Hollow Top Hats!

There is something wrong in grooming the army officers!

Even while the past AG very famously and stupidly stated on last day of his service that ex-servicemen need to have some discipline code, he said good thing very stupidly! Was he wrong?

I have interacted with many IAS and IPS officers and I know that they are very conscious of their public image. They are also very conscious and strict about seniority and rank (much more than army) and never permit anyone to encroach upon such issues.

I am yet to see even the most disgruntled IAS or IPS officer to criticize anyone who is in service or who was in service, howsoever ill famed that person might be. Never ever you will see an IAS or IPS officer criticizing their brother officers in public domain.

Crow doesn't eat crows meet!

But it is only Army officers who keep their trap shut while in army (in service) and posing as if this is part of their good discipline and self restraint. And in the garb of good discipline they accept bad orders. They take all the shit from their seniors and very dutifully pass these traits on to their juniors. And they believe they are setting very high standards and ethics.

The moment they are out of service they suffer verbal diarrhoea and at a drop of their tirchi topi or the hat which have a step to keep their mouth shut while in service and when this strap is now loosened, they go yappaty yap!

The jokers do not realise that same stupid work culture and personal examples they left their juniors to emulate and now criticize them for same things which day did in their so-called glorious career.

जहां पर बोलना हो, 

वहां ये चुप रहते हैं,

और जहां चुप रहना हो, 

वहां ये बोल जाते हैं!

They never had spunks in their balls and in service they listened to their political boses and they were scared to offer their professional views. Same clowns now can't even contradict the anchor and always try to take his side even when that anchor is still wet behind the ears and do not know even the T of tactics and S of strategy!

Time and again it appears that every army officer suffer an imaginary obligation that he must offer his views which must sound very profound and the most correct solution and that's why you will find a grounded pilot, an ordinance officer and naval officer from admin wing to comment about the strategies which he wants Army Chief must follow!

How hollow??

Webinar : Leadership Laboratory Kindness & Forgiveness

Speakers - Capt Murali Saundar, Strategic  Risk Consultant and  Prof (Dr.) A.R. Chaudhri,  Director , Kurukshetra University in power packed, candid discussion on the leadership requisites. The Speakers analysed the very essential traits of successful leaders - the kindness and the forgiveness. These elements are very difficult to acquire, cultivate and practice and these oftentimes are the Leadership Challenges. The webinar was easy going smooth conversation between the speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BogbKWmG8A

The Daily Observer: 20th June 2020

04:15

😎THE DAILY OBSERVER - 17😎

Nothing like an elevating song to start the day.The Daily Observer is consistent in its policy of helping the readers start of their day on a "neele gagan ke tale " note.But then, what if the sky seems to be overcast with dark clouds.That is when the right kind of music, helps one focus on the silver lining.

Cheema and Kang chose to leave the group yesterday.As Nirbhye says, it should be our endeavor to get not only them, but all other batchmates back into the fold.

Yesterday was an eventful one on this site, full of action. After the early morning banter about the latest edition of the TDO, the day began in earnest with Sanjay Mishra remarking that Nirbhye would face flak for his comments on the "Mahaballipuram to Galwan" video. But nothing like that happened.We actually had Murali cautioning everyone to exercise restraint while commenting.The Sino-Indian standoff continued to hold sway. Bhupi posted a video on Col Babu, who has now become a well revered household name. For those who want a quick upgrade and backround info on the subject, there are videos posted by Nirbhye and Ganesh Athley which serve as a good guide.The same had also been posted earlier by others incl VK Duggal but point is, they do their job.

Excellent humor posted by Naithani in the form of "Company Rollcall. Our resident astrologer, Pandit Shivshankar pronounced the significance of the eclipse due tomorrow and Mercury in retrograde. Prophetic words they proved to be - we saw two members leave, probably due to wrong interpretation of some messages. Murali never ceases to surprise with his encyclopedic knowledge- from Mercury in retrograde to Amrita Shergill- our man always has the last word. Is there anything he does not know about? Talking of Amrita, there is a real treasure of wisdom to be found in her last will and testament, posted by Shiv Shankar. Brother Gurvi, for once found veg food for the veg, when he went through the video the editor had marked for his remarks. His reply in the form of a letter to the editor is worth going through, i wonder how many read it. He mentions that the Adjt's ragda was unable to straighten the dog's tail but only resulted in his own (Adjt's) hand being cast in plaster.

Never saw our learned counsel of Supreme Court fame give such an elaborate and witty statement. Sawant burst into song with his enchanting Smule partner.Shiv threw in a song for good measure. Katoch belted out another sentimental oldie in exemplary fashion, pining for his Chambe-wali .Not to be left far behind and feeling inspired by all this, Arun Parasar came up with the first of his new serial - The Old Monk Tales. It is a must read. Shiv Shankar's - "kahin door jab din dhal jaye......" evoked a strange response- "TANDOORI" from RK Mishra.Any other singer would have given up singing for life at such a remark.But our positive wellness Guru managed to undo the auto-correct devil and decipher the real message for - Tansen. See what I mean? Any other fellow would have left in a huff. We should check our attitude and observe without tinted glasses or muffled ears.

SBT was so moved by the departures from the group that he expressed himself in poetry form which even Alfred appreciated after using Google to translate. 

वो मेरे वजूद का हिस्सा थे,

जो यादों से निकल जाते हैं,

कतरा कतरा संभाला जिनको!

मुठ्ठी से फिसल जाते हैं!

पारे की सी फितरत है, 

कुछ मेरे दोस्तों की,

आंखों में समाते हैं तो, 

नजरों से निकल जाते हैं! 

दिल में समा रखो तो ,

बस ठीक है फिर तो,

फोटो हैं ये कुछ ऐसे, 

एलबम से निकल जाते हैं।

फिर कोई भी बुलाए न ,

महफ़िल में मेरी इनको!

जाएं तो चीर कलेजा, 

बेमुरब्बत निकल जाते हैं।

Alfred posted a very meaningful spiritual message in his post regarding "the visiting pastor" - must read.Interesting video by JP Singh on how to crack the Civil Services Exam, hope to see him more often here. Sawant's - ye nayan dare dare was much appreciated and Luthra broke into shayari mode. Ajay Deb contributed with -Fantastic 1,2 .......... 8 to show his appreciation. Sanjay Soi posted re Fake News.Vish dwelt on the subject of people leaving the group and Nirbhye added conciliatory notes. 

Wishing  everyone a happy Saturday with the song - Chhodo kal ki batein, kal ki baat purani.......ham hindustani.....

Chiwda Times: Naushera - 8

😎THE DAILY OBSERVER😎 ( M-4 )

          

......continuing from M-3 dt  16 Jun.......

In addition to RPS Kang, my two other room-mates were Jagdish Kashiram Sawant from Mumbai and Neel Kamal Narain from Ranchi.Sawant had experience as a sailor in the Merchant Navy.Short,stocky and well-built, he spoke the typical Mumbai Hindi.He was excellent in drawing in addition to being a good singer. He was much in demand whenever there was a requirement for a sand-model or a scaled map on a groundsheet.He really enjoyed this work and gave his services freely, at times to the extent of falling behind schedule in his own work.He was ever cheerful.A good swimmer with a muscular physique, he was quite good in academics too and ended up as a Seargent by the second term, despite spending much of his own time helping others with their work.

Neel Kamal Narain from Ranchi, an ex-Georgian was the dark horse in the room.Very quiet, he moved around in the shadows, hardly exchanging a word. Whenever one of the other three of us found himself short of some item- ranging from a pull-through or cap to a ground-sheet or even a rain cape, at the very last minute, he would produce one from his cupboard.Till today, we do not know how he did that? Gradually, we came to know that this unassuming, quiet fellow was an ace runner, swimmer and a marksman. He was also good in academics and ended up as a CUO by the second term. But drill was his Waterloo and even the Ustads gave up trying to set him right in that aspect. Kang became a CSM and I became the PUO of N-8. None of us actually expected these appointments and when these were announced, we were so thrilled that we christened our room as - Demo Room. Almost forgot to mention the person behind our success,so important, Velu,our batman. Throughout our tenure in OTA, we always suspected that he was the one behind the mysterious and regular disappearance of Brasso and other small items from our room - in fact anything that could not be locked up.This great man took money from Kang three or four times for buying Railway tickets for Kang's mother and brother for their return after P.O.P. Each time he would give a different excuse till finally Kang managed to get the tickets himself at the last minute. Whenever questioned, Velu would take full advantage of the situation by using me as his interpreter and confusing the whole issue with a lot of emotional drama.

But on the whole he was a dedicated fellow who saw us through, despite his minor failings.

As PUO, I enjoyed the full confidence of our Platoon DS, Capt JS Gill whom the whole platoon respected, adored and adulated.Not once, even under the worst of circumstances, did Capt Gill ever raise his voice.The only time we saw him losing his cool was when our Platoon came last in the race-back in the first term despite having Narain and some others in the first enclosure. He simply stood in front of the Platoon in silence and visibly held back his tears. We were all so ashamed at this that we worked really hard and came second in the final race-back. We entered OTA proudly marching in step.

SK Sharma from Himachal was another Sargent in N-8, who later was shifted to Meiktila.One day, PK Sen, his room-mate failed to turn up for a parade. When questioned, PK Sen said he had asked SK Sharma the previous day about the programe but got no reply. After some questioning, it turned out that PK Sen had asked Sharma- " Kol ka programme kya hai ?" SK Sharma had truthfully replied - " Mujhe kya pata Kaul ka kya programme hai ? "

Sharma had misunderstood Sen's kol (tomorrow in Bong-accented Hindi) for Capt Subodh Kaul and replied truthfully that he had no idea whatsoever regarding Capt Kaul's schedule!

........  to be continued............

Video of Webinar: Kindness & Forgiveness

Leadership Laboratory: Kindness & Forgiveness

Organised By Patriots Forum

Speakers - Capt Murali Saundar, Strategic  Risk Consultant and  Prof (Dr.) A.R. Chaudhri,  Director , Kurukshetra University

In power packed, candid discussion on the leadership requisite the Speakers analysed the very essential traits of successful leaders - the kindness and the forgiveness. These elements are very difficult to acquire, cultivate and practice and these oftentimes are the Leadership Challenges. The webinar was easy going smooth conversation between the speakers. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BogbKWmG8A

The Daily Observer: 19th June 2020

Eeeee........Neele Gagan le Tale, Dharati Ka Pyaar Pale....

Love and romance are still in the air and nothing like an old Hindi number to remind ourselves about it as we begin another day under the sun.We get enough of a dosage of current affairs both global and national as it is, so why clutter our minds further by filling this site with the same ? This sacred space is a home to all of us ,where we are free to express our views and feelings without hurting those of others.The day started yesterday with members continuing to greet the " new kid in town ", Kang, and he was cheerfully acknowledging one and all with his customary gung-ho spirit. 

What with the temperatures soaring along with the Covid figures topped off by the India-China standoff, the conversation soon veered towards that.There is a surge of anger, patriotism, empathy and even tears. The blood boils at the state of affairs. While it is heartening to see everyone sharing their feelings and knowledge, It is also sad to see intolerance for the views of others and disrespect for brothers-in-arms, both serving and retired. As some pointed out -  leave it to those who are officially responsible to handle these affairs. Satbir praji did his bit to quell feelings and so did Shivshankar and Sawant with their well-rendered songs. Naithani also attempted to cool down tempers along with Satish Pandian. The joke about " fused bulbs " was aptly brought to notice.In the evening, Katoch - who still seems to be immersed in memories of the valleys of Chamba, shared a very well-sung soulful number. He was moved by the sight of the lovely marriage and honeymoon pictures shared by Arun Parasar. A gentle reminder to Rakesh Luthra to keep this flag flying by starting off his own wedding tale as promised.

The webinar on leadership traits of kindness and forgiveness last evening was very well-conducted by SBT. Both Murali and Dr. Chaudhry spoke very well and it was an informative experience. All can go through the video on the same and try to apply these principles in real-life situations. After all, what use is table-top knowledge that cannot be applied on ground ? Those still inclined to shed patriotic tears can listen to the ultimate in this genre posted by Chandan - ae mere watan ke logo.... .and cry to their heart's content. Trust a Bong to come up with the apt number to stir the emotions ! Shivshankar rounded off the day with a well-sung - " pyar diwana hota hai......." JC Sharma actually wished goodnight but Nirbhye had the  last word with the video - Mahaballipuram to Galwan. Have a nice Friday, everyone.