AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 73 of 237 2 A Goodwill Visit Cdr M Raghunathan Genre: Naval Protocol joined INS Tir by the end of 1964. INS stands for Indian Naval Ship. It is customary in the Indian Navy to call even a shore establishment as a ship. INS Tir was a cadet training ship. All naval cadets from the NDA, irrespective of branch affiliation, join the training ship for six months of naval orientation. An appointment on board INS Tir was considered as a prestigious one for naval officers. As a sub lieutenant of the Education Branch, I was indeed thrilled to be a part of the training ship. There were fifteen officers on the staff and about thirty cadets fresh from NDA. The ship was commanded by Commander MP Awati who later rose to the rank of Vice Admiral. His tall imposing personality was further accentuated by his thick moustache and beard. Despite his rough exterior, he was kind and genteel to his officers and men on board. There was another education officer on board, much senior to me. He was responsible for training of cadets. I was involved in assisting sailors towards their general education. I also took care of the two libraries on board. Because I had studied mathematical astronomy in my college, I assisted my senior in teaching astronavigation to cadets, and occasionally cleared his doubts too. As a part of training cadets, INS Tir would sail to foreign ports every six months. In February of 1965, our ship visited Port Victoria in Seychelles and Mombasa in Kenya. Victoria is also the capital of the country. USA had set up a satellite tracking station on a hilltop in Victoria. The US personnel invited us to their campus and took us around. Those were the days when there were just American and Russian satellites in orbit. Seychelles was also famous for its double coconut. Mombasa, of course, was a fully developed city. There were plenty of Indians, mostly of Gujarati origin. They took good care of us. I still remember the aroma of the fresh bread supplied to our ship. When the next batch of cadets joined the ship in early July, Mumbai was already in the grip of monsoon. Come August, there is some respite from heavy rains. That is I