AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 112 of 237 ordered him to go to meet Major Mann at Sher. Since he did not know the way, he took the masalchi to come along. Cook Mohan who never went out of kitchen anytime also saw opportunity to see an outpost about which he had only heard about. He also joined them. The trio took off and it was nearly dark by that time. I immediately rang up the Hanuman post which was held by Alpha company and was on the way to Sher. Whoever picked up the phone told me that the trio had just crossed after asking them the password. There were strict orders there would be no movement after sundown. I really panicked because the trio were mess staff and familiar with laddles and utensils and nothing else. The path beyond the Hanuman post was a treacherous foot path with a thousand feet fall if one takes a wrong step. It was moonlight but even then, the other immediate problem was dinner. There was no waiter, no cook and no mess staff and the old man, Commanding Officer is fondly referred to, would be in the mess in an hour or two. Officers Mess cook and waiter are different from other langar cooks, Taj Coromandel and road side dabah. Actually Mohan was trained at Thangam Philip's school in Bombay and could actually cook a Venezulan delicacy if one gave him the inputs. Quickly I did the homework and got a cook and waiter with some Officers Mess experience. After managing that I ran to the Adjutant's office. There as I entered there was a lot of commotion, the reason I learnt when I was given the top secret signal that had just arrived. This was about the ambush of Indian petrol in NEFA with which we preluded this. It further reiterated that there would be strictly no movement after last light. I narrated to Capt Surinder Singh who was the officiating Adjutant. He put his hands on his head. To assuage him, I told him about the dinner arrangements I had made. The next fear was if the kitchen warriors stray into enemy territory on the way and get captured. There was an incidence during snow the year before that. Pup Mann was told about this and he sent a patrol party to catch them. From the Hanuman post another search patrol was sent. We were waiting. Dinner time was 7pm at the mess. Being the Hq, only the CO, Adjutant, SP company commander and the RMO dined in the mess, rest in their own posts. Lt Col Freddy Muthanna walked into the mess stroking his mustache with the back of his right hand. Everyone was s---ting bricks and I was asked to broach the topic to inform him. I got up and played Vivaldi's Four Season record even before the old man came. He was quite a western classical buff. When I played a Neil Diamond, he asked me politely whether we could have some music. He was that type. I took a deep breath and told him the happenings of the evenings. He told me very curtly, " Officers do not give orders like that. You should have put him in the quarter guard (The battalion's prison)". There was no further talk and dinner was quietly eaten, quieter than usual. The Tiger got up to leave. He turned towards Surinder that he wanted everyone connected with the incidence marched up to him in the morning. It included the Subedar Major, the Alpha company commander, senior JCO and the Adjutant. RMO was not mentioned. It was at about that time we also got a message on the radio set that search party