HUMOUR IN UNIFORM

Sometime a mere slip of word or two may put you in a very embarrassing situation. I learnt it hard way, when I was posted in a remote place Missamari(Assam). As part of routine annual exercise, our Higher HQ had to move out on field exercise for a short duration. The area of operation while in exercise was in the general proximity of our Unit, and therefore the onus to look after the administration of Officers in the HQ came down on us for the duration of their stay there.

One fine morning I was called by my Commanding Officer who tasked me to look for a suitable place for establishing Officers Mess for the visiting Officers of our HQ
I knew about one Nursing Officers Mess building which was in state of disuse for a long time, but was appropriate to accommodate all officers with perfect infrastructure for running a Mess . Only few touches in terms of repairs and painting was required to make it fully functional.

My CO liked my suggestion and we took up a case for taking over the building for the duration of exercise. The same was approved by the appropriate authority and I was asked by my CO to write a letter to Chief Matron in the Military Hospital for handing over the building for our use. So I proceeded and wrote a request to Chief Matron in the Hospital. It read something like this;
Madam,
With reference to our letter No — dated–, it is requested that your Nursing Officers Mess be handed over to the undersigned at the earliest. The same will be used by the Officers of HQ ____ for the duration of ____days.

Next day I visited Chief Matron for taking over the building. She stared at me with an unusual face. She silently pulled the drawer and took out the familiar letter and asked me if I had signed the letter. ”Of course madam, I have signed it, is there something wrong?”was my innocent query. ” You better read it right now here”, she insisted. Puzzled, I obliged and read the letter to her. it read like this ;
Madam,
With reference to our letter No — dated—, it is requested that your Nursing Officers be handed over to the undersigned. same will be used by the officers of HQ — for the duration of ___ days.
To my horror I realized what a blunder I had committed. My clerk had omitted the word “MESS” from the complete name of “Nursing Officers Mess”, thereby changing its complete meaning. And I just signed it without noticing this error. What followed next is an experience better forgotten. It was a herculean task to pacify her.

It soon became talk of town and no prizes for guessing the comments I received from my colleagues and seniors laughing loud with obvious wink..
FRIENDS!!!! Read carefully before putting your sign..

CLASSIFICATION

I woke up this morning just like any other day. Had to rush to office little early since I was to conduct a test for my subordinate staff. The test was obviously a way for them to earn a promotion and their classification pay.. Ahh, who would mind earning a little more....On my way to office, I recoiled on my own career. How I reached where I am today, what all tests, exams I had to clear to earn the rank which I adorns today.. It made me think and think more...

Why should there be a need to divide up,classify and neatly package every new thing, every new acquaintance? Why cant we see everything in their basic essence..Why should we put degree of separation between things. Why should we judge humans at all and award them some kind of classification. Why does the thought of judging a person evolves in the first place, to test a personality, status in society, and many such qualities..??

For me to try to classify something so complex as an individual human being merely demonstrate my own shallowness. The good old theory " Survival of the fittest" comes into play. A judgment of another person is an abstraction that adds qualities that are not there and leaves out what is unique about him. It forces a person to put on a veil. Forces him to drift away from his own essence and makes him another breathing machine.. If I classify someone, I turn him into a thing. The only way for me to contact this other person is to experience him, not think about him.

So how do I experience this "Other person"? How do I experience true essence of a person? How do I make a difference between two individuals? Have I evolved something of my own to judge or I am simply following parameters which have been enforced on my psyche since the very beginning. How do I come out of this perplexing situation..??

PERFECTION

PERFECTION

We long to be perfect,don't we..?..I have been hearing this phrase right since my early days that what ever we do, it should be perfect. My parents emphasized, teachers reiterated and environment pushed in this notion further.

However with passing years, I have come to realize that one tends to loose charm of living and rational ability to think while pursuing perfection. I guess perfectionism is yet another of those false pursuits thrown on us in race to acquire more and more and be called successful. Is it necessary to be bestowed with the honor of being a perfectionist to find a place in society..??

To me, chasing this dream to be a perfectionist is a slow death. If everything were to turn out just like I would want it to be or the way I have planned, than I would never experience anything new. My life would be an endless repetition of stale successes. It would entails set pattern imposed on me for leading a life. When and how would I ever think of my own then.? When will I ever exercise my free mind and creativity..??

When I make a mistake, I would experience something different. Is,nt this a better bargain..?

A NEW STAR IN THE HORIZON

Tonight is a night to think, to recoil, to go back to
past. I shall look out towards the sky and see if I can find a new bright
star other than usual ones. I am sure
she will wait for us to see her there before she departs for her final abode
leaving us all to move on. An icon of
generation gone. A saga perished.

It wasn't easy for Mother of three children to mend for
them when she was living alone with them. With husband away for years on some
assignment and the onus to look after three kids falling on that poor mother
years back. That was the time this angel whom we knew as "NANI" came into being.
We spent our early years with her. I still recall her emotion filled voice
calling us for milk, and food. My mom wasn't well for a long time and
we were practically in the overall care of our Nani.
She wouldn't sleep unless we slept off first. Her musical hymn would
always drift us into the lap of tranquil sleep. She would always be the first to
get up giving us bath, cleaning us, feeding us and playing with us. I
still cherish those evening walks with her in the market holding her fragile hand and
enjoying those sweets which she would invariably buy for us.

She had some life.
Raising two sons and three daughters couldn't have been easy for her. Living in
a small house in a small remote place in UP with meager income of a school
master in those days, it was an ardent task, walking on a tight rope all the
time, looking after such a large family. And then God decided to test her more
when all of a sudden her elder son started getting fits. He would run away from home in the night and would be lost for days.
Sometime he would return back home with stone marks all over his body.
Obviously people took pleasure throwing stones on a freaky guy even in those
days. She would look after him, feed him, take him to various doctors
and even to Tantriks and Baba,s, but all for no results. Nanaji, was
a humble small framed person and wasn't keeping well and then one day he just
passed away leaving a strange void in the family. His departure brought another
catastrophe in the family with her youngest daughter losing her mind too. This was followed with long years of treatment with various doctors and people but to no cause.

She lived to see a grown up son and daughter
getting deranged. How tough it must have been for her to live in a house with two grown up children in this state while doing everything for them, right for cleaning them and making them eat with her own hands. Added with this, we three kids also added on her misery with my Mom not keeping well and bed ridden for months.

I however never saw any misery in her eyes. Always found that soft touch of motherhood and soothing sainthood. From where did she
get all that stamina and energy in that fragile 5 ft body is something
mystifying. How could a person face so
much and yet retain her sanity and still afford to smile. She struggled all her
life. She lived to see her son and daughter getting cremated in a year's gap.
She must have nerves of steel and emotions for endless tests.

Many years later, I saw her smiling and looking at me
with her mist filled eyes and blessing me when I handed over my new born son in
her hands. I remembered how delicately
she lifted him, with her fragile, thin hands, holding him in her lap and
kissing him on his forehead.

Today I got the news of her passing away, just when I was about to leave for a party with a colleague. I didn't know if I was shocked or just numb for a while. I knew she was on her last lag of her time . We knew she wud go any day. Still the sudden revelation shook me. And then the fact downed that we all will die one day. How where and when, nobody knows. I guess she got liberated finally from this bondage of affection and pain. She lived her life and showed us the raw intemperate determination a person can generate.

When I see myself,I feel so small. How big this world is and how irrelevant my presence appears. And when I think of our earth and ponder over the depth of this abyss Universe, I feel how small our lone abode is. Life appears
trivially small and insignificant. And then this comparison goes on. The vastness and infinite enormity of this nature baffles me. It forces me to think what I am and how ludicrously small and insignificant my existence is in this whole fantastic design.

For you my dearest Nani, I pray and utter these words….

NANI dear, you helped the helpless who could not
help you. You befriended the friendless who could not be your friend. You died
the death of braving and courage. You will come back in this great circle. You
will be born again higher in the great circle for your deeds will not go
unrewarded. I,ve sung , so the spirit of
the circle of life will hear my humble song for you'.

May God rest your soul!!!!! Adieu!!!!!!