warrant Officer) Thangaswamy had a rollcall to ensure everyone was present and also to brief the soldiers about the return journey.  As I looked out of my railway coach’s window, I saw the entire regiment standing.  I had a brain wave – Why carry all the soldiers on the train?  About a hundred of them is all what I require, mainly to ensure the security and safety of the train and the equipment.  Why not the rest of the soldiers be sent on leave as many had not met their families for a prolonged time due to the operational commitments?  Also, less of a trouble for the chefs to cook meals on a running train and less of administrative issues.

I stepped out of my coach wearing my Lungi and ordered Subedar Major Thangaswamy to only keep about a hundred soldiers and disperse the rest on leave for a week to rejoin at Devlali.  Everyone’s face suddenly brightened up but with that I was christened ‘Lungi CO.’

After moving to Canada, on a warm and sunny summer morning, I was watering the garden wearing my all time favourite Lungi.  There appeared our neighbour, Mr Win of Chinese descent and on seeing me wearing a colourful and comfortable costume enquired “Reji, what skirt are you wearing- looks really colourful.  Sometimes it is a full-skirt, sometimes half-skirt and sometimes mini-skirt.” –That was it! I discarded my favourite Lungi forever.

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Who will Play the Butcher?

In 1997 after the Technical Staff Course of 18 months, I was posted back to my parent unit 75 Medium Regiment. In those days the unit had three batteries, each with different class composition of soldiers. Now it has men from all over India, comprising of all classes. A battery is a sub-unit of an Artillery Regiment consisting of six Guns and about 125 soldiers to operate them along with vehicles, radio sets and other technical equipment.

The Regiment then had an interesting class composition. One battery was of Brahmins (other than those from the Southern and Eastern States of India), the second had Jats and the third was manned by the soldiers from the four Southern States. Management of soldiers in all the batteries differed as their reactions to various situations, their needs, their languages etc were different.

In those days, any Young Officer posted to the Regiment served with each of the batteries for one or two years in order to familiarise them with the soldiers. I too went through this rotation until I moved out for the Long Gunnery Course for 13 months. On my return from the course in 1990, I was appointed the Battery Commander (BC) of the Brahmin Battery. After two years I moved on posting to a staff appointment and returned after two years, again I was handed over the reins of the Brahmin Battery until I moved out for the Technical Staff Course.

On my return to the Regiment in 1997 after the Technical Staff Course, the unit was located in the high-altitude area (10,000 feet above Sea Level) of Sikkim, where families were not permitted to live with the soldiers or officers. After the customary ‘Dining-in’ in the evening at the Officers’ Mess, our Commanding Officer (CO) Colonel PK Ramachandran spoke welcoming me back into the fold and ordered me to be the BC of the Brahmin Battery. “Oh! Not again,” was my instant reply and the CO was a bit puzzled.  He later spoke to me in person and I requested that I need a change and I wanted to have the experience of commanding another battery. Our CO had his own logical reasoning for his decision and I did accept the same without any remorse as I too was convinced. Col Ramachandran had earlier served throughout his army career with a Regiment which had only Brahmin soldiers and I realised the he exactly knew the horse for the course.

The first week I spent at the Regimental Headquarters, carrying out the acclimatisation drills laid down for any soldier on arrival in high-altitude area. Our Battery was located about three km from the Regimental Headquarters. I luckily had two energetic and hardworking officers – Captain Samya Saurav, the Second-in-Command and Lieutenant Manish Wahi, the Gun Position Officer – both are presently Colonels, who effectively commanded their units. I delegated all my duties to the two and they did an excellent job that I hardly ever visited the battery.  Our CO wanted me to stay with the Regimental Headquarters to assist him, hence I had to delegate most duties to my junior officers.

After the week long acclimatisation, I decided to pay a visit to the Battery in the morning. When I reached the kitchen area, I found six sheep grazing there. In high-altitude area live sheep are supplied as rations in place of dressed meat. These sheep are called Meat on Hoof (MOH) but are mostly Meat on Knees as these sheep are nearly dead after traversing through the difficult mountain roads from the plains.   The soldiers fed them well for a week to bring them back to life before they are slaughtered.

On inquiry I realised the problem of the sheep – the Brahmins did not want to slaughter the animals, but like good soldiers, wanted to partake the meat. I ordered the Havildar Major (Sergeant Major) Kanti Prasad to assemble the entire battery at 12 Noon in front of the kitchen and the BC will slaughter the animal in their presence. After that I went back to my room in the Regimental Headquarters.

In my youth, our household had fowls and animals and whenever I went on vacation, my brothers entrusted me the task of slaughtering. I think I did a good job of it as Amma, a stickler regarding the way the meat is cut, was pretty happy about my job. That was why I was sure that I will do a smart job of slaughtering the animal – if my mother could not find anything wrong – I was damn sure no one on earth could.

By 11 AM, our Havildar Major knocked at my door and reported that the sheep was stewing in the pressure cooker and I need not return to the battery at 12 Noon.