AFVOA Newsletter May 2020

Section 3 - Memoirs Newsletter No. 1 / 2020 P a g e 40 | 101 4 Encounters of a Different Kind Gp Capt L V Mohandas Genre: Life in the Forces he weather in the North East is highly unpredictable and very capricious. If I may say so, quite a stress for the weatherman posted in those parts. No wonder many of them had to use hair dye to hide all the grey hair beneath the cap. As Senior Met Officer (S.Met.O) in Tezpur, I had my own travails – with flying called off, mandatory hours not flown, Squadron Cdrs in a state of panic all due to the weather conditions, but ultimately everything got sorted out with weather Gods being kind and benevolent. With donning of another hat as Chief Administrative Officer for a few months besides being S.Met.O, I had to encounter one problem or the other, including a herd of elephants that had trespassed into our air base from a nearby forest. Ways and means had to be found to push them back. The more this was delayed, flying would take a hit. With the help of forest officials and Civil Administration, we could get them back into their territory. What an elephantine task it was! A troop of monkeys was wreaking havoc in the campus – close to the tarmac and in the living out areas of both men and officers. A whole tribe would occupy the road and neither move for the cars nor the trucks, becoming more daring as the days went by. Even for the two wheelers they would just move “one bum” to allow that much space on the road. Who would have thought that the main thoroughfare in the base – the “Rajpath”, would become the “Monkeypath” one day? As C.Adm.O, I held meetings with various Govt departments, tribal heads, village headmen. There seemed to be a silver lining to the dark clouds that was looming large over our heads, when the tribal head told me that monkeys fear White monkeys. He added that they presume it to be the “ghost of the monkey” and flee in fear. Hearing it, we all laughed. T