OVERBOARD – OVERSEAS

Young ‘dreamer’ in the Navy

What? To fix me thus meant nothing?
 But I can't tell (there's my weakness)
What her look said!---no vile cant, sure,
 About need to strew the bleakness
 Of some lone shore with its pearl-seed. 
 That the sea feels''---no strange yearning
That such souls have, most to lavish
 Where there's chance of least returning.''

The last two lines have an enigma about them as well as promise of romance. One would think that it is exactly as given in the story books. However, we learnt it the hard way during our trip to Athens way back in 1975 immediately after being commissioned. We were ambling in the Constitution Square when a kind man came to us and asked if we were Indian. He said that he admired Indians and would like us to have drinks in the company of his fair-sex friends. The drinks were nice and the girls were nicer still. We talked about our great nations, our history and heritage, Taj Mahal, Delhi etc (amongst other things, that is) and really enjoyed ourselves. We were under-trainee Acting Subaltern Lieutenants on board. We were convinced that we were smarter, wittier, more interesting company; else, why would the girls be attracted to us as compared to our more senior colleagues from the ship Himgiri? In our megalomaniac trance we did not know that the man who had invited us had quietly vanished and so had our seniors. Later, we were asked to pay an exorbitant bill for the drinks, and we had to part with our entire foreign allowance and more. We were the suckers who had fallen for the obvious ploy. When we returned on board we were ‘ceremoniously’ received with all the seniors lining the gangway and going through the motions of a mock side-pipe.

At Shanghai, just before retiring

At the Great Wall of China

On duty in uniform but ‘liberty’ in civvies

I still remember the time whe we landed up at Colombo. In order to shop there we had to first convert our Indian rupees into local currency. Just as it happened in Athens, a kind hearted gentleman came and asked us to put our money in individual envelopes that he had brought, write the names and amounts on the sealed envelopes and then he’d go and get the requisite local currency. He took the envelopes from us only to make a list and then handed these back to us. We held on to these whilst he went on his errand.

As a Lieutenant in Florence, Italy

Finally, with all the sights that we were to see, there was no time left for lunch and we discussed amongst ourselves that we’d just grab some fast food on the way. Primo showed us on the map that, with our permission, he’d like to follow a different route for going back to Rome. He made us understand by gestures that his in-laws stayed in a village and it would not be too much of a detour to go via the village. The only problem was that along the way we didn’t come across a single place where we could stop for lunch.

Primo’s people lived in a farmhouse and the entire family was there to greet us. Within no time, they made us feel like honoured guests from India. We, having been brought up with class-distinctions in India, were pleasantly surprised to see them offering us a sumptuous lunch, champagne and wine and finally carry-away gifts.

Until many years later, I kept thinking of what made Primo do so; possibly the lunch and the gifts were worth more than the hire-charges of his cab. I would like to believe that the concern we had shown for his lunch at Florence, even though expressed in a language foreign to him, made the difference. 

Navy is a true international service; it is because most often than not it operates beyond 12 nautical miles of the coast and hence in international waters called the high seas. Our counterparts from the Army and the Air Force rarely leave the country whereas we do it on an everyday basis; in almost every sailing we leave the territorial limits of the country. Navy gave me the opportunity to touch various shores, both by sea and by air. Wherever I went, I never forgot the lesson that Primo imparted us in my grooming years.