AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 110 of 153 fellows). I shut the suitcase, and out of sheer frustration, called a coolie to carry it to the train. After he had placed it on my seat in the train, I offered him the one-rupee note. He got a shock. I told him to search me if he wanted and take away whatever more money he found on me. He also gave me a dose of his choicest cursing and left. I was very hungry. So I took out the hidden change and went to a food stall and offered it to him for a cup of tea and whatever else he could give me. He gave me two vadas (I think) and a cup of tea. I got into the compartment and went to sleep. 49. Next day, in the train, a couple traveling with me offered me food, but I refused as I was quite ragged by then. I was not married then, and took a taxi from the DELHI railway station and went home. I called my mother out and told her to pay the taxi and give me some food before I died of starvation. 50. Incidentally, you mentioned about Gen NC Vij in your story. Gen Vij and I commanded brigades together in the same Division. I was the C Arty. I never knew him before. I recorded the following incident about him in my computer diary in January 2003. At the time of the incident, we had met, only formally, a couple of times. 51. “Sharing as a concept and a means to empowering love is highly under-rated. And it is not sharing property or wealth or big things that matters. It is small and, seemingly, insignificant things like an ice cream or the last chapatti or the last spoon of a delicious dish, which empower love and mutual caring. It could be sharing a blanket on a cold evening. I have never forgotten an experience of sharing during the later stages of my service in the Army. I and another fellow brigadier were travelling in very steep mountains in high altitude in the Eastern sector. My horse gave up and had to be sent back and I had to walk up in those low oxygen mountains. After a while, I got exhausted and sat down to rest for a while. At this stage, my colleague gave me his horse to ride on and he walked the last one hour to our destination. Although he was very Tired too, but he would not let me get down from the horse. Today, he is the Chief of the Army Staff.” My 32nd Year of Age – Brig AN Suryanarayanan!! 52. How can I ever forget that particular Birthday of mine, when I completed 32 on 23 rd November 1973 (a Friday, with work finishing by 1 PM.). 53. I was in DSSC, Wellington doing 29th staff course and it was the last but one week, The course would finish on 30 Nov and we would be leaving on 01 Dec, a Saturday. I had packed up the bulk baggage and sent it the previous week, on a Sunday, by a covered wagon to Dehradun, my SPR (for non-army friends, SPR is Selected Place of Residence) along with 3 others, as we were, allowed only some 22 quintals by express or 60 by goods train etc etc those days. 54. I stood posted to Hashimara, as BM 202 Mtn Bde, a non family station! (of course, later it was changed to BM 165 Mtn Bde in the same Div, but at Binnaguri, a semi field! That story, later!!) 55. The petrol price had suddenly shot up on 01 Nov (from about Re 1) to about Rs3.70 per litre or something due to the Oil Crisis imposed by the Middle East war!