AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 91 of 123 9 “Please Madam, I want some More” Brig V A Subramanyam Genre: Reminiscence If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart. ~ Cesar Chavez his incident took place in Mhow, during the last legs of the course which was coming to an end at the then School of Signals (SoS). I was in the last semester of the Signal Officers Degree Engineering Course (SODE). There were only two large institutions in Mhow – the Infantry School and the School of Signals. A Major General commanded the former, while the latter had a brigadier heading the institution. We were dependent on fossil fuels for cooking – in the sense we used firewood and kerosene for lighting up the fireplaces. Gas was just making its appearance, and a few of us did have gas connections. As replacement cylinders took a long time, we continued to use kerosene stoves. Towards the later part of the course – some time possibly during May or June 1967, the Ladies Club of the ladies of the SoS decided to have a Fund Raising mela. One of the stalls was to provide dosas, which was a hot favourite. Along with dosas, the essential side dishes are coconut chutney and sambar. And it just happened that my dear wife was given the task of making the sambar. After many high-level discussions, we were told that the sambar should be sufficient to serve for 120 persons. Each serving was about 30 ml – which was what one of our kadchis – ladles – could hold. In order to ensure, that we did not make less, my better half insisted that I measure out 120 heaped ladles of water and keep it aside. T