Storm in a Teacup

I don’t know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. – Bill Cosby

 There can hardly be a doubt in anybody’s mind that the Indian Armed Forces have the singular distinction of being the only agency in the country to redeem it from the scourge of national and manmade calamities like Floods, Tsunamis, earthquakes, internal strife and whatever. Though the Navy did not play a prominent role in the recent Uttarakhand disaster (Navy divers did recover a large number of bodies and saved many lives that were marooned in the gushing waters), it does what it does best at sea.  However, it’s not “all work and no fun” in the Navy - the Navy has a lighter side and I thought of recording one such episode before it gets consigned to the dustbin of history.

 The Facts:

The Andaman Islands are usually ravaged by storms that cut across the South China Sea and hit the Nicobar group before moving towards Port Blair. In the late-eighties, Typhoon Gay, which was also called ‘Cyclone Kavali’ caused more than 800 fatalities in the Gulf of Thailand and was reported to be one of the worst typhoons to affect the Malay Peninsula in 35 years. Kavali originated from a monsoon trough and emerged into the Bay of Bengal, where it gradually reorganized itself and headed towards Andhra Pradesh as a Category 5–equivalent cyclone with winds of 260 km/h. After crossing the coast near Kavali, Andhra Pradesh, it rapidly weakened over land and died down less than 10 days later. The typhoon's rapid development took hundreds of vessels at sea by surprise, leading to sinking of some ships and damage to offshore facilities. The cyclone killed 588 people in mainland India and damaged or destroyed about 20,000 homes in Andhra Pradesh leaving about 100,000 people homeless. Surprisingly, Kavali crossed over the Andaman Islands as a light depression (called Catspaw) but a few days later became a modern-day Super Cyclonic Storm with swells of 6–11 m (20–36 ft) high.

Our Story

Mondays and Thursdays were days of high tension in the Fortress of Andaman and Nicobar. The Fortress Commander, Andaman and Nicobar (FORTAN) would poke and prod the Commanding officers about the week's misadventures. However all high sounding squabbles and CBMs seemed like diplomatic piffle compared to the gritty trauma suffered by the Met Officer who had the singular privilege of forecasting the unpredictable weather.

Storms at sea are generally as amorphous as market sentiments. It’s a standing joke in the Navy that when the weatherman rings the warning bells, it's usually safe to go on a cruise. The Met-Officer for the Fortress was a young inexperienced Lieutenant and he used to have a particularly hard time trying to predict the daily weather for the morning briefing conducted twice a week by the Fortress Commander (FORTAN). Having mastered the art of looking-back-marching-forward, he would read up the weather patterns of the previous years and confirm the same with a visual sighting from his cabin window. He would then prepare his presentation slides for the morning briefing. The FORTAN had recently taken over his assignment, and the Lt Governor, who happened to be an ex-Army man, was nearing the end of his tenure.  Both Faujis were keen on making a mark with good governance and decided to do something worthwhile during their tenure. But, whoever thought that the weather briefing by the Met Officer and the approaching end of the LG's term in office would create an incalculable dynamic of its own!

In the Chinese year of the Rat or Goat (I don’t remember which one), while the rest of the country was warming up to an early Winter, a storm began brewing in the South China Sea. The Met Officer decided to make capital of the announcement of the Storm in the local newspaper and began his presentation with the strum and drang of a tornado at sea. The hand-made slides had been hurriedly prepared with cut-and-paste pictures of some storm on the east coast of America to enhance his otherwise dull presentation. FORTAN was impressed, very impressed. He called for his staff car, bundled the Met Officer into it and took him straight to call on the LG.

The Met Officer repeated his presentation to the Lt Governor and took a back seat with the satisfaction of having excelled in his brief. To his utter amazement the LG directed FORTAN that he wanted to be briefed everyday till the storm hit the island and he would in the meantime badger New Delhi to pump additional funds for the catastrophe which was going to hit the islands. In the previous years, the Islands had been shaken with egregiously ugly storms that had left the top management in sixes and sevens. The poor Met Officer didn't know what he had got into – he had lit a spark that would lead to a prairie fire.

Amazingly, the storm, which had started showing signs of hitting the islands, began bypassing it completely - but strangely not for the FORTAN or the LG. The LG, in his extreme enthusiasm, had already forwarded a SOC to New Delhi for funds, with pictures of hurricane ‘Patricia’ hitting the coast of New Orleans, but modified to look like Severe Cyclonic Storm 'Kavali' with hurricane force winds hitting Choura island. Not to be outdone, the FORTAN issued orders for all operational ships of the Flotilla to prepare to set sail and set up relief camps with medical facilities, food and blankets and evacuation procedures. The 108 Mtn Bde Cdr recalled all his men, mustered all his gear and made arrangements to set up tents, bridges and refugee camps.

It is said that the world has a prurient appetite for conspiracy theories. So, while the senior brass was conjuring visions of Hurricane Katrina, in its earliest avatar, the junior brass was wondering in amazement how this episode would eventually pan out. Nobody had the guts to tell the LG to withdraw his SOC, least of all the FORTAN.  The Met Officer's facial furniture indicated that he wanted to cry in desperation, because every time he tried to scale down the strength of the storm, the CSO to FORTAN would boost it up with rain and wind and in turn the Admiral, till it reached the LG as a full-fledged storm.

Finally the storm passed the Islands as nothing more than a Catspaw, with tiny showers that actually brought some very pleasant weather to an otherwise bitter summer in the islands.

And if you’re wondering what happened to rest of the men in white uniform – Well, we had the most pleasant trip to the South islands, setting up medical camps and picnicking on the sandy beaches, drinking the local rice beer brewed by the tribals and enjoying what you call a Perfect Day in the Navy! The LG got his funds from New Delhi. FORTAN and the 108 Mtn Bde Cdr were able to come out of it with a steady moral compass and on an even keel and the Islanders were happy to have a free medical camp without battling  a storm for it.

For those seeking the elixir of a new life, I would suggest a visit to good old Chowra island would be a good place to start.