AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 4 – War Diary CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 54 of 167 The long awaited peace posting to Delhi came in 1970. With Krish’s field seniority for priority allotment of married accommodation, we had a lovely flat at Dhaula Kuan. (The Current DK I.) We settled down comfortably with our two boys. My elder son joined the Kendriya Vidyalaya at RK Puram Sector VIII (then a new branch, in tents!) and I used to put him in the School bus daily at the DK Circle. Months passed by and rumours were in the air of an impending confrontation with Pakistan. All was not well on the Eastern front also as refugees were pouring in across the border. The Red Cross volunteers came around collecting clothes for them. I gave a box full of children’s clothes, woollens, sheets, blankets, sarees etc much to the gratitude of the volunteers. In Feb 1971, a year into our Delhi sojourn, Krish went back to join his battalion in the Eastern Sector. I decided to stay on at Delhi as a “Separated Family” (as per the service parlance). My in-laws had already moved to Chennai in 1969 on retirement of my father- in-law. Many wives like me, had also stayed back at DK. We could share information to boost our morale. The daily routine continued with the children attending their schools and I tried to keep the life as normal as possible. We were sent a circular about the observance of Blackout drills. Window panes were to be covered with black sheets to ensure that no streak of light showed. Since our area was close to the Palam Air field, all precautions had to be observed. Bomb shelter trenches were dug in our lawns with sandbags for overhead cover. During day time children used to play hide and seek in the trenches not realizing the prevailing gravity of the situation. We had to keep an emergency kit with torches, our identity documents, biscuits, water and our valuables if any (What is more valuable than your life!) Practice Drills were carried out with sirens blaring, when darkness fell, urging us to shut off the lights and move to the trenches. An All Clear would sound after ten minutes. We used to keep all windows closed before it got dark and keep only minimum lighting. My elder son did his homework in candle light some times.