While on maneuvers in desert, a tank troop got lost forcing the young Lieutenant to radio for help.
“Are you near any landmark that might help us locate you?” The base operator at another end asked.
“Yes” said the lieutenant “We are directly under the Moon”
The mental trauma undergone by the base operator at this point as above, was very similar to mine, when I put the telephone receiver on cradle after conversing with an officer. After I had received the posting order, it was again a futile attempt to discover the location of my new abode for next two years, which was a peace station. However, the situation was clear to the extent that my luggage is now to be prepared and kept ready for move within a period of one month to a new destination. Which place? It was still to be found upon.
The posting order received by me has reached through Army mail to me, but was not available elsewhere. It certainly did not reach to the place where I was going. Thus, whenever I used to give a ring to some office in order to find details of the unit , the officers at the other end after ensuring that I am not a potential security threat from another country seeking information, then would mostly render a calculated and crisp reply which would not help anyone, be it a friend or a foe.
On a mental assessment of the situation at hand, the root cause of the problem got identified by me. As my new unit and its higher headquarters were all nonexistent at the moment, being a new raising, the authorities dispatching the posting orders themselves would be having a tough time making sure, which office the letter should reach . “Eureka ..phew “ what a thought .
The Military Training Institution, where I was posted, had a rich collegium of bright officers, of all age categories, young, middle aged and few very senior ones. So, they helped me locate the new unit. Once I managed to find my posting place, many interesting stories start surfacing about the new place. The source of these were the gossip pool of lady wives who were supposedly omni-informed and super-confident in their opinions. In fact, with large number of ladies in the fraternity, inputs grew exponentially, quantitatively and qualitatively with days passing by.
Sample ones :
“If you open the water tap in the bathroom there, sometimes snakes come out along with the flowing water”
“Watch for snakes on road, in room and even in your parked car, as they creep inside it when it is in garage ”
“ Depression is a very commonly found health issue among families after a tenure to this station”
Such advices came flowing to me unabated, of course through my wife and often with questions/ warning which made me felt like a whipping boy many times.
“ Wow , this is interesting “ , I exclaimed in my mind
Its Jungle out there
With the prior knowledge of above chilling scary scenarios waiting for me with arms open at the new abode , myself with wife and 14-year-old son, reported at the new duty station. The duty station was having accommodations of World War II vintage, with wild life spruced around in the thick and dense vegetation which was in close vicinity of old constructed married accommodations of soldiers. The icing on the cake was that ….( pun intended ), it had a grave shortage of accommodations for the newly posted personnel with no good schools around for kids. So, I had to find a way to ensure the proper education of my son who was aspiring to be an engineer and of course ,devise a method to live in harmony with all the wild animals around.
Before reaching the station in month of July, I read in newspapers about forecast of depleted showers and even a breakdown of monsoon visiting India which would be critically averse to country’s food & water resources, especially in the part where I was going. So, it was anticipated that the average rains received might be less, which may also affect the farmers. Well, this military station stood defiant against such claims.
Contrary to predictions, there were nonstop rains, min three times a day, every day. The greenery of place with rich vegetation around, gave inviting looks to all humans and wild animals in equal amount. We were informed by the residents, that herds of elephant have been seen frequently roaming around the residential area in night hours, so we should be vigilant when moving out in dark.
“So far so good, for a PEACE station” thought flashed, bringing a subtle smile on my face
Extending a wild welcome: Snakes Elope Scorpion Shower
At the very first opportunity, we moved into our allotted married accommodation, which was at the first floor. On the very first morning in the house, when my wife was making up the bed after a good night sleep, I heard a loud scream from the bedroom. I was shaving and getting ready for office. I then immediately rushed into the bedroom, to amazingly find a black scorpion elegantly lying in the middle of the bed, alive, still and quiet.
My son immediately started searching for the mobile to click a picture and my wife still in awe, started preparations to remove it from bed. In the meantime, I quickly did a mental scan of the bedroom to find out a possible entry point for this intrusion. Well now, the walls of the room had seepage and plaster taken out at number of places, also had holes in corners, windows of the room do not shut down properly due to their very old creaking frames, and trees all around the walls had branches protruding into the room windows .
“ Wow , avenues of approach are too many to count. So just leave it . It’s not important from where, he managed to come”, I thought in my mind .
While wife and son were gaining momentum for their respective actions to counter the threat from this intruder, I again started wondering that how did we all manage to avoid its sting during the night in our sleep. Advice received from well-wishers at my previous duty station, which I had lightheartedly brushed aside, just cropped and then boomed in my mind. The fine variation between the theoretical inputs and the ground situation was that - Scorpion had interchanged its place with Snake.
In spite of making a sudden and uninvited appearance in house, we as a family were grateful to the scorpion for leaving us unhurt ( …..ha….ha…). Therefore, giving full due credit to the kind gesture of the scorpion for sparing us, we carefully took him away from the bed on a book and threw it out from the window instead of beating him to death. We collectively concluded that the scorpion must have creeped in through the window into the home and then in turn to the bed, probably in morning which did not provide him enough time to bite anyone of us. The other engineered logic which was more convincing for me and came in my thought was, “ This house had been his home always, in fact, for far greater duration than ours. So, in reality, we are the intruders, not him ( ha… ha..) ”.
Encounter No 2 : Snakes Elope Scorpion Shower
It took few sessions of inter alia discussion spread over number of days amongst me, my wife and son to dwell upon the circumstances of our miraculous escape from a possible scorpion bite. At that time, we had no idea that it is just a start. We had something more in offing.
In an afternoon, after exactly three days from the last encounter, my son opened up his water bottle after coming from School . He found a scorpion sitting tightly on the closed lid of a water bottle, as if he was trying to have a sip from it. Once discovered, this scorpion was lifted by a improvised spoon ( to ensure the safety of the person holding it ) . Instead of being bashed, it was also shown way out of the house with all the due respect he deserved ( actually he was thrown out of window …ha.. ha.. ) . Now, this was very close again .
Therefore, after a round table conference ( pun intended ) , my family met these incidents with the best of engineered logics which was drilled into us after a long army career:
Engineered Logic No 1 - The wild life here is very kind hearted and they believe in peaceful coexistence.
Engineered Logic No 2 - The best posting which one can get is no better than the place where you are finally posted.
Engineered Logic No 3 - “It’s all mental”: The golden words shouted by our drill sergeants in Academy while whipping the hell out of cadets during training .
Engineered Logic No 4 - Seeing the frequent inflow of ‘Scorpions’ and not ‘Snakes’ as what we expected, my son commented “As your sunshine is Scorpion- it is the reason why scorpions are most attracted to our house and not snakes “.
As days started passing, my family would frequently come across herds of wild boar, rabbits, foxes seen playing in the close vicinity of family accommodations whenever one goes out for evening walks and it becomes dark.
Fond memories of a memorable tenure at a supposedly peace station by certain standards.
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