Thoughts in Words

First time I wore a watch was when I became a college boy. An uncle had come visiting us when I was in my first year. This uncle has special importance in my life. He was my mentor, tutor, guide, apart from being the toughest uncle – everything rolled into one, right from my childhood. He had thrashed me umpteen times on various occasions of indiscipline. He just unclasped his Favre Leuba watch and handed it over. A simple, no-frills watch. By the time I completed the degree, the watch had become defective. After repairs a couple of times, the watch repairer in Parry’s Corner, gave up; I don’t remember why. For a long while the watch was in the house and I don’t know when and how it disappeared. More so because our father used to attempt watch repairs himself. When I joined the Army, HMT watches were issued to the Units. HMT Watch was itself in the nascent stages at that time, in collaboration with Citizen. The issued watches had cat/part numbers. On the dials was the unique

Not me, I tell you. I am a contrary man. If you care to read further, I will tell you why. To start from the beginning, as children, we had to ensure the following, among a host of things: - o    Once we step out of the long ‘ kolai’, the verandah, of our ancestral house in Kerala, just on to the ‘ mittam ’, the courtyard, for playing or whatever, leave alone wandering farther into the surrounding farm lands, we had to wash our legs right up to the knees before re-entering the house. A ‘ kindy’ (the name of Guindy in Madras originated from this unique vessel) for this sole purpose was kept handy on top of the steps. This washing applied to anyone, walking in from outside, wanting to enter the house: not only we children. The toes, the ankle and the heel were included. A story was told to us, how ‘ Sani’ God enters the body through an unwashed heel, and that ensured the heel is never ignored! o    We also had to wash and scrub the hands, not only as being taught due to the

Background             Every equipment in the Army is introduced into Service only after User/Field Trials are conducted on them by the Field Army in all three terrains – the mountains, plains and the deserts. These trials are apart from the elaborate scientific laboratory trials by the DGQA. The tests that DGQA conduct are mind-boggling. To the manufacturers and suppliers of the equipment, it is, therefore, a nightmare. They test them in a temperature range from +50 ⁰ C to -50 ⁰ C, enclosing them in a hot chamber, in an ice chamber, sandblasting them, and so on and so forth for a specified number of days. The idea is that the general equipment has to withstand all terrains and all climatic conditions in which the Army operates. Field Army trials, on the other hand, are live, on the actual usage. All tests and trials are to meet the Qualitative Requirements (QR) as laid down. The Case             There was a ‘Nissan Carrier One Ton’, a truck in the Army those days. This was po