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.

The Daily Observer:18th June 2020

Important event of the day :-Webinar by SBT at 1830 hrs with S Murali as one of the guest spkrs.

Headlines today :

1. Saxy back in form.

2. Ramu bounces back

3. Kang joins group

Pitamah picked a gem from Nirbhye and highlighted it : "Speaking a lot is not the same as saying a lot". Nirbhye also changed the definition of -height of optimism with his statement - India will require assistance in management of China after its capture.Talk of Josh!:Earlier height of optimism was a gay couple buying a pram.Earlier, Arun Parasar finished his triple century saga in style with a huge six. In answer to the applause, he gestured with his bat towards the stands where his wife was sitting and gave her a 10/10 ACR in acknowledgement of her support role in his innings. Sanjay Soi started the proceedings with his post on Fake News before he got busy with his appearance on Republic Bharat. There followed a learned discussion on the topic of the day till it was interrupted by SSP who introduced a song by Sawant into the proceedings. Luthra joined in, expressing his feelings for the hills to Bharat Bhushnan. Saxy came up with a really touching father-daughter video. Suresh Dikshit presented a video of his pet Grumpy and Vidur took time off and attempted to solve Dikshit's puzzle. Ramu joined the proceedings at this stage and was immediately noticed by Alfred, who had been strangely silent till then.This is when Luthra decided to contradict  with his personal experience, Murali's earlier post in praise of Brig Manjit Singh's personality and performance in Op Pawan. For a change, Murali immediately and quietly acknowledged.

Now it was Joe Dhillon's turn to express his views on the China situation in a frank, hard-hitting statement. Chandan Das's video post on the Galwan sit is a must see. It is very clearly explained in  a sweet Bihari accent that makes it all the more pleasing to the ears. Vish came up with a video depicting the modus-operandi of the Chinese incl psy-ops.Top 10 companies in India which are actually Chinese can be seen in another video posted around the same time.PK Sharma's joke with the punchline-jab management decides ki tumhari bajani hai, toh bajani hai, is hilarious.

Post 8 pm, the topic remained the Chinese issue with both tributes and criticism flowing .Some heated exchanges ensued. Kang obliged Alfred's request for photos and ack greetings from Saxy, Bhupi, Sawant, Sanjay Mishra, Murali, Bharat Bhushan, Umar, SBT and Hitech Murali amongst others. SSP once again took advantage of a lull in the battle to introduce a lovely song - ye jiwan hai......sung by Sawant and himself. 

Bharat Bhushan sealed the proceedings late in the night with a scathing indictment of the so-called strategic experts and requested to let those in charge do the needful. He specially pointed out the key-words thrown around by these experts without knowing a thing about the subject. C Arty was much amused and set his seal of approval on this.

And so ended another "day" on this site in the wee hours of the morning. 

The Daily Observer: 15th June 2020

Jo toofanon mein chalte ja rahe hain,

Vahi duniyan ko badalte ja rahe hain!

The closing words of SBT at the end of a very well-conducted Webinar last evening are still ringing in the ears.As are the inspiring thoughts shared by the two guest speakers- Gen Umang and Mr Anand. The leadership skills discussed were positive attitude and motivation.It was well-attended by members of this group and a few others. Those who missed the event must see the video of the same which was released in this site last night.

Sunday started off in a relaxed way.The large volume of chatter on the previous day lead to a very long edition of TDO which in turn resulted in a mix-up while copy-pasting.This and other errors are regretted.Efforts are on to recruit more editorial staff for better production.Letters of appreciation of readers have been received with gratitude.So are contributions by all during the course of the day.It mey not be possible to mention each and every name/contribution due to space/time/memory constraints, so please bear with the shortcomings for the time being.

Pitamah's strange silence during the last two days was explained by the enlightened one himself.He has been learning the art of webinaring (if that is the term i am looking for ) from the master, SBT himself.

The day was kicked off by Sanjay Soi's u-tube upload of his fb live session with Everester sisters at around 0703 hrs.This was soon followed by a video on the Indo-China standoff posted by Umar.

Hi-tech Murali's video-post evoked learned comments from Saxy and Brother Gurvi followed a little later in the day by a full discourse on the philosophical aspects of zero and infinity by Dr. SBT. Soi posted a nice family photo with Rakesh Gulati while Satbir came out with a B/W photo of ASC Yos. Could not believe that at the extreme left was the dashing SBT himself with a pipe dangling from his mouth, a la Churchill. Sirohi made an early appearance with a nice good morning message.

PK Sharma expressed his serious concerns regarding the name of Ford's latest product - LUND.Could not believe my eyes, it seems this comes as no surprise as an earlier product was called Laura. One can only picture the chaos with lots of Lunds and Lauras runnunig all over North India. Imagine orders like - o mera lund nikalna, sath mein apna laura bhi park kar dena.

Satish Pande's post of jazz music proved to be an ideal accompaniment for the webinar.It is superb for listening at leisure. SSP also contributed some music which contributes pleasure to both the eyes and the ears. Excellent tips on parenting were also posted by him.

Vish made a short appearance with a really good joke on Burnol and Viagra.The evening went on with lively discussions on current affairs between Murali, Sawant, Sanjay Mishra and Satish Pande. There was a lot of leg pulling taken very sportingly by Murali. Luthra made use of a gap in these proceedings to post a chart showing earth tremors all over the globe. Murali is likely to travel in any direction although reliable sources say he is desperately wanted by Trump and has been invited to the US of A..Much bonhomie was exchanged during the rest of the night and many names were mentioned.It was really great to see Nirbhye join the proceedings and even Anupam Wishard made an appearance.

Piece-de-resistance was the next episode of Arun's marriage.Blue-patrols, bagpipers, Gurkha band, special feast enjoyed by more than 400 guests. The newly-wed couple then proceed to Dalhousie.

Everyone waiting with baited breath for the next episode.

The Daily Observer: 16th June 2020

Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hain jo mukam, vo phir nahi aate...

Everester Joe Dhillon,of LMG carrying fame made a rare public appearance on his birthday.In a free interaction with the public, he lashed out at Vish for having shared photographs of only  one side of his US visit.He claimed that more interesting photos of their nightvlub escapades were deliberately left out. SSP,the other birthday boy spent the most part of the day painstakingly replying to each greeting with a personal note.So nice to note the increased level of participation on the site from all corners of globe.Some say it through poetry,some through videos, some through music, some through leg-pulling and heated arguments.But learned brother Gurvi likes to say it through Tik-tok.

Finding himself restricted by the ban on Chinese products, he had already waxed eloquent on the subject.Yesterday, seeing Alfie ignoring the ban, Gurvi threatened to approach the Supreme Court on the issue.Alfie had posted a video on his pet theme- Dum maro dum.

There was the usual exchange of witty sarcasms between Alfie and Murali. Sanjay Mishra tried his best to introduce some fireworks into the proceedings by asking if there was any record of the atrocities committed by Tippu Sultan in Coorg. Chandan Das was quick to intervene and douse the flames.

SBT announced the up-gradation of the Course website - can be visited through mobile now. Somayya marked his presence with a joke while Tekan seems to have gone back to running. S Murali made a fervent appeal to the silent stalwarts of the Course to come out of hiding and share the secrets of their success and well-being more often on this site.Nirbhye made use of the opportunity to point out the importance of the fourth Q in our lives - the adversity quotient.The same subject had been touched upon by Satish some dsys back... Sirohi has started appearing earlier and earlier with morning greetings followed by a joke after a gap. Suresh Dikshit continues posting his mid-day inspirational message and his appreciation of the messages he finds interesting. 

Bhishma Pitamah kept a keen eye on the proceedings throughout the day and intervened whenever necessary.Also an interesting anecdote touching upon how many people can fit into a threeton  espescially in a paltan with Sikh troops- anything is possible.Do not miss the birthday speech of Gurudev Shri Shri 108 Shri Shiv Shankar Prasad ji in audio format.Ashok Chauhan, who has now emerged as a regular news contributor, shared interesting details of the latest Sword of Honour in IMA Arun Parasar seems to have picked up both on speed and style now.The latest episode was released last night. His threats of revealing everything about Gokak and Gangubai seems to have worked- there is no more leg-pulling on his serialisation of the saga.Meanwhile one can see Luthra straining at the leash, waiting for the baton to be handed over to him - to begin the saga of his own " life imprisonment".The night ended early with Hi-tech Murali acknowledging the updating of the Course web-site by SBT.

Pandit Tripathiji is entertaining us with jokes these days, his Upadesh messages are being sorely missed by one and all.Umar's post on Virtual Classroom Technologies is highly informative and relevant to present-day needs.This guy hss become a regular " techie" after his doctorate . Alan Clarke, Sawant, Naithani and Andrews also deserve a mention-in-despatches for their contributions yesterday.

Snapshot of the day award goes to the one showing Alfred and Kalra in masks - on a secret mission ?

The Daily Observer: 17th June 2020

Parvat ke peeche, Chambe da gaon,

Gaon mein do premi rahte hain.......

Romance was very much the flavour of the day yesterday,thanks to the late-night release of yet another episode of the Unique Marriage saga.Arun Parasar literally plucked at the heartstrings of each member of this group with his vivid depiction of the newly-wedded couple's move to Dalhousie and Khajjiar in Dev Bhumi, Himachal.This batsman is in full flow now as he nears his triple century mark.Suresh Katoch was so moved by the narrative that he poured out his heart profusely with his own tale of romance with a hill beauty. Bharath Bhushan posted a hilly love-song and expressed his feelings about how he missed the land where he grew up.This and one more hilly love-song had Katoch post long messages on the same subject.Love and romance and icy snow-clad mountains in the air!Vish started feeling homesick in US.

Meanwhile, it is noticed that sometime late in the night, Arun has released the last episode of his saga.So the baton is now with Rakesh Luthra. There also seems to yet another saga brewing under the heading - The Gokak Gladiators.

The day began with a u-tube video post of Akshay Kumar's speech on the Bollywood suicide by Vish followed by another on the same subject by Alfred.Hitech Murali fwded a slow-motion cricket dance video.A video from Naithani and some music from Umar came next.Sukhi Chau contributed a message on the Covid sit by AVM Gaur.Rajbir's news item regarding how Bajaj and Maruti cannot do without Chinese spare-parts makes interesting reading.Brother Gurvi came up with a gem on the Chinese - until we get into the mind of the enemy, we cannot beat him, so we should consume Chinese in whatever form available. Those interested in employment opportunities for the young can go through Sanjay Soi's post on the subject.

While things were proceeding smoothly like this, the Chinese dragon was lurking round the corner.Once news of the dragon became available, Sanjay Soi rushed off to his favorite seat on Republic Bharath and this site began humming with news from that front which went on till midnight. Pushpendra Yadav kept up a stream of latest sitreps. The Chiwda edition got scant attention in the bargain but a few dedicated readers acknowledged their enjoyment.

Vish came up with some lovely photos of US Gill's b'Day taken last year. Murali kept everyone entertained and informed with a steady stream of posts on wide-ranging subjects through the day. SSP dished out his regular share of posts. Sanjay Mishra did likewise to a smaller extent. Alan Clarke contributed a useful health-tip video. Satish Pande's video on energy-boosting in seven minutes is worth going through. SBT came out with a detailed statement on the Chinese imbroglio late in the night. He dwelt at length on the sorry state of the present and some retired military leadership in the country.Those interested should go through both his and Navnit's earlier posts on the subject.

Nirbhye closed the day's proceedings with a video on Harisingh's story. Pitamah made brief appearances during the day.Those who want to be clear about what is their responsibility and what is not can go thru SSP' post-midnight post.Joke of the day was  JC Sharma's watermelon joke. Sawant's story on his attempt at coaching swimming makes hilarious reading. So despite the dragon looming heavily on the horizon, this site had its regular share of information, romance, inspiration, personal sagas and humor. 

Have a nice Wednesday everyone.