THE FORGOTTEN CHIVALRY

Knock on the door.

‘Jai Hind Sahab, Gadi le ke aaya sahab’

‘Haan thik hai Yadav.. Aa raha hoon’

He looks in the mirror. Uniform is ok. Shoes are ok. He finishes the morning glass of milk that his buddy had been instructed to bring daily, puts on his camo cap, picks up his jacket and walks out of his room.

‘Yadav, mera ek sleeping bag aur ek ruck sack darwaze par hi rakha hai’

‘Ji sahab’

The driver gets his luggage and puts it at the back of the gypsy. He did not plan to stay overnight, but he knew that in these mountains, anyone can get stuck anywhere.
While the driver turns around the vehicle, he takes a look at his abode. It was a shed, made of mud walls, with tin sheets covering it to make the inverted V. He reflected back to yesterday’s conversation with his Commanding Officer.

‘Morning Sir’, he salutes his smartest.

‘Morning Ankur, come in, take a seat’

While doing it, he was wondering about the task that lay ahead of him. He loved the unpredictability of his profession.

‘Do you know that the communication at Tangsong La Pass is down to only the permanent line?’

So that was it. It would be a fine challenge. It excited him. Tangsong La Pass is the one of the highest motorable passes in the world. Height being close to 18000 ft. An important pass as it was, it was held by the army. Apart from fighting, for which all of us were trained, his unit was also responsible to provide communication to all places where army goes. Be it inside the enemy territory.

‘Yes Sir, I do.’
‘Take a team of two ORs with you to Tangsong La tomorrow, and install the new terminal equipment that we have just received from the higher headquarters.’

Due to bad weather conditions at the pass, and the failure of terminal equipment installed at the pass, the communication was down at Tangsong La. But not completely. The evergreen, though out-dated permanent line on poles which provides only one telephone line was still active, but it was not enough. The troops at Tangsong La deserved more.

‘Roger Sir, I will do that.’

His gypsy started climbing the fierce mountains. As he reached 15000 ft, he observed that the weather changed and it started snowing.

‘Gadi dheere chalana Yadav’, He said after he saw a memorial stone at one dangerous turn with the name of an officer and his driver engraved on it.

But he realized soon enough that there was no need for him to say so. The snowfall had turned into a snow blizzard, and the visibility had fallen down to 20 m. Yadav could not drive at more than 10 Kmph.

When they reached Tangsong La, and they reached with great difficulty, it was heartening to see a JCO and two jawans coming out in the cold to receive them. They were taken to a Bukhari warmed up room and served hot tea and dry fruits. After that, they immediately went on work.

The Army doctors say that one should not stay at Tangsong La for more than 15 minutes if he has not acclimitized. Their work could take more than 3 hours.

When one hour had passed, and he was inside the communication shed and ensuring the installation, the JCO incharge at Tangsong La came inside.

‘Sahab Bahar kuch civilian tourists aaye hain’

‘Yahan pe?? Civilians??’ He went outside and saw two guys and a girl standing near two pulsars. They were all roughly his age. And they were shivering like anything.

‘Hello sir, could we get some fire anywhere here, my sister here specially is feeling very cold’.

‘Yeah sure, come inside this shed’ They went inside, and he asked them to remove their shoes in front of the Bukhari. They complied. As he expected, their feet were soaked.

‘Sahab inke liye chai banwaiye. Whatever in the world are you guys doing out here?’

‘Sir, we were on an adventure trip. We guessed that in the middle of August we wont face much trouble here. We crossed this pass only day before yesterday, then ‘to’ it was completely fine.’

‘Pl don’t address me as Sir. Call me Capt Ankur. Yeah I know, you should never trust these mountains. They behave funny. And even if you were on an adventure trip, you ought to have hired enfields atleast. These pulsars cant do you any good here.’

‘Yes.. uh.. Capt, we realized that now. The damned bikes are getting stuck in the snow everywhere. And everytime we have to get down and push. That’s why our feet are so drenched. We need to reach back to Leh today only, till how far down is this snow?’

‘About 20 more Kms. And I would advise you not to stay here for more than 15 minutes. The oxygen content at this height is really low. Will you be able to keep going?’ He looked towards the girl.

He could see that the girl was having a very rough time. She was wearing a fashionable but a thin jacket, which he assumed could not even resist slight rainfall, let alone a snow blizzard. She was white with cold, She was shivering so much that she could hardly speak anything, and she kept rubbing her hands, that too feebly.

‘Sir that’s what I wanted to ask. Is there any mode of transportation here for her. I mean any 4 wheeler. We could the take bikes down.’

She could come in his gypsy, he thought. But he knew that his work would not get over before another 2 hours. He could not possibly make them wait for so long here. He also could not send his driver down with the lone girl, and stay put himself for the night at the pass. He had to get back to his unit today only.
The troops at Tangsong La could survive one more day with one telephone connection. However, he knew that it would be very very difficult for her to survive this day without falling sick. Hell, people without proper precautions and clothing had died out here.

But what would he tell this JCO here, who was so eagerly waiting for his one call to his home. Worse, what would he tell his Commanding Officer, who had been given a specific time by his seniors to establish communication at this place? It took a while before he could come up with an answer.
The truth.

‘ She can come in my gypsy if that’s not a problem. We’ll leave in 10 mins.

‘Thank you sir, that would be great. Thank you so much.’

It could either ruin or enhance his image in the eyes of his commander. But it would definitely devastate his image in his own eyes if he decides not to help this girl and something happens to her later.

‘You guys will drive your bikes ahead of me, and keep it in the first or second gear in the downslope.’

‘Ok.’

When the girl came out of the shed, she started furiously trembling and clattering her teeth. He offered his ‘made for siachen’ Jacket and gloves to her. Seeing this, his driver offered him his jacket but he said that your feeling comfortable is more important on these dangerous tracks. He started feeling cold in a while. He remembered the time in IMA, when in the middle of the night in Dehradun’s december cold, they were made to strip down to swimming trunks and pour icy cold water on themselves. Slowly. He had ordered his body to take it. Like a trained soldier, this time again, he ordered his body to take it.

They reached Leh in about four hours. The whole while he was feeling tense about the repercussions of not following the commander’s orders. The girl could sense that he was disturbed about something. She did not utter a single word the entire way. While getting down in front of the hotel they were putting up at, she handed a small piece of paper in his hand. After tons of thanks by both the guys, the girl smiled very very weakly and said only one thing to him as he was driven away.

‘Hats off to Indian Army Officers….’

And that teared out all the fear from his heart.

Disclaimer: The story is a mixture of truth and more of fiction. There is no pass named Tangsong La. All the things about communication being down and terminal eqpt being installed are imaginary. I had gone there for an entirely different purpose. And what was written on the piece of paper is none of your business.

THE DISCIPLINE INCULCATOR

7th day in the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

Class time.

Instructor(with profound seriousness and emphasis): Gentlemen, weapons are like condoms. Holding them and not using them is much wiser than not holding them when you ‘urgently’ require them.

The class giggled without making a sound. It was my 7th day in the academy. No, my memory isnt so sharp. Those who are in the army know that you cannot possibly clearly remember your academy days. You sweat, sweat and sweat more, go back to your cabin(room) and sleep. That is, if you get the chance to sleep. I remember because I used to keep a record, a personal diary. A line or two for each day.

I was a software engineer before joining the army. I used to get up at 10, 11, sometimes even 12 to go to office. My manager used to come before 9:30. She never said anything to me about coming late to office. I liked to think that that was because I used to deliver products (softwares) always before the deadline. I was good at my job. But there was this one time when she had remarked about me coming late to office. I had missed an important meeting of the team, which was at 10:30 am. And she had done that too very politely.

‘Ankur, you missed a meeting this morning. Didn’t you get the schedule last friday?

You should have come a little early.’

‘Sorry Prachi, it wont happen again.’ I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t even feeling ashamed.

‘Ok.’

She was a sweet team lead. Later ofcourse, a dog who was suffering from rabies bit me and died, and I joined the army. The dog was a sucker for some respect. It didn’t know that earning it could make it go doubly crazy.

8th day in IMA.

We were asked to report at 3:45 am (Yep, that’s the time, and we had slept at 11:30 pm) with packed breakfast collected, and small pack prepared. (The small pack contains emergency stuff like food, water, extra pair of shoes, socks, shaving kit, which is a must, but what the hell, everything including the sui dhaga for knitting a button of your shirt which might break while you roll in mud, is a must.)

So basically, the preparing of this small pack requires a considerable amount of time. Specially when at 3 am, in the mess of your cabin, you cant find your sui dhaga. However, as you get to know later, EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD can be managed in the last minute, and that’s one of the numerous important lessons that army teaches you about life. I also managed my sui dhaga at the last minute and arrived at the fall-in sharp at 3:46.

The senior was looking at me in a very strange way. Like a perfect bollywood villian. With his head tilted halfway to one side.

‘Yaaa Ankur, Why so late?’ (I have observed that in the army, people tend to say ‘Yaaa’ a lot. They rather sing it.)

“‘So’” late?? I thought. What the f*** man, I am a minute late.

‘Sorry Sir, it wont happen again.’ I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t at all feeling ashamed.

‘You don’t say sorry in the army. Because you cannot EVER be sorry for what you do. I’ll have you right now’ (That’s another one of the cliches I hated people using in the army. Literally it meant he would eat me, which is grose, figuratively, it meant he would punish me.)

He was noway sweet like Prachi. He made me jump continuously with the 5 kg pack on for 15 minutes. What are 15 minutes? I would have thought, if I would have still been the software engineer. I hadnt realized it yet.

My body was in agony. My heart was screaming. “’This is what I deserve for coming a MINUTE late?? For god’s sake, it was just a MINUTE’” I sweated and sweated.
And as if he read my mind, he said,

‘In a minute, you can be made to pray for your life. It requires just a minute. You’ll realize it.’

“’Bulshit”’, and I jumped. I just wanted him to stop me. Every second became painful after a while.

Every s-e-c-o-n-d.

My knees hurt the next several days.

21st day in IMA

Assistant Adjutant(who is responsible for drill, which btw means marching n all): ‘GC Ankur Srivastava. Why don’t your knees touch your chest when you stamp? Are you trying to sham in front of me?’

‘No sir, not at all’

The ‘not at all’ was not required. If you speak a word more than ‘Yes sir’ or ‘No sir’, you’re had. (Yeah, I got the cliché too)

‘Sahab, is GC ko teen Restrictions dijiye.’

‘Ji sahab’ The drill ustaad said.

Ass Adju (now to the entire squad): ‘Gentlemen, there would be girls watching you right now from outside the gates of this great institution. Your stamping will be such that it will make them all go watery. Is that clear?’

He turned back and added..

‘And by that I don’t mean tears in their eyes.’

The squad giggled without making a sound. I couldn’t resist a tiny grin to appear.

‘Sahab isko teen aur restrictions dijiye’

29th day in IMA

There is only one way to tie laces on your shoes in the army. They would teach you that first. And if you don’t comply, they would have your happiness. (Now that’s another cliché, means essentially the same)

This fine morning of 29th day in IMA, I was standing imperturbed in the drill square, sure that no drill ustaad could point out some mistake in my dress. When suddenly I heard someone growl.

‘HAAARRRPPP! GRAAAHHPP!! MAKRA, KACHRA, NALAYAK, GCCC!!!’ And he was looking towards me.

‘Ji sahab’

‘YE KAISE BANDHE HAIN LACES??’ I looked down.

‘NEECHE DEKHNE KO KISNE KAHA TUMSE????!!!!’

My insides shouted ‘“NEECHE NAHI DEKHUNGA TO PATA KAISE CHALEGA KI MAINE KAISE LACES BANDHE HAIN??”’ And these were the men I was wishing to comd and earn respect from.
He made me keep leaping like a frog for the next 1 hour. In front of the whole academy.

One h-o-u-r.

For tying laces the incorrect way.

30th day in IMA

The entry in my diary for the 30th day.

My insides are crying after yesterday. I feel humiliated. I feel burnt. When I was tying my laces today in the morning, I was again in a hurry. I was again making the mistake. And I watched a teardrop fell on my shoes. And this is what went through your mind Ankur, in case you forget.
‘Not again for this small thing. Not again for this. No.’
And you swallowed to clear your soar throat and tied it as it was taught Ankur.
You tied it as it was taught.


Disclaimer: A work of fiction. Except the diary entry.