We became Sub-Lieutenants on 01 July 1979 and our course comprising of about 65 officers were divided into two lots and posted to various Training Establishments in Kochi. INS Venduruthy is located on the scenic Wellingdon Island of Kochi and is the training Establishment of the Navy. The Base offers a perfect setting for under-trainees with its rows of spacious cabins and facilities like swimming pool, tennis, squash, movie hall, etc. The Officer’s Institute is also just a stone’s throw away for a quick evening drink.
I wasn’t rich enough to buy a bike so I chose a cabin close to the dining room to cut short the time taken to walk for my meals. These cabins were available at a premium and given on sharing basis between two officers. My cabin orderly was a simpleton and we had no choice but to speak to each other with a combination of sign language and English, since I didn’t know Malayalam and he didn’t know Hindi.
The first night after returning from dinner I met him at the entrance of our block and enquired whether the other officer was in the cabin or had gone for dinner. His reply was “Saab is playing with the balls.” The thought of Saab ‘playing with the balls’ ran through my head and rolled over me like a tidal wave rolls over hills and valleys and flattens everything it hits. My first thought was that saab had gone bananas, ‘playing with the balls’ in plain sight of the orderly. So I decided to go for a long walk and give saab enough time to finish with what he was doing, before returning to the cabin. The second evening, the incident repeated itself when he told me “Saab is playing with the balls.” Another long walk followed. I couldn’t take this anymore. I decided to launch my own tactical surge and tell saab to keep his affairs private and out of sight of the public domain.
So on the third night I confronted the saab before going to dinner and started a conversation. “You ought to visit the Reading Room after dinner. Its open till late in the evening. You could indulge yourself with some light reading after dinner, before finally crashing into bed.”
Saab frowned at me and seemed to roll the thought around his mind “I don’t like reading magazines” he said matter-of-factly.
I tried a more egalitarian approach “I go for evening walks to soothe my nerves, why don’t you?” I blurted.
Saab leant back on his chair with his hands folded behind his head and looked infuriatingly pleased with himself. “I had a wonderful evening, for your kind information. Also I don’t need to soothe my nerves” he said, looking relaxed and ready for a little callousness.
I stared at him as muddy thoughts moiled around in the murky depths of my muddled mind.
I was about to pull the plug on the whole incident when the civilian bearer walked into the cabin and started looking backwards and forwards between Saab and me as if he were watching a tennis match and finally said “I told you sir, I saw Saab playing with the balls in the Billiard room.” It all suddenly made sense to me in flash, as I burst out laughing!!!
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