THE OBSERVER-(M-23)

 😎THE OBSERVER-(M-23)😎

Thurs 17 Sep 2020

            A nomadic existence in the desert. Here today, gone tomorrow.  Alternately moving and plonking as directed by the highers up, i slowly got used to the concept of being a small cog in the giant wheel that was the unit.The 1 x ton became my home away from home and i could not help getting rather attached to it. Many a time, we would reach the halting place late in the night after hours of travel and drop off to sleep the minute the camouflage net was up. By the time one started getting familiar with a particular location, it would be time to start moving again.

        After a beer and an extra- heavy lunch in the Mess on one such day, i was looking forward to a good afternoon siesta. I was dismayed to find that my oasis, the 1 x ton was missing from where i had last left it.Only the camouflage net was there, propped up by sticks. Under it was my bedding neatly rolled up with most of my meagre belongings packed in the trunk. What could not be fitted inside the trunk was displayed on top.The sahayak informed me that due to breakdown of the regular vehicle used for the purpose , "my" 1x ton  had gone to deliver lunch to the working party of the Company at a distant location.

         Of all possible things that could happen at that moment, the sudden realisation that a fondly anticipated siesta had been rendered impossible was probably the one most likely to upset the equilibrium of the 2/Lt's mind. And seeing that the only alternative was to spend the afternoon slouching on a camp-chair with the hot summer sun blazing through the gaps in the camouflage net, this mental agitation rose to a crescendo. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, it is said.My fury was close to, if not greater than that. To make matters worse,no one else seemed to be around at close quarters, all having tactfully vanished after giving me the news. My inner simmering matched the outside heat and i fumed.My feelings touched new heights when the 1 x ton came back late in the night, the rear cabin stained liberally with spilt dal.

          Having  already fortified myself in the Mess with a generous dose of rum and a good dinner under the belt, i decided it was time to take firm control of the situation. For a long time, i had been getting the feeling that the Coy Sub had been acting too big for his boots. He reported directly to the Coy Cdr on all matters and i was just a mute spectator to all that went on.No one seemed to be interested in the pearls of wisdom that were itching to flow from my lips all the time.The only ones who listened to me were the jawans during rum issue in the langar.This was the right time to make my presence felt, i thought to myself - now or never !

        Summoning Sub KS, i let loose my first ever sermon in the unit,from the elevated platform above the raised 1 x ton tailboard that served as my stage/ pulpit. There was no mincing of words whatsoever. Leaving no room for anythiñg to be said in- between, i poured out all the pent-up feelings of Mr.Nobody into that solo performance. 

        Sub KS reeled under this unexpected onslaught from a hitherto dumb 2/Lt and tried to get in a word edgewise, but i was uninterruptible. I was hearing my own voice after a long time and it sounded good to me, so i put all my energy into the act.Warming up further, i remarked that it was indeed a sad state of affairs when an officer of the Coy could not go for a simple necessity like lunch without the fear of coming back and finding his residence uprooted and belongings strewn all over. i meant my words to sting and i could see they had done just that.Rounding the sermon off with some terse remarks on what the world had come down to, i went to sleep with the contented feeling that i had now indeed arrived and made my presence felt in the unit.

           First thing the very next morning, Maj R hauled me over the coals and told me in no uncertain terms that nothing in the Coy, leave aside a 1 x ton, was anyone's personal property. If i had minced no words in my harangue the previous night, Maj R. touched new heights of oratory in his detailed dressing- down which freely elaborated on the Coy's larger interests taking priority over any individual's concern for his own comfort. Coming as it did, early in the morning and delivered without the aid of any spirits, this lesson went right home and stuck there for life.And the ultimate blow came when i was ordered to deliver lunch to the same working party that afternoon,check their welfare and report back.

     That evening in the Mess, it was a pensive 2/Lt nursing his glass of rum and licking the wounds from the morning's verbal lashing. The whole day had been spent by me delivering not just lunch, but tea and dinner too. i had reached the Mess late and tensely awaited the Coy Cdr's arrival to submit my report.  But wonder of wonders, the Coy Cdr asked me to perk up with another tot and start preparing for the upcoming BIG EXERCISE. All had been forgiven in the space of a day, no hard feelings carried over.