OTA Coffee Table Book - "The Making of an Officer"

The OTA has recently launched a coffee table book titled "The Making of an Officer". It is a well laid out, written and presented book. A collector's item for alumni. Takes you back to training days and leaves you yearning to be 'there' again! It also reminds one of the truly great institution we have had the honour to associate ourselves with.

SERVE WITH HONOUR! (I have made a personal decision to take this cry to the private sector as well.)

Ronnie

The smile on his obituary photograph (Jan 17, 2010) triggered the memories... Our friendship and days spent practicing for swimming competitions in Chennai are very vivid in my mind. Our association began with the announcement for the selection of swimmers in KV IIT, Chennai early in the academic year of 1994-95. A passionate swimmer, I quickly signed up for the selection. The trials were held at the 50M IIT swimming pool. I remember looking at its length and rolling my eyes, never having swum in an Olympic size pool before. Once inside, it simply didn't seem to end!! It was here that Ronnie and I met. We must have said hi and shaken hands... Possibly chatted up a little on the way back to school. Both of us were selected, the only two from the school!!

Our first competition was the Regionals at Trichur, Kerala. Our gentle, soft spoken Sanskrit professor had accompanied us. We were the stars of the event. The combined booty was in excess of 2 golds, 3-4 silvers and a few bronze medals. I distinctly remember the fish curry and parathas we had at a local restaurant for Rs. 5/-, a very reasonable sum even at that time. We returned to our schools - winners, the smile wouldn't wipe off our cheerful faces. The Zonals were announced and sure enough, Ronnie and I were booking our tickets for this. This was the first time we were receiving a sports kit and were all excited about the track suit, the printed tee-shirt with the KVS logo displayed proudly and the other little accoutrements. The Zonals were conducted at INS Chilka - a  neatly laid out Naval base in Orissa. I remember the water being 'light' and easy to swim across, the temperature being high and the density less (in complete contrast to the Nationals at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi where the water was icy cold and very dense, since the event was postponed due to the Surat plague and was conducted in mid-Nov). Ronnie struggled at this event but his cheerful nature never left his demeanour. He was very disappointed when he was not selected for Nationals but quickly took it in his stride diving into academics again and doing very well in studies.

Ronnie and I remained friends till Mar-Apr 95 swimming at the Madras Gymkhana Club together, attending the children's movie shows, playing TT and devouring rum-n-raisin ice-creams, competing on who got more raisins. After Dad was posted out of Chennai, we lost touch.

Years later, in 2008 I came to know of his untimely and tragic death in a fighter plane crash in the Air Force through a friend who was with us at Chennai. True to his nature, I learned he had excelled in the NDA as well! To see his image with that signature smile brought back the memories... How about a swim and an ice-cream this evening Ronnie?

Vindictive Vigilantism

There is no dearth of writings across media on the Mumbai blasts of November 2008. Hail the Armed Forces/NSG, useless politicians, inefficient police force, citizen watch, etc. etc. When will we realize this as a nation and that as a sovereign state... blah blah.

I say that's enough of a whole lot of inspiring talk and Gandhi-ism... The title of this post says it all about my way to deal with this c***... Vindictive Vigilantism... Doesn't need further elaboration. When the government and police force of a nation cannot take care of its citizens, I guess its up to the people to look after themselves and those around them they care about.

If a retired Colonel from Rajasthan can indefinitely hold the capital of the country to ransom (not that I support that action), imagine what a little collective effort under effective leadership could do...

No more e-mail and SMS campaigns please... Let's just storm the bastions of corrupt politics/bureaucrats and our gluttonous police force!

Ansals Valley View Estate

I live in Ansals Valley View Estate and invited a few friends over at home over the weekend for dinner. An hour before the time for the party I received a call from one of them to cancel. The lady had been told by someone that the road our colony is located on is in the wilderness and highly unsafe. Thus the reluctance, especially since she was coming alone with her son... I managed to convince her to come and see our place for herself.



To put things in the correct perspective, Ansals Valley View Estate is one of the best locations in Gurgaon to live in. It is located 5 kms ahead of DLF Qutab Plaza and Silveroaks on the Gurgaon-Faridabad highway. Its about 10 kms away from DLF Cyber City and 6 kms from the Global Business Park (MG Road). South Delhi is just 15 kms away. The six hole (soon to be 9 hole) TERI Golf Course is less than 2 kms.



The area is quiet and picturesque with open spaces all around. The weather is far more pleasant than proper Gurgaon and the temperature drops considerably at night. My wife and I barely used the AC this season. There is 100% power back-up, 24 x 7 water supply, security. Within the colony is a mini department store, grocer, chemist, dry-cleaner, cold storage, barber, etc to cater to daily and basic needs.



The rentals and real estate values here are quite reasonable and I would recommend Valley View Estate to anybody looking to rent or buy an apartment in Gurgaon.



(All the images here are of Valley View Estate and the view from our fourth floor apartment. Click an image to enlarge)

Hanging up the Olive Greens - The Way Ahead

This post has been moved to my blog on Career Transition - Building and Managing your Career after the Armed Forces.

Indian Army - Sixth Pay Commission

(This post is largely skewed towards the officer class of the Indian Army. Attracting and retaining jawans and NCOs/JCOs has not been much of a problem to my knowledge. Also to be kept in perspective is that historically the Indian Army has always been officer-centric and thus officers can make or break a unit/sub-unit by their capability or the lack of it)

It is heartening to know the government has agreed to several proposals of the Armed Forces with respect to further increases in their salaries and allowances as compared to the pay commission recommendations. As a nation we need to attract the best officers in the Armed Forces and thereafter be able to retain them since the price of not being able to effectively do this could invite a penalty too big to afford... Presently the Indian Army has a huge problem on their hands doing both (attracting and retaining talent). There was talk at one time of expanding the facilities available in the training academies (NDA, IMA, OTA) to increase intake into the Army. However, lately the army has been unable to fill up even the existing vacancies. On the retention front, there are thousands of applications pending for premature release of officers and several thousands more which surface with regular frequency. The pay commission will go a long way in addressing both these issues. The Armed Forces have an amazing culture and lifestyle which no corporate or government job can offer unless at the highest levels. These facilities are available from the first day an officer gets commissioned as Lieutenant. No other job would come close to offering similar perks. While the pay commission will address the issue of attracting and retaining talent to some extent, we need to look at other aspects of this deep rooted problem too.

Some of the problems are given below:

• Micro & Macro HR issues: While it is proudly claimed that HR started from the Armed Forces, there is almost no active HR being practiced here. Without listing out all the HR issues an organisation so large needs to implement like active career management, courses, adventure activities, non-monetary motivational tools etc. it would suffice to say that the Army needs to re-look all their HR processes and policies.
• A big factor responsible for resentment amongst a section of the officers is the fact that the shortage of officers has led to a handful of them performing the tasks cut out for a larger number of officers. For example, an infantry battalion is authorized 21 officers but most on an average have only 11-12. That means, the work is the same, but about half of the officers have to perform it. Due to this officers get little time for their families or to pursue other interests which has lead to wide spread frustration. This also results in the 90:10 principle being taken to an extreme level. Of the officers present in a unit, naturally, the brighter lot is invariably saddled with most of the work increasing their workload and subsequent frustration further.
  
• Lack of adequate and high standard housing leads to long waiting periods and sub-standard accommodation.
  

Indiatimes Shopping... Terrible

This must be the worst ever experience of shopping online. I used to shop quite frequently online through www.indiatimes.com earlier. Mostly books, music and gifts. I have had occasional problems earlier too like minor payment issues, non delivery of an order and no redressal thereafter, etc. For these reasons I stopped shopping completely through indiatimes.

Yesterday it so happened that I wanted to surprise my wife with a bouquet of flowers and ordered them online through indiatimes. I saw the image of a lovely buoquet (above right) of chrysanthemums, price tag Rs. 395/-, ordered and paid online. What my wife did receive later was a bouquet (below right) of 8 chrysanthemums packed shabbily in newspaper (no basket) with a cheap flimsy card (the type one puts on a gift after wrapping) that said in illegible Hinglish " FROM समीर खुल्लर". Further, there was no confirmation of the delivery to the sender (I am still waiting for it).

Though indiatimes is responsible for all the products they sell through their site it would be unfair to leave the seller out of this. This vendor goes by the name of "Expressions". Please beware of indiatimes as a place to shop and of course of the vendor - expressions, as well...