31.5.05
Back to Bhutan...
After almost exactly 12 years, I return to Bhutan. This will be our first Mission Orientation visit (we have to do three, all in SAARC countries). It sounds strange, but I vividly remember having stood on the Mall in Thimpu as a fourteen year old, throwing a huge tantrum because I wanted to stay longer, with my mum pacifying me that they would get me here again. I could see that she was lying...obviously, this is was a once in a lifetime trip for my parents, and they clearly had no intention of coming back. That is when I did something, which in retrospect was very childish and melodramatic...I took a vow! Really! As our taxi turned and as I caught a last glimpse of the astoundingly clean and beautiful capital city, I vowed silently that I would return, on my own, without my parents. So you can imagne what significance this visit has for me!!
freedom at last!
I finally got freedom from being the coordinator after three consecutive weeks! It looks like quite a simple task from the outside, but my god, it is one job that certainly has the ability be one hell of a nuisance.
In all probability I found the task tougher because this was my first real experience of being escort officer/coordinator. I was never made the escort officer in LBSNAA and in the first round of coordination duties here at FSI, the policy of one person for one week had not evolved yet, so I did only one lecture.
Arindam handed over the baton to me in the middle of the Kashmir trip, which for some inexplicable reason the JS decided in his infinite wisdom to turn a blind eye to and made me continue after we back to Delhi. I fretted and fumed, but there was little I could do. Besides, I thought what could be simpler than reciting template speeches? Was I wrong! As I discovered to my dismay, I had to hunt through heaven and earth to get my hands on the biodatas of some of the speakers, cater to their whims and fancies, send a plethora of messages to my batchmates about last-minute changes in the schedule, handle last-minute demands for obsolete equipment (with an adamant refusal to deliver the lecture in its absence!!) etc etc. All this apart from the usual being on alert, standing at the gate to receive the guests, making inane conversation with them to keep them occupied while they waited etc etc.
To make matters worse, Manish decided that I should continue for a third week, because some defence module lectures were spilling into the next week...
So after 14 days, I finally handed over charge today...I'm so so so happy!!!!
Serves me right for wanting to get off easy by doing only four days in Kashmir!
But on a more positive note, the experience of the past three weeks has not been all bad...I've learnt a lot, interacted with some truly great minds at close quarters (though some of them could do with a lesson in basic manners and etiquette!). Right now, I am just harrassed and thus a little pissed off, but I'm sure when I look back I will remember this period as a valuable learning experience.
In all probability I found the task tougher because this was my first real experience of being escort officer/coordinator. I was never made the escort officer in LBSNAA and in the first round of coordination duties here at FSI, the policy of one person for one week had not evolved yet, so I did only one lecture.
Arindam handed over the baton to me in the middle of the Kashmir trip, which for some inexplicable reason the JS decided in his infinite wisdom to turn a blind eye to and made me continue after we back to Delhi. I fretted and fumed, but there was little I could do. Besides, I thought what could be simpler than reciting template speeches? Was I wrong! As I discovered to my dismay, I had to hunt through heaven and earth to get my hands on the biodatas of some of the speakers, cater to their whims and fancies, send a plethora of messages to my batchmates about last-minute changes in the schedule, handle last-minute demands for obsolete equipment (with an adamant refusal to deliver the lecture in its absence!!) etc etc. All this apart from the usual being on alert, standing at the gate to receive the guests, making inane conversation with them to keep them occupied while they waited etc etc.
To make matters worse, Manish decided that I should continue for a third week, because some defence module lectures were spilling into the next week...
So after 14 days, I finally handed over charge today...I'm so so so happy!!!!
Serves me right for wanting to get off easy by doing only four days in Kashmir!
But on a more positive note, the experience of the past three weeks has not been all bad...I've learnt a lot, interacted with some truly great minds at close quarters (though some of them could do with a lesson in basic manners and etiquette!). Right now, I am just harrassed and thus a little pissed off, but I'm sure when I look back I will remember this period as a valuable learning experience.
21.5.05
ayo gorkhali!
Just returned from my 12-day Jammu and Kashmir trip, which included the 6-day army attachment. I (alongwith the only other lady officer in my batch) stayed with one of the battalions of GR. It was an experience of a lifetime, to say the least. Considering that I knew absolutely nothing about the army, its organisaton or structure, it was an intensely educative week for me.
But apart from the education, the symbolic significance of visiting the sacred places where our courageous jawans have lost their lives to protect the sanctity of our land, was the high point for me. Looking at the enemy posts, actually wathing the enemy moe around..it gave me goosebumps. Suddenly, patriotism was no longer a word, but a tangible real thing, the taste of which i could feel in my mouth. Hearing the stories of valour of the battalion, of their sacrifices and their triumphs, of their customs and superstitions, I started to feel a part of their world...and all this in a matter of days. The battalion had the warcry of "ayo gorkhali" which they used to telling effect in the 1971 war's famous Sylhet operation (India's first successful heli-borne operation). A mere handful of troops fooled the Pakis into thinking that there was an entire battalion in the jungle, by screaming out this warcry on the top of their lungs!!! wow!
I think it will take a series of posts to recount the experiences that were packed in those few precious days. So more later...
But apart from the education, the symbolic significance of visiting the sacred places where our courageous jawans have lost their lives to protect the sanctity of our land, was the high point for me. Looking at the enemy posts, actually wathing the enemy moe around..it gave me goosebumps. Suddenly, patriotism was no longer a word, but a tangible real thing, the taste of which i could feel in my mouth. Hearing the stories of valour of the battalion, of their sacrifices and their triumphs, of their customs and superstitions, I started to feel a part of their world...and all this in a matter of days. The battalion had the warcry of "ayo gorkhali" which they used to telling effect in the 1971 war's famous Sylhet operation (India's first successful heli-borne operation). A mere handful of troops fooled the Pakis into thinking that there was an entire battalion in the jungle, by screaming out this warcry on the top of their lungs!!! wow!
I think it will take a series of posts to recount the experiences that were packed in those few precious days. So more later...
