In these days of e-mail and sms, a new dictionary of acronyms has taken shape. Btw means by the way, lol is laugh out loud and asap means as soon as possible. But have you ever heard of DLTGH?When I got engaged years ago to an officer of the Indian Air Force, I was not at all aware of fauji customs and lingo. I have learnt a lot during my 25 years of marriage but the introduction to the air force lingo started right after our engagement when our marriage date was fixed and my future hubby went back to Jammu. What a thrill I got when I received his first letter (remember, those were pre-STD days) which had ‘DLTGM — 132’ written on the top right corner. I was puzzled, but the answer was at the end of the letter — Days Left To Get Married! I found it very romantic and it became a ritual for both of us, counting the days, filling up the right corner of our letters and watching the numbers reduce.After marriage I went to Jammu and there began my education as an air force bride. I came across the traditions of ‘bouncing’ that means bachelors of the unit landing up unannounced for meals only at odd hours, welcoming the new bride by ragging her no end and celebrating all birthdays, anniversaries and festivals with the whole unit as a big family. The lingo has funny sounding words — a commanding officer’s wife is a ‘COW’, an officer bunking his office is ‘on site’ or ‘c/o 56 APO’, ‘to adjust’ means to finish off something (like Ganguly and Chappell tried to do to each other).It was in Jammu that I came to know about the origin of ‘DLTGM’. It comes from a similar phrase ‘DLTGH’ — ‘Days Left To Go Home’. In the National Defence Academy, DLTGH was calculated on the first day of the semester and the countdown written on the blackboard everyday. It gave young cadets a thrill to see the figure creeping down to one — nobody saw the zero, it being the day of the Passing-Out-Parade.After three years of ragda in NDA, the cadets go their way to their respective services — the army, navy or the air force. But DLTGH makes its return to an officer in a different version when he gets engaged — it becomes DLTGM and the countdown begins all over again.
