AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 120 of 237 I had scored bonus brownie points that would make him proud about his prospective son-in-law. Divinity willed otherwise - his feedback to his daughter read thus “The boy is OK but lacks social graces”. This common cause ably aided and abetted the ganging up of the kindred souls in the game, that of the Col and my wife and it filled my cup of misery for the rest of her stay! Be that as it may, as part of the DSSC curriculum, the much-awaited “China Package” arrived. With it came our chance to interact with Dr. Subramanyam Swami. While we all know about Dr. Swami’s most prominent side, many people do not know is that he is the ultimate authority on all matters China. As part of the China package, Dr. Swami spends about 2 to 3 days with the DSSC every year. His lectures used to be very riveting, but the Q&A event after the lecture used to be hugely popular, for his quick wit, sense of repartee, tongue-in-cheek missives about the shenanigans of one political family etc. So it was no different in 1990-91 as well. The Parliament was in session then but yet, Dr. Swami accepted the invite and enthralled us as usual. Well, how is all this riff-raff connected with “Corrupting the Incorruptible”? It was the last session of interaction with Dr. Swami. The pupil officers were insatiable as the Q&A session extended much beyond the allotted one hour. At some point, the Commandant, an Infantry Major General, vetoed any further questions. There was a Cocktails in Dr. Swami’s honour immediately thereafter in the Officers Mess (OM). Usually, a handful of pupil Officers used to be invited for such VIP Cocktails, but the administration avoided it this time around. It was a 20-minute walk from the Auditorium to the OM. I started walking fast to get to the Dining Hall before the Cocktails began, but they beat us to it. I retired to my fate and slipped into the Bar, only to find the Colonel with his usual Joie de vivre disposition. It was as though he was waiting for me. As usual, he started his usual taunts about what a useless companion that I was and the singular inability of the IAF to groom socially graceful Officers! It was business as usual, or so we thought. Meanwhile, precisely 5 minutes into the Cocktails elsewhere in the OM, Dr. Swami noticed the absence of youngsters in the form of pupil Officers and voiced his deep disappointment to the Commandant. Immediately a Team of Directing Staff (DS) set about in all directions trying to find anything that resembled a pupil Officer and one such DS found the two of us cooling our heels in the Bar. In an instant, pupil Officers