AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 182 of 332 it would be placed between the lower berths and provide adequate place for another to sleep, without of course permitting the dangling of our legs! Other points of differences from the compartments of today are that the 3-tier compartments had not yet made their appearance and neither was there vestibule. One had perforce to get down from the compartment, get on to the platform, if one had to change the compartment. Memory is the basis of every journey - Stephen King (Dream Catcher) Notwithstanding all this, authorities involved at the IMA tried their best in having a military bogey attached to some of the more important trains. Thus, one could get in at Dehra Dun and at Delhi, the military bogie would be attached to either a train going towards Bombay (now renamed as Mumbai) or Madras (now rechristened as Chennai). Many cadets preferred this arrangement as they could travel with their own colleagues – without changing at Delhi, which was otherwise mandatory. Another factor, which was always at the back of our minds, was that we were never sure of the reservation beyond Delhi – whereas it was assured in the Military special. All of us who were Southbound – say to Hyderabad, Madras, Bangalore, Cochin and Trivandrum travelled in the military bogie attached to the appropriate trains. Keeping in tune with the Army ethos, one of the senior cadets travelling to the further most point would generally be designated as the Cadet in Charge (C in C) of that complement. We were a fairly large number of cadets who had given our consent to travel by the “Military Special” from Dehra Dun to Madras. One more feature of the special was that cadets could choose their own berth in the compartment. The special bogie was a two- tier coach. The berths – both upper and lower were made of good quality timber strips. The width of the berth was quite narrow and ensured that one would not doze off easily. The cushioning effect was to be provided by the occupant – depending on the amount of bulk that he carried on his bottom. Thanks to the strenuous physical training at the IMA, all of us were lean and thin. However, those days, as no bed rolls were supplied by the railways, it was quite normal to carry a ‘hold-all’, which as the name implies, contained bedding as well as some clothing, and thus helped cushion us when we were in the somnolent posture. The bogie catered for about 40 odd passengers. And those south bound were almost that number. Luckily, no outsider was permitted to travel in our coach. In case there were any extra berths, they were filled up by our luggage. And in case we were short of accommodation, the coffin boxes helped in providing that extra ‘berth’.