admin, Author at 55NDA Blog

Remembering Bijay Kumar Patnaik

Write up by Ash

To most of us who went to NDA in January 1976, geography lessons would remind us that Odisha (Orrisa then) was nestled on the east coast just below West Bengal and above “Madras’. To the slightly more aware, they would know it as Utkala of the ancient and medieval times; Utkala the name itself means – the land of excellence in art and craft. When I joined NDA and went to Foxtrot, the state that had sponsored the Squadron and whose name is permanently and proudly adorned on its front facade is “Orissa”.

NDA has demonstrated that the association of phrases like “Cradle of Leadership and Training” and the “Maker of Men” with it hasn’t been made by erudite penmanship but by the many reminiscences that embellish it. Ladies and gentlemen of the course, it is from that memory vault, that we recall that to the 55th, Odisha sent many of its ambassadors, including Bijay Kumar Patnaik, ‘Pattu’ as he was fondly called. It is his birthday, this day.

Ramesh, his Eagle compatriot and fellow Naval buddy remembers, “Pattu, Nishi band I used to play golf together in Mumbai. Pattu always insisted on being Nishi’s partner as Nishi and I would invariably land up fighting when in the same team. While they would invariably lose, Pattu would position it in a manner when I used to wonder as to who had actually won. I very fondly remember as to how much we would argue, during the game over a preferred lie or a relief where he would stand next to me and watch carefully.”

Going on Ramesh recollects, “I visited Pattu’s home in Bhubaneshwar in 1982 and we enjoyed eating plenty of fish. Pattu’s Dad had bought a small moped and It was quite a comical sight when we both set out on that poor small machine exploring the ancient city.

The NDA passing out journal’s pen picture effaces him as “This self-appointed Black Knight rode a rough horse till his Vth term but chose to live his last term in honourable retirement.”

Pattu went on to become a submariner after he specialized in the Anti-Submarine Warfare course from the Naval Academy at Leningrad. Arun Jyoti, Pattu’s submarine electrical engineer and crew member too remembers Pattu’s fondness for fish, being a fellow piscivore. Long submarine sorties medically mandated salacious, raunchy pictures to be carried onboard to address long term libido issues. Pattu would insist on seeing all the publications of such content and would do so in public view in the Ward Room. His opening sentence would invariably be *Bloody phukker* but said with a smile that would melt the crew. A people’s submarine Commanding Officer, prominent amongst his notable habits was that if he was touching his head, it would mean that he was in a deep-thinking mode.

Pattu last posting was as DDG, NCC at his beloved Bhubaneshwar from where he decided to hang up his uniform in August 2014. He fought a long and valiant battle with his medical affliction, Vandana had stood like a rock with him, frequently travelling between Bhubaneshwar and Delhi till eventually it claimed him.

Vandana connects also through her sister Kanchan to the 55th, who is married to Sunil Jetley, a Lima submariner. Her remarkable effervescence and joie de vivre keeps the 55th Bindass Eagles WhatsApp group vibrant and bubbly. Her enthusiastic support and participation in the Association charter and build up has been instrumental. Their daughter Anubha now works in theatre while son Ajay is running a start up in Bangalore with another Naval Officer’s son.

Penned with inputs from Ramesh and Arun Jyoti.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

Remembering Kostuv Kumar Seal

write up by Ash

Being from the same squadron, trying to take the mind back to remember a person with whom you have spent so many years – it in a manner becomes a way of looking at life, bit by bit, using memory to string the bits together almost like examining a dark room with a flashlight, with a very narrow beam. After all, memory is the most elemental thread, by which the tapestry of experience is actually revisited, feelingly. And in that rich embroidery, there is patch that belongs to Koustuv.

The NDA passing out journal depicted Koustuv’s pen picture, mildly smoothened here, “A complete innocent case, who used up all the OG paint in the squadron for himself to little avail. Good at academics and outdoor games like crossword puzzles, etc.”

Assiduous by nature, serious by his disposition, Koustuv as we remember him, was a giant of a man with the heart of a monk whose even temperament wouldn’t allow even the fiercest provocation to disturb of what could have been the outcome from his typical Bengali ancestry, turbulence. He could find kindness in other people, after all kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy, and dull things become cheerful.

The Grim Reaper came early in his life, the ravages inflicted by an ailment, provided the excuse. Ladies and gentlemen of the course, this day is Koustuv’s birthday.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

Remembering Budhi Bahadur Rana

Write up by Ash

Silent that he always was, he still sits unobtrusively in most of our memories. It has always been a wonder that the hill people in India are the very antithesis of what Amartya Sen called the “The Argumentative India”. The voracious capacity and the genuineness by which words bubble across most places in our country has always needed that stolidity of the diminutive and yet coiled with that explosive dynamite energy, the folks that live gently in the mountains. It is they that apply the noise cancellation ability of Bose speakers to mitigate the blaring decibels.

BB Rana came to Alpha Sqn, displayed a capacity to make a wily and fiercely independently minded round ball that we play in the game of football, to acquiesce and willfully be subservient to him. It is not without reason that the succinct pen picture that sits with immortality in the Passing Out Parade NDA journal captures the essence of BB Rana – “This Nepali shortie fumbled while giving MLs. OG to the core. Good at PT and football”. Not only that, at IMA, where he was in Cariappa Battalion, it said, “Cool and unperturbed. A good allrounder.

Commissioned into 13 DOGRAS, BB Rana did the 48th Staff Course on the completion of which he was posted to AHQ. Cancer, the Emperor of all maladies came remorselessly and with a quickness took him away.

Today, from us, the words are few, but feelings aren’t. Rana’s remarkable composite face, barely flickered an emotion, stays imprinted in most of us. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Course, this day marks as BB Rana’s birthday.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

Zombies Ahoy ! – Satish Vaidya

Zombies Ahoy! (Satish M Vaidya) After passing through the iron-age, bronze-age and industrial-age, humans are now the dominant species in the information-age not for being the fittest species, but for being the smartest. Ironically, technological advancements, automation and information overload (a.k.a. spam) are taking us into a zombie-age; where indifference, ignorance and mental inertia play … Continue reading “Zombies Ahoy ! – Satish Vaidya”

Zombies Ahoy!

(Satish M Vaidya)

After passing through the iron-age, bronze-age and industrial-age, humans are now the dominant species in the information-age not for being the fittest species, but for being the smartest. Ironically, technological advancements, automation and information overload (a.k.a. spam) are taking us into a zombie-age; where indifference, ignorance and mental inertia play a big role. Movies depict zombies as imaginary creatures that have returned from the dead with physical deformities and infectious afflictions. The zombies I see are physically alive, but have defunct brains. They can be seen driving in traffic snarls or glued to smart phones and can create serious problems. The following examples may put the issue in perspective.

I was walking along a blind turn one morning, when a scooter, driven by a woman in a great hurry, skidded off the road and almost hit a wall. A car was making a U-turn at that spot and was probably responsible for the accident. People in the car helped her up before I reached, and fortunately there were no serious injuries. A dilapidated sign close-by stated

“ACCIDENT PRONE TURN; DRIVE CAREFULLY”

I pointed it out to the (apparently less educated) scooterist and remarked (sarcastically) that people ought to follow it; this message was intended for the car driver who should have made the U-turn at a more suitable place, without taking shortcuts to save fuel.

One hot afternoon a few weeks ago, I was witness to a spectacular tyre-burst accident while driving on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Over-inflated tyres being a major cause of tyre burst, I had found all my wheels over-inflated and had them corrected before starting. While driving, it needed deliberate effort to maintain the speed-limit of 80 kmph (one has to ease off the accelerator on downhill stretches that are barely perceptible). A red Maruti Swift overtook from the left at very high speed and cut sharply in front of me. It went over a rumble strip (it is bumpy at 20 kmph and vicious at 120) without slowing down and was surrounded by a distinct cloud of dust and debris. The car slowed down gradually, which allowed me to also slow down and change lanes safely. The car’s rear right wheel had burst and the fiberglass bumper was visibly damaged. If a front wheel had burst at that speed, the car would have certainly gone out of control. Ironically, there is clear signage all along the Expressway stating: –

‘OVERSPEEDING AND TYRE-BURST CAUSE MOST ACCIDENTS’

Most motorists consider that this signage is not meant for them, as accidents happen only to others.

Once, a man jogging around the track in a city park was killed by a falling tree, which must have made considerable crackling noise. It is unlikely that he was deaf and hence failed to avoid the danger. In all probability he may have used ear-phones that drowned out ambient sound. Our brain relies on inputs from the five senses, but these are compromised mostly for comfort. For instance, our sense of smell is masked by room fresheners and a layer of particulate matter deposited inside the nasal passage. Our eyes do not see problems, so there is no question of finding their solutions. People mostly stay in the comfort of AC rooms or vehicles and avoid the ‘vagaries’ of nature. The survival of the human race depends not just on our immediate survival, but also on how we can help future generations adapt to the changing world.

If you are still reading this, please accept my compliments as you are reasonably immune to the zombie bug. I have a hypothesis that environmental degradation (especially air, for breathing) is the root cause of this zombie-age.

Mentally straight and Dentally crooked !

Whenever. I think of NDA (National Defence Academy), it is always with a mixed feeling. On one hand, it is truly a Cradle for Leadership where an unsure youngster is slowly and surely turned into a confident young man. On the other hand one also gets to see some mindless rituals and extreme sadism which … Continue reading “Mentally straight and Dentally crooked !”

Whenever. I think of NDA (National Defence Academy), it is always with a mixed feeling. On one hand, it is truly a Cradle for Leadership where an unsure youngster is slowly and surely turned into a confident young man. On the other hand one also gets to see some mindless rituals and extreme sadism which pass for training, particularly when practiced on unsuspecting teenagers, ironically by other teenagers. If an alumnus says that he enjoyed his first term there, either he is a consanguineous liar or a die hard masochist.

Be that as it may, every first termer looked forward to an escape route . There were lucky ones who were part of some Squadron sports team and at least for the duration of that sport event , they got a respite from day to day ‘ragada.’ . Everyone needed a break to maintain a semblance of sanity. For my own mental stability , what came to the rescue was my ‘dental instability’. It is this dental escapade that I am writing about.

I had , and still have a really crooked set of teeth. At NDA, at the very first visit to the Hospital for a routine check up,a dental surgeon from Pune happened to be there. This surgeon was absolutely fascinated by my teeth; well formed ,strong but set in two distinct rows. He must have loved cosmetic dental surgery, and couldn’t resist having a shot at putting them all in one line.

So the treatment started. At the Academy, the highest priority was accorded to a call from the medical authorities , and the 2” x 4“ chit bearing the date on which I had to report to Command Military Dental Centre , (CMDC for short) was my passport to a well earned break. On the appointed day, I told my course-mates, that I was ‘proceeding to CMDC’ and reported to the Military Hospital after breakfast. From there a bus took us to the military Hospitals at Pune and Kirkee. A first termer could sleep anywhere, any time and I slept in the bus and later in the CMDC waiting room. There were times I got to meet my dentist and there were times , he was too busy to meet me and in either case I got my next date. At least on one occasion, no one noticed me in the Waiting room till it was time to leave and I was simply given a chit for the next date.

The treatment involved , taking x -rays, preparing moulds and all this took a number of visits, unlike the present times. Three months passed and it was soon time for the end of term activities. So one fine day, the dentist realized that my term break would upset his schedule for treatment and he decided to postpone the actual surgery to the next term.

The next term was a different story altogether. I never again went anywhere near the Dental Centre except for a routine check up by the GD (general Duty) dentist, who was not interested in any fancy surgery, and only the smokers among the batch were dished out ‘chits’ for scaling.

So ended my cosmetic surgery , even before it started and into the last year of my service, I still love my crooked set of teeth. The first line of our daily prayer at NDA went like this ‘ Oh God, help us to keep ourselves physically fit, mentally alert and morally straight…. “ My own unsaid prayer went, “ …keep me mentally straight and dentally crooked , so that I may proceed to CMDC, Pune……….

Appy Times

These are times when it is difficult to find someone who is not keenly interacting with a smart phone, be it in a cafeteria or a classroom. Even people of my age, have become ‘touch-savvy’ , if not ‘tech-savvy’. Guys who have problem understanding whats an app, understand and use ‘WhatsApp’ There was the time … Continue reading “Appy Times”

There was the time when business men realized that a website had become an integral necessity in their business cards. Today , a business without an app is severely ‘handi-apped’ .

For our NDA(National Defence Academy) course reunion, I made a basic website and was brazing myself for a stampede of visitors vying to upload a deluge of articles, photographs and all kinds of memorabilia.

While our whatsApp group had an average of 150 posts a day along with all kinds of media, the website was like the NDA library, where none ventured unless forced to.

I wished I could make an app for smart-phones. A cursory browse on the net led me to Android Studio, a beta grade software for app development. Once I installed it on my system, one thing led to another and I surprised myself by creating an app in 15 days. In fact, I created two, one for the course reunion and one for this blog.

Here’s the link to download the app for my blog. (You have to ‘allow installation of apps from unknown sources’ by going to settings —-security.).

I just love the learning environment in the IT world today. The net is full of tutorials, Discussion forums, open source development software and most importantly people who love to share knowledge.

Appy times are here again. Anything is possible in IT and through IT.

What’s in a name ?

Shakespeare said “What’s in a name ? A Rose by any name will smell as sweet” . Well, I say, there is everything in a name. What would Edvige Antonia Albina Màino have been had she not changed her name to Sonia Gandhi ? Try as you might it is extremely difficult to explain to … Continue reading “What’s in a name ?”

Shakespeare said “What’s in a name ? A Rose by any name will smell as sweet” .

Well, I say, there is everything in a name. What would Edvige Antonia Albina Màino have been had she not changed her name to Sonia Gandhi ?

Try as you might it is extremely difficult to explain to a north Indian that, South of Vindhyas, a name just consisted of two parts, one was your name and the other was one or a group of letters which was simply called initials, ie the full name was not used anywhere. Well the documentation calls for a full name. So a Punjabi ends up calling someone, Gangaikondan or hardanahalli, thinking he is on a ‘first name basis’ ; first name comes first isn’t it ? Not always. I had a class mate VAB Raghunathan and what his initials meant we never knew, and one day we learnt that he also was not aware.

That was when the odd teacher we had from Punjab, had set about the task of educating himself on the naming conventions in the South. After asking all the boys as to what their initials meant, he thought he had got a grip over name, patronym village-nym, family name caste name and so on. Too bad that just then, he got bowled by the system followed by Chettiyaars who usually took the first two letters (instead of one) of their father’s name as initials; A child of Annamalai becomes AN Somename. That was the last straw. He left it as a bad joke and said with a big relief ‘my initials are ASR , and thank God, it is all my name ‘Amrit Surya Ram’

When I joined NDA, I became aware that I too had a difficult name to remember.. ” Subramanian Muralidharan’ . Every problem carries with it an opportunity. At NDA you had the sergeants at every 100 yards looking for law-breakers; that is , cadets who have a speck of dirt in their hankies or cadets running too slowly or may be cadets trying to run too fast when yelled at to stop ! The defaulters had to hand over their identity slips or I-slips as it was called, to the sergeants and then keep reporting to them to retrieve the I-slip.

This is where my name came to my rescue. As a lost case, I was generally on the wrong side of Academy-law. I had two sets of I-slips. For every one of S Muralidharan there were two of M Subramanian. While I was known in my squadron by the former name the latter one functioned as the decoy for other squadron types. It all worked very well till the better part of the second term; A sergeant looking for an elusive M.Subramanian in my squadron would lose interest after some days.

One fine day just as S Muralidharan was reporting to one sergeant, another swooped on him from no where ,’So, Subramaniam, got you at last.” I didn’t have to try too hard to give a lost look. There ensued some animated discussion between my tormentors , on my real identity and in the process anger gradually led to sheer amusement so much so that I ceased to be a defaulter and found myself explaining with an air of authority on the naming oddities in the South.

The World of Open Source Software

The idea of Free Software Foundation and Open Source Software has never ceased to amaze me. Mostly Free Software is understood as Free in ‘free of cost’ rather than free as in ‘Freedom’ which means much more. I would say , ‘Mukt and Muft’!! An idea along with source code and implementation instructions is simply … Continue reading “The World of Open Source Software”

oss_logo The idea of Free Software Foundation and Open Source Software has never ceased to amaze me. Mostly Free Software is understood as Free in ‘free of cost’ rather than free as in ‘Freedom’ which means much more. I would say , ‘Mukt and Muft’!!

An idea along with source code and implementation instructions is simply thrown open to the world , gifted away to use,reuse, learn, share, develop improve and well to experience the joy of learning and sharing.

It is not just the software development platforms and applications ; the kind of tutorials and How-tos in text, audio and video format we have on the net is phenomenal. To learn anything from Mysql to Mandarin, all that you need today is a computer and a good internet connection. The whole world is there to teach you.

At some stage in my having fun with IT, I developed interest in database management and Web Applications. Having worked in graphics, audio video etc, all that was required was to learn a scripting language . I chose php to put it all together. Can it all be of any practical use or will it remain an intellectual pastime ? An effort to check it out resulted in sibha.online .

I feel proud to say that all software used in this project sibha.online from Operating System to Icon editor is from the World of Open Source Software.

When a businessman invests money in a project, he is always on the look out for ways to recover the amount with maximum interest possible.

When you get so much from the world and fellow netizens, you are always on the look out to give generously and share freely.

That in essence is the Philosophy of Open Source…. and as such even the Social Media App Telegram is … yes you guessed it , is from the World of Open Source Software…. Viva Open Source Software !

Welcome to the world of Blogging

This is a simple platform to blog. write about anything on earth. you can publish it , have people comment on it . Upload photographs, videos… .All I can give you is an username and a password . then you are on your own… Cheers ! -M