the New Year's message I sent out to my batchmates: REFLECTIONS

Sabko wish kar liyaa, what next, just a few random thoughts as we go into a New Year, decade, and on another cold day in Delhi - most of all, I am glad and thankful to be alive and mostly healthy.

If we look back at how life has evolved for us since 7th of June 1975 . . . what are the common threads, how do we ever rationalise them, can we?

# the alma mater we had has long been scrapped, but for many of us, those were the best days of our lives.

# many of the ships we've sailed on have changed name, gone on to Alang or similar, or gone through changes we don't even know about.

# the abiding memories I have of my short stint at sea are wondering about how small we are in infinity and how big we are in the same infinity too.

# looking at those sparklets of water rushing past us especially if we went for a walk pre-dawn to the focsle and saw them rush past, hypnotic.

# the lottery of life, some gone to that whaler in the sky, some adrift, some mainstream and some doing their own thing, up and down.

# spouse and more, children, parents, siblings, relationships, all those evolutionary elements which can not be quantified.

# money in the bank or not, savings or not, bust or boom, many of us have seen fiscal ups and downs which people ashore can not even begin to comtemplate.

# new countries, flags, loyalties, food preferences, coasts, mountains, cities, cillages - some have even found their own new Gods.

# hair on the head or lack thereof, aching bones or paunches, less teeth than before and more kilos, 4 stripes on the shoulders or none.

# the joy of children, validation being the day they did better than their parents, I remember the day I got my first appointment letter as a 2nd Mate with a basic salary that exceeded my wildest dreams then, and how happy that made my parents. I also learnt money is not everything the same day.

# And then, the finer things in life - single malts, cognacs, a good smoke, snazzy cars, holidays, books, music, theatre, families, (other women??), we all had our choices.

And a lot more.

Point I am trying to make is this - what was or is the constant?

I tell you my take on this - the constant as far as I can make out is that the TS Rajendra helped many of us learn how to roll with the punches, and take life as it came. As probably the guy with the longest tenure ashore on extended shore leave (since January 1983 . . .) that has been the most important element, constant, in my life.

In 2011, as we grow older better wiser and the whole nine yards - this is what I wish for all of us - that we roll with the punches better than everybody else and that we come out, lotteries aside, smiling.

With best wishes to all of you and especially to some of you who have been by our side over the last few decades while we've had out ups and downs . . .

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One of the many responses:- Malik very well said. Please keep up the musings. The time we were in Rajendra we could not wait to get out. ( DTGH) But it made boys into men. I credit our days from Rajendra for all I have achieved in life. Now we have Kitoo for keeping us smiling and Malik to keep us thinking. Thanks to all who wished and also the silent majority. Wish everyone Happy New Year and best wishes.

(APS Dhillon)

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Wow !!! KB Singh would have been proud of you.... Did you ever write for the "Indian Cadet". With your permission can I send this to them.??

A) Haircut or without, your style is inimitable.
(That, by the way is a compliment... I am feeling charitable this morning!!)

B) Indian Cadet was/is the annual TS Rajendra magazine.

(Rajesh Tandon)

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Halloa!!! Below there.

(Rajesh Saigal)

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Hi Veeresh, thanks for reminding the date june 7th. That is  the day we left TSR to go home.

(Bikash Chaudhary)

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Bhai-saab, problem is there's no time. I have thought at least a thousand times how much happier I was at sea, mainly because I had the one commodity we can never retrieve, time.

(Kaustub Kirpekar)

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Good day

Things have changed at sea! No more of that lovely commodity - TIME.  Maybe its just the company I work for. So I am going to look for a coastal Indian company now. Yeah! Or maybe BSM again.

(Anon)

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I thought Subra taught us English especially "forums of pawar", while Sharan was doing "we men of literature", and between the two of them a whole generation of us were influenced more by the Inglisi by Mungoo and BoBo while we got our "ek do teen char" VHF skillsets from HashPash, not to forget "if you are obedience I am politeness" Sharma ji and "dit-dit-dah-dit bloddee" from Randhawa while Mitra was good for I still dont know anything more than "V for Victor" balancing the "you tattee" vaala Kotwal. Never to ofcourse also reduce the importance of Soda Loda and Hathoda as well as quarter diamond Savanoon in Hindi for which I don't remember who got the best Hindi advance prize though I do recall MO and Chinta messing with my psyche more than anybody else in junior form.

Oh well, it is a wonder we can all think straight, leave alone speak inglisi.

(me)

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