AFVOA Newletters of Year 2005

Page 64 of 75 Neyveli Lignite Corporation which sucked all the water from the Artesian system rendering at least a couple of TN districts as semi-deserts. 4. The melting of the Himalayan ice-cap is the coup de grace. There is a remarkable picture on the net which shows the reheat of the Gangotri glacier from 1871 upto 2001 which throws up the chilling prospect (or should I say “scorching" prospect) of the Ganga basin being subject to water scarcity from about 2030. Our North Indian countrymen who have not heard of water tankers, so familiar to all of us in Chennai, would then wish that they could be near the coast so that they could use de-salinated water!! Chennai would be a role model for others to follow on the need for water conservation!! 5. Chennai (our dear old Madras) completed 366 years of its existence on 22 Aug 2005. Its history, growth of infrastructure and its institutions owe a lot to the Army. Mr. S. Muthiah has amply elucidated the hard work put in by a number of Army officers and men in his articles about this city, as also during his lecture to us last year. (More about this in the Newspaper report later.) 6. However the fact emerges loud and clear that the Army has lost its impact on the city and its environs after the Brits left the country. This holds good for the entire country too. There are a number of reasons the discussion would tie endless as each - such as the impact of democracy on the status of the services in post-independent India, to name just one, would itself be a subject of much debate. 7. I shall touch on just one subject, “The social life of the service officer”. It centred around the messes, where other than the gents, the ladies and children did not step in. ( I can hear my better half saying “MCPs”.) To cater for the families, the service clubs sprang up in almost every town and city, near the cantonments. As long as the Brits were there, the service clubs were under the control of the services. They had a disdain in those days too for the “Box- wallas” (like most service officers today have for the equivalent “Banias”!); but they made sure that either this category had their own clubs, or even if they were invited to join the service clubs, they had only a sub-ordinate role with no say in the policy-making or running of the club. 8. So we had the BUS (Bangalore United Services) club in Bangalore, the Ordnance club in Calcutta, the Gymkhanas in Delhi and Madras, the Secunderabad club and a host of others all over the country. One look at their Centenary volumes would show how the service officers built up the ethos and social values in addition to promoting a sportsmanlike spirit among its members. Alas, barring a handful of such clubs throughout the length and breadth of this country, we have given up control and are reduced to just figureheads without even voting rights!! The amended bye-laws of the Bangalore Club deleted the “United Services” from its name many years back!! To add insult to injury, even the seniormost serving officer in Bangalore could be a service member of the club till the day of his retirement, but would go to the bottom of the common waiting list for membership the day after his retirement!! 9. In most of these places it is the service officers themselves who have been responsible for this sorry state of affairs. If all of us had placed the “Institution” above the “Self” we would not have gone wrong. The Brits were here for short tenures, just like we service officers of today do, but they never gave up on their institutions. However, a few of us did show that we had the spirit to fight for our rights. I cannot but heap praises on one such station commander at Agra who happened to be my own Commandant. The Agra club was the target of a hostile take-over by the leather barons and other such nouveau-riche, intending to wrest control from the Army, Air Force and Civil services officers, who presided over the club in rotation every year. The case was argued personally by this gentleman at the Allahabad High Court explaining the history and the Club’s evolution from mid nineteenth Century, to buttress the