My interactions with the people in the (Indian) Army were during my School Days in NCC (National Cadet Corps) – mainly during the 13 Days Sivaji Trail trek in 1988 that happened around the hills of Pune, and, the annual NCC Camp and a visit many years later to the Officers Academy, at the NDA near St. Thomas Mount, Chennai. In those (limited) interactions, the officers and Jawans came out (obviously) as straight-jacket disciplinarians, or at that age that’s what I had observed.
Later when I read “Humour in Uniforms” in Reader’s Digest India, comedy works like Beetle Bailey and watched TV shows like the MAS*H (TV series) I got a sense of the heightened humour men (and women) in uniform possess. When you are putting your life at risk daily, you can’t get on without a good sense of humour.
In Madras Musings, Aug ’20
I was reminded of these, when I read this article by Major Dr V Raghavan (VSM) on a funny incident that happened for him in eastern Sikkim around 1975, following a recent Chinese Skirmish with India. I had consulted many times with the Doctor, when he used to have an eye clinic near my house, during the eye-check-up visits, he hardly spoke a few words, but here he has narrated a full-page story!
Read it fully, you will enjoy!
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