TWO bottles of rum; that was what it took Hav Ram Avtar to make his way into the train compartment at Jammu, not the rail warrant issued by the government, and certainly not his professional duties in service of the nation. It was not a new experience for him, and in order not to humiliate his uniform at having to bribe a railway official Ram Avtar had changed into civilian clothes in the transit camp. "Why let the uniform be abused as well by these TTEs. Better if it is only me," he reasoned.And anyway getting home for him was of greater importance, having not seen his family for more than six months. Besides, there was also a marriage in the village, for which his brother Bharat would also be coming on leave. Wearing different uniforms, the brothers had not met for almost four years, so it would be a reunion of sorts for them. There was little in common between the two, but for a family name and that both had volunteered for the higher risk part of their service. While Ram Avtar had become a paratrooper,his brother had gone to serve on submarines, and into the shadowy world of sub-surface combat.That was Ram Avtar's life as well, except that it was amongst the shadows of the night, the jungles and the valleys of fear. "At least I get to know when it is dawn, you don't have even that option," he remarked to Bharat as they got down to exchanging notes on service life and experiences. Ram Avtar explained his transition from a rifleman to a paratrooper, from Sri Lanka to life on a post on the Saltoro range overlooking the Siachen glacier, and from Kohima to Kupwara where he was now serving with a Rashtriya Rifles unit. Bharat looked at the few photographs that Ram Avtar had managed to collect. Seeing all those operational ribbons brought a tinge of envy into Bharat's tone. Despite being only a couple of years behind in service life, his list of ribbons just completed a single row.Ram Avtar sensed that change in the tone, and decided to strike his point home. "The problem with your service is that it hasbecome an urban Navy. Everywhere you guys serve is a large city, with all the facilities of schools and shopping. There is no sense of the real India, the vast expanse of the rural countryside that we are constantly exposed to, whether on posting, exercises or even operations. You guys are all urban Indians, and also with all the muck that comes with city life. Such a small service, and yet your chaps cannot get along with one another. That is like the fights mohalla men and women, rich or poor, keep having. This happens when the service has too little to do.Hardly any of your chaps have fired a shot in anger in more than two decades and yet they strut around full of visions as well as conspiracies," blurted out Ram Avtar. The provocation was too strong for Bharat to resist, and he fell for the bait. "That is not a correct picture of the Navy. There are certainly so-me bad hats, but most of the service is very good. We are not sitting on our haunches doing no-thing. There is training going on daily, shipsand submarines are out all the time. How can you say we are doing nothing?," Bharat asked."Any naval guy, officer or sailor, talks in English. You haven't become Indianised as yet, still behaving like the British navy. In our units, the faith and language of the battalion is decided by the jawans, and everybody has to follow that, whatever the personal reservations. The way your officers have been throwing religion around would never happen in the Army.Anybody trying to raise such an issue would have his neck on the block in an instant. Obviously the self is above the service, otherwise your guys would not behave like they have," retorted Ram Avtar."Don't generalise what has been appearing in the Press. It is only a handful of officers who have been behaving badly, and it is a rot that crept into the service in the eighties," replied Bharat. "Fish rots from the head, my dear. So don't pull that one on me. Far too long an exposure to peace, with insufficient professional stress on your officers andmen has resulted in the service developing a culture of conspiracy's.For the last 10 years we have been reading about one officer complaining about another, taking somebody to court or planting motivated information against another. When your officers freely accuse one another of lobbying for one arms lobby against another what kind of bonding could there be between them? On the glacier we used to be two-in-one sleeping bag, even with the officers, that is the culture of bonding. And your chief accuses my chief of playing politics. He doesn't know the culture of the Army.What business does he have to talk like this?," thundered Ram Avtar. "He was dismissed by the government for not posting an officer they wanted to bring in. Poor chap, have some sympathy for him. There was nobody to hold his hand," replied Bharat. "An officer does not need anybody to hold hands with.If he is man enough he will accept whatever comes his way, and not think about the rewards. The Gita says that as well. By holdinginterviews and Press conferences he was obviously putting himself above the institution and service. And on top of that to bring charges against my chief. This would not happen in the Army. Even captains have gone home from the Valley when operations they were ordered to conduct went wrong, why talk about the higher leadership? A general would have gone with his boots on, the dignity of his office maintained. I don't know how you guys throw up this kind of leadership," said Ram Avtar sharply.
