Academy Musings II

Satyesh Bhaduri
C/55

SMOKER OR NON SMOKER STATUS…DILEMA???

1. In Academy it was compulsory to select a Club to pursue one’s latent talent. Being a true blooded BONG I selected Hindi Dramatics Club.Do not be under any fallacy that I had immense talent or inclination for acting inspite of sharing the same surname of Jaya..Rita Bhaduri of Bollywood fame or Sishir Bhaduri a very noted theatre icon in Bengal …it was to the contrary I had no iota of acting prowress in my blood or genes.. . It was for four simple reasons….

Firstly to skip the end of term passing out drill and squadron drill competition.

Secondly to have a good sleep during rehearsals in cool auditorium.

Thirdly being a perpetual disciplinarian offender skipping the arduous physical aspect of punishment on garb of rehearsals and only attending the compulsory roll call in the night.

Lastly as the Club consisted of many ladies, so there was always sufficient eats of different types with hot tea..coffee or cocoa on offer to be consumed.

2. My role in the group was permanent pulling of the stage curtains during opening..interval and closing stages of the play. My Joridar was another HYBRID BONG( name not being disclosed)..let’s name him PARTHO ( Bengali way) and not Partha..All readers please do not laugh at our role because the role merited lots of coordination and synchronisation.the outcome of the play depended on our expertise….😈😈😈

3. The only role till date I enacted was that of an wounded soldier who died on the stage without any dialogue.I rehearsed it regularly with all my ability and dedication ,so on final day with adrenaline flowing and in front of the Academy senior officers and parents of passing out cadets I enacted my part with so much perfection that I banged my head on the concrete stage floor while falling dead ..resulted into a crack in my skull with blood oozing . I thought I did a superb acting to be graduated into more meatier role in future…but alas Mr Haldar of History Department ..our officer in charge after being admonished for my injury grudingingly reassigned me that all important portfolio of curtain puller again much to the amusement of Partho.😔😔😔

4. However luck has it’s own way of bestowing its benevolence. Our mid term play based on Rabindra Nath Tagore poem..PURATON BHRITYO..or Old Servant was liked by Commandant so much that he wanted the same to be enacted at end of term to the parents and visitors coming for passing out parade. 👏👏👏

5. Rehearsals continued in full swing with both of us diligently pulling the curtains with every rehearsals.. smoking together in the bush behind the auditorium during each break and eating voraciously whatever was offered. The role of the servant required speaking occasionally in colloquial Bengali and our star performer was doing a commendable job like us in our all important role of curtain pullers. But destiny do have it’s own rules and regulations.
Just a week prior to the show the lead actor was diagnosed with chicken pox and had to be isolated in MH .Now there was franatic chaos all around for his replacement. The choice homed on to two of us…Bongo Bondhus..from.DIDI’s lineage for the role.😚😚😚

6. I was confident I would get the role as Partho with his Anglesised looks and poor bengali diction vis a vis me a dark stocky Bengali village bumpkin with good control over colloquial Bengali was certainly a better choice….but still knowing Partho’s clout amongst the group I was bit sceptical.

7. So elated for being considered for the role..both of us confirmed smokers thought of celebrating the occasion by smoking our prized possession without sharing at our regular spot behind the auditorium. 🤣🤣🤣

8.As we lighted our fags I heard a franatic shrill decibel of a lady calling my name. Reluctantly I had to give my lighted SANJEEVINI BUTI to my dear friend to acknowledge the call.Unfortunately I could not return back as the heroine ( Name withheld) , daughter of an civilian instructor …let say Indira .. dear friend of mine was treating all with cakes which her mother had baked.🎂🎂🎂Partho had a field day smoking both our share without any disturbance.

9. During selection for the role Mr Haldar who took permission from the authorities for smoking in the stage to bring in more authenticity firstly confirmed from both of us regarding our smoking status. The permission later I was told was given on the condition that only non smokers was to be assigned the role, to avoid addiction in future.

10.On being asked I innocently answered my status in negative and Parrho followed suit.But as Partho after smoking two of our prized possession prior to the selection smelt like a puffed up engine, thus failed miserably☻☻☻ and the role fell on my lap to my relief.😂😂😂

11. The role warranted smoking twice during the complete play and hence I was also rationed two of those for each day of rehearsal.One more clause for the permission was that only cigarette to be smoken as smoking biddis or KD’s ( Khakhi Dress) was felt to be hampering the OLQ status of future officers…so Panama non filter cigarettes were procured and each cigarette broken into two for the day.Initially coughing and choking I played my novice smoker role to perfection to the gallery much to the amusement of Indira and jealousy of Partho.😉😉😉After two days discarding all my pretensions I started smoking and enjoying it like a true professional. However with true NDA spirit I always hid the second portion of the cigarette for
Partho and me to smoke in leisure.😊😊😊

12. Today also when occasionally me..my wife.. Indira who is settled in City of Joy and her husband meet , she still offers me half portion of famous Panama Cigarette to rekindle our old memories.😋😋😋…So full status cycle of Smoker..NonSmoker..Smoker or Non smoker ( Vicious Confusing Cycle) continues and perhaps likely to continue.🙄🙄🙄……My humble reminiscence..NDA Musing🙏🙏🙏

Academy Musings

ACADEMY MUSINGS….1….FROM THE ARCHIVES

By Satyesh Nath Bhaduri
C/55

1. It is often heard that records are being made and again bettered subsequently in all fields of activities. Well your truly was also an exceptional record holder in his Academy Days but albeit from the reverse side.The spectacular performance started from first semester or term and continued all six semesters till passing out…For records… Always on the magic figure of 41 not out..restrictions one less for relegation eligibility beside numerous small punishments.😔😔😔

2. Just fresh from civvies street one came to know the alternative name of Inspection of Squadron Residential rooms known as cabins was CABIN CUPBOARD and its modus operandi which was another MONKEY ON OUR BACK beside other tiring outdoor physical activities for us freshers..🙄🙄🙄Painstakingly we were tutored about the items to be displayed and its location in the cabin including doing up the bed..tieing of mosquito nets..shoes and even bathroom slippers location by the appointment holders.🤨🤨🤨

3. Sanjay the TANT from Pune..Ajay the BABUA from Laloo land and me from City of Joy were good friends and subsequently known as famous TRINITY..One thing that united us… seventeen year youngsters was unlike Burly well built hairy brethren ..sorry creatures in the course and squadron….we were fragile specimens with hardly any trace of hair on our lips or chin….😋😋😋

4. As Shaving kit was an important displaying item we were in a dilema.Tant came with a great idea of displaying ANNE FRENCH in lieu which he saw his sister using to effect. However he candidly confessed that he would get his father’s razor set and Babua was promised one from his fellow countrymen Thakur of our Barber shop. That leaves me and without any other alternative decided to take a cheeky single .Procuring new one from local shopping centre was also a NO GO. due to paucity of allotted pocket money.Sanjay being a true friend slipped during night surreptitiously and cycling 20 Kms to and fro got his sister’s bottle of Anne French ..swab of cotton and plastic spatula .😉😉😉

5. The inspection was a disaster which started with a bad omen.A stray mongrel who took asylum under the window of my cabin started crying and wailing as soon as Inspecting Officer along with appointment holders entered my cabin.😈😈😈

6. The Divisional Officer was dumbfounded and perplexed to see bottle of ANNE FRENCH with its accessories proudly displayed where the Shaving Kits were ought to be…He almost fainted on hearing me that the lotion is being used by me to maintain smoothness of my skin as I do not have stubble on my chin or hair on my. lips. Groggily he told the Cadet Sergent Major to check my sex and granted me 7 days Extra Drills as hard punishments were barred to be given to the freshers for first two months ..The sadistic Sergent Major went a step further and forced me to dry shave with blunt razor given by him without any cream. Result was scarred face like JOE the INJUN and fertile field of rich and healthy growth of hair every morning on the face.🤨🤨🤨

7. Being an optimistic man I started appreciating the positive side of this incident. Although I opened the innings for my course on punishment but became a folklore amongst my coursemates and squadron mates and was nicknamed as DADA … FAMOUS…or is it INFAMOUS for DADAGIRI….😊😊🤣🤣

Aerobatics and Flying : Inputs from Rajiv Mata

Hi,

I am adding some clips in my video collection.

the second clip hunto 810

Third clip

 

Fourth clip — I am alive !

 

The fifth – cross wind landings

 

 

Remebering Sameer Kalyan Kurane

Write up by Ash

Sameer advent to NDA and later on Bravo Sqn was routed through Fox – in fact many of the 55 have in their DNA that unique Fox chromosome that twirls and curls within them, giving them that soft gentleman’s touch, either at their entry/transit/passing-out point. Thus, it was in those initial days, there came in to our midst, a bit awkward, gangly guy, his face beaming innocence and carrying the distinctness of a Konkani Chittapawan Brahmin. His entry described him as a flyboy but he had the natural attributes of a dolphin. No wonder the NDA Passing Out Parade Journal, captured his completeness, scratchily, “Miss Bravo for six terms running. Good at swimming. Spent more time at home than at the Academy.”

Sanjeev Sehri reminiscences that Sameer was a very sweet and nice guy. “Though, if he remembered correctly, even though he had a Services background, he wasn’t the ‘smart’-type; was more of a monk. His parents were probably in Pune and quite often they would come on Sundays and bring yummy ladoos with them. He was such a sweet soul that he used to offer the sweets to all of us and needless to say they were polished off in no time.”

Pratap Nair recollects that “Sameer was the most innocent NDA guy he ever saw. Sameer was like a lotus shining bright amongst us smart alec’s & crooks. He had a rough time in initially adjusting to the rigours of NDA’s first term but he persevered & succeeded. The best/great part was that he never lost his innocence. A great friend & simple human being, he will be always missed by us. RIP”

A random google search reveals that amongst the 27 IAF air accidents that occurred in 1987, on 02 September, 15883 F(P) Flight Lieutenant Sameer Kalyan Kurane commissioned on 14th December 1979 while on a flight on Kiran HJT-16 along with Sqn Leader Dhiraj Kumar Purkayastha had an air accident. Both did not survive, it is with that hollowness within, that ladies and gentlemen of the course, we remember Sameer this morning on his birthday.

With an eye to his life as a pilot, French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator, Saint-Exupéry considers with unsentimental sweetness the common experience of losing fellow pilots to accident or war. In a passage that radiates universal insight into the loss of a friend, whatever the circumstance, he writes:

“Bit by bit… it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be rending, is yet a little bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.”

So, life goes on. For years we plant the seed, we feel ourselves rich; and then come other years when time does its work and our plantation is made sparse and thin. One by one, our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade.

Penned with inputs from Sanjeev Sekhri and Pratap Nair.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

Remembering Inder Pal Singh Bindra

Write up by Ash

Inder Pal Singh Bindra had that rare compassion, by which he could look into the centre of his soul, right at where the spirit met the bone, discover what all could ever give pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain onto anybody else. His sense of compassion for everyone he met had that unquestioned genuineness, a soothing gentleness – the very nobleness of spirit defined him. The ever so polite Sikh from Meerut joined Hunter and then came to Fox and left his imprint on not only both but on the whole of the 55th. If ever a person came closest to the saintly gentleness that all faiths profuse, then in its most sublime humility, it would be him.

To me, remarks made by Seneca, a Roman stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, continue to haunt, “Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship, but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul”. To then lose a friend who has earned such wholehearted admission into your soul is one of life’s most devastating sorrows. Whatever shape the loss takes whether by death, distance, the various desertions of loyalty – it hollows out the heart. It is also one of life’s most absolute inevitabilities that we will each lose a beloved friend at one point or another, to one cause or another.

Sanjeev Sekhri remembers Bindra as a guy with a fantastic sense of humour and a real happy go lucky guy. Also that Bindra wasn’t fond of cabin cupboards and liked to live with a degree of freedom unencumbered by orderliness. After one such inspection, he got to the squadron and started spreading things all over. When we saw him doing it, we asked him, ’बिन्द्रा कभी कभी तो तेरी कैबिन अच्छी लगती है क्यों खराब कर रहा है!

He would reply with a 😃, “यार ये रहने की जगह है, अस्पताल नहीं!

During POP his Mother and Uncle were to attend. In the form to be filled up for guests he wrote in food preference, “Pure Non-Veg”.

The imprint of him in the NDA passing out journal very briefly narrates, “A smiling sardie who was known to have calculated the arrival of tea and eats to the second. As reliable as the weather in Tantland. Specialised in nothing”. To Bindra, life was enjoyed as a blessing in which there was no evil, the minor imperfections were only human ones, easily overlooked where the overall goodness of the other was what that really mattered.

The brutalities of the riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi claimed him – his gentle smile will however, forever be a constant in our memories.

Ladies and gentlemen of the course, this day is IPS Bindra’s birthday. He was a bachelor and the youngest in his family and is survived by his older siblings, both sisters – one of whom is settled in Mhow, she and her husband often interact with Murali. They are aware of the Pachpan Association and wish all of us well.

Penned with inputs from Sanjeev Sekhri

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

Remembering Anantrao Shripatrao Wagh

Write up by Ash

The imprimatur posted by the fifth termers on the NDA journal published on 55th passing out parade on Wagh read as: “The imported General who was rarely seen and never heard, especially by the officers. A decent soul who wouldn’t look for taking extra eats. Good at football and MLs.”

Wagh had joined NDA in Foxtrot Sqn with 53rd Course, parachuted to 55th and passed out in his final (8th) term from Golf Sqn after which he went on to don the Air Force blues to eventually fly the MiG-21s. This morning, ladies and gentlemen of the course, his birthday marks the day.

Remembered by the entire generation of 53rd to 59th courses as a very fit, agile and nimble person, possessed with a remarkable dancing talent, probably the best in NDA at that time when the albums of Boney M, “Saturday Night Fever” and Abba were the rage. He embraced life with its fun and fullness, his eyes lighting up his smile with just the right mischievousness. His calm and macho exterior hid a softness and mushy interior. He and Noel Washington were very close buddies, two course mates who had ridden together the roughness of two relegations with an amazing fortitude.

Ashwini still remembers the day soon after his Regiment had moved to Mamun Cantt, close to Pathankot’s Air Force Base, when Hari called to inform that Wagh had flown that heavily overcast morning in a sortie over Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh, on his MiG-21 and was missing. The greyness of the sky and of the water in the reservoir would have not been distinguishable from each other and it was that opacity that God used to call Wagh to the Valhalla. It was to be his final sortie in the MiG-21 before he was to move to a Jaguar Sqn.

He loved his doctor wife Sooneita, then close to ending her confinement, with both looking forward to the delivery of their son. The unevenness of life came with a suddenness that devastated all whom he left behind. Anant Anand Wagh (Anu) is now doing his Masters in Real Estate from Cornell university in USA. Sooneita is happily married to Sushil and practicing her medicine (Dermatology) in Hari Nagar, N Delhi.

Thank you Devika Hari Kumar for the additional inputs.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

 

Remembering Rambhaj Suhag

Write up by Ash

We had joined Fox together and went to Echo in our third term. I returned to Fox thereafter but Echo claimed ownership on him. He did brilliantly there and was the CSM of the Sqn while passing out.

In IMA, when I joined, I found Ram Bhaj yet again adorning the wrist band of being the CSM of Zojila company. When you are an appointment in IMA, the power of terror that comes with that, is not confined to the junior course only and is often used to even keep own course mates in line. Ram Bhaj was a soldier to the core and made sure that discipline wouldn’t ever be diluted in execution and was agnostic to any softness – and yet in that strict disciplinarian, I discovered a gentleness that was layered below that tough exterior. Ram Bhaj went on to be commissioned in to the elite 18 Cavalry, a Regiment whose distinction is well known to all. I followed a term later in to the same “Black Beret” community and the association that had commenced in January 1976 would continue on the same highway.

The passing out NDA journal catches the elementals of the no-nonsense person that Ram Bhaj was – “Bull headed Jat from Texas who murdered English every day and got away with it. Believed in the doctrine of shooting first and asking questions later. Academy Athletics Captain.”

And in the last sentence is displayed that complete sportsman that Ram Bhaj was – a lean and mean boxer, a runner with undiminished stamina, a person who could get on to any sports field with a familiarity that comes to the very few.

“The Emperor of all Maladies” written by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a book that has been written yet again by an Indo American, a seminal work on the dreadfulness of cancer. And that was what that came and claim, in his full prime, Ram Bhaj from all of us.

Krishna Suhag now lives in Gurgaon, and is a member of our Association. I admit that I don’t have the complete details of the children, which will be addressed very soon, but I do know that Krishna was in Canada with one and will be with the other at Singapore in the coming December and January.

Penned with memories a somewhat smaller account which will have more recollections going ahead.

🙏 May his soul rest in peace 🙏

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 🙏