With Lord Varuna’s army

Here as the ship proceeds deeper and deeper in the Arabian Ocean, eyes could see nothing but the water and water all the way around. Dominating waves clash the vessel quite often and ocean shows a bit of its enormous power as the warship weighting more than three thousand tones swings as if a petty petal on a peaceful lake.

While on my first ever sea voyage in life, my eyes stay wide open in search of at least something land-like on that line joining the waters and the sky; my ears stand up to receive at least some pinch of the voice other than that of the vigorous roars of waves collapsing on the iron walls of the ship; and my senses stay alert to receive at least some other feel than that of the humid, salty wind blowing through the sea. Search goes on, but nothing other than the sea can be seen, can be heard or can be felt while roaming deep into the Kingdom of Sagara. Miniscule in front of the strength of the ocean, here, we humans are on the mercy of Lord Varuna.

While some men in Royal Navy Blue uniform boast to be the men of Lord Varuna himself. These are the members of Indian Navy. They are fearless, soft-spoken, well learned, and well behaved. They are disciplined gentlemen and intelligent decision makers. They are confident, but not careless; strong but not aggressive; and light-hearted but prepared for every situation. As I sail through Arabic Ocean with them in INS Sharada, a proud feeling of being an Indian roars harder than the mighty waves in my heart. Our men are committed, busy in the practice and ready to help. They have earned the respect of world Navy for their gentlemanly conduct and polite behavior. But the thing that takes our men towards the higher level than any other force in the world is their indomitable faith on Lord Varuna, their supreme savior. No other Navy in the world has the divine interference but Indians do have. Thanks to the rich cultural heritage of India.

Indian Navy has ‘Shan No Varuna’ (May Lord Varuna Protect Us); a Sanskrit expression from ‘Rigveda’ as its motto. The Maritime Warfare Centre In Kochin, where the Naval officers and sailors are groomed strong for the stronger naval security system; the Sanskrit verse ‘Yuddhasya Abhyase Raneh Vijayashree’ (Rigorous practice insures victory in war) is written as motivation. Indian Cost Guards those who work day and nights to protect our seashores have ‘Vayam Raksham’ (We protect), another Sanskrit expression as their motto.

As we walk through the Naval estate in Kochi, the Sanskrit and spiritual quotes can be found written at many places and this is why our men in armed forces are so spiritually motivated. INS Dronacharya, a school where the naval officers are trained for gunnery and high-end weaponry. The motto of this school is ‘Kuru Prahar Prathame’, another Sanskrit expression meaning ‘Hit first’. Whether be the names of our missiles or be the names of our warships, all are inspired by our cultural heritage and all our men, irrespective of religion and caste, seek inspiration from the culture itself.

While being with the Naval officers and sailors, my respect for our spiritually rich culture raises for hundreds of thousand times as it is our ancestral heritage, that has kept motivating our forces over the years.

Towards God’s own Country

Mother nature has bestowed her most preserved treasure on this land. As my train entered Kerala, lush green farms, golden sunshine, and coconut trees – a little smaller than we see in the landscapes – welcomed me in God’s own country!

Here, train passes from the backyards of small houses, and stops at the stations we used to see in the landscapes or in the RK Laxman sketches from ‘Malgudi Days’.

In fact, the railway travel makes me feel proud of being an Indian! Like in spite of all wrong practices and corrupt politicians; we still feel proud of being world’s biggest democracy; in spite of all poor facilities and irregular services the railway provides; I feel proud of traveling by world’s second biggest railway network here in India. Railway stations situated at frequent distances, and the infrastructure developed at the stations make me feel like being a citizen of wealthy state. The signal systems at railway routes, the way they follow timetable, and the accuracy of trains while stopping at the railway stations – with the particular bogey stopping exactly at its denoted place – everything fascinates me whenever I travel by train.

Kochin, being a harbor, has no individual junction and trains do stop at Ernakulam railway station, situated just a few kilometers away from Konchin. As I stepped down, I found this station quite similar to Nagpur’s one. It was quite easy for me to find out the main entrance gate, where the Jawans of Indian Navy were waiting for us. As journalists participating in the Defence Correspondence Course are the special guests during these thirty days, they receive special welcome from force officials. It is a matter of proud for the scribes to receive a treatment of Commissioned Officers during the course. As our car left the railway station, a small tour of Ernakulam town was in the offing.

Traffic jams are very common features of Kerala. Here, the roads are narrow and the houses are constructed in quite congested way. As we see the map, we see Kerala as a small piece of land, adjacent to the seashore. Adjusting with the land, almost everything here comes in the small package. Houses and huts are small, coconut trees are dwarf, and roads are narrow as a result of which city-buses are also small. As my car was heading towards Wellington Iceland, I noticed one more thing roads and the railway tracks go parallel to each other many times here. This is quite a rare to notice in Nagpur. As our destination was on the Iceland, we had to pass over a bridge installed on the backwaters of Arabian Sea. Kochin Shipyard is situated right around this channel. My eyes saw such a huge amount of water for the first time and they preferred to remain wide open for a while to catch the beauty. The over-bridge from which we passed was the third one constructed on the channel. The first one was quite old and was not in use, while the second one was for the light vehicles. Third was ours, on which almost all the heavy

Vehicles were commuting. There was another one, a parallel railway over-bridge. In all, the look was like the Iceland is being connected with four five different types of ropes to the Ernakulam town. Greenery is very common factor here. A very special feature of Kerala greenery that I noticed is liveliness. Nagpur is India’s second greenest city, but to maintain it green, the administration has to work quite hard. Here, nature itself creates and maintains the green of Kochin. After all, it’s God’s own! 

Living the dream and leaving the dream…

To gain something, one has to leave something; the unwritten law proved itself once again on Sunday wee hours, when I left Nagpur for Kochin. As Kerala Express gave its leaving alarm, I started realizing my long cherished dream to attend the Defence Correspondents Course - once in a lifetime opportunity for a journalist. However, in return to this dream, the destiny planned to take something of the very same magnitude - another lifetime opportunity from me.

Each phase of life has its own flavour and it should be enjoyed to the fullest to make life a beautiful feeling. Childhood, school time, college days and bachelor life – every phase should be full of sharable memories; and why not the time of love and marriage? After all, most of the novels and almost all of the movies tell us that, the most sharable stories of life are love stories, and the most beautiful moments are when you are being loved by the person you love the most. Well, the destiny has planned to postpone these moments from my life, in return of the dream opportunity.

My fiancée was officially declared as my would-be wife just a day before I left for this course. And, we didn’t even find enough time to celebrate the occasion. Nothing is sad. But happiness coming in back-to-back packages has brought with it the dilemma that which happiness is bigger and to be celebrated. With this happy-happy and not-so-happy feeling, I left Nagpur for Kerala – God’s own country.

Well, God’s own country is still 22 hours away and my train is passing through Reddy’s own country – Andhra Pradesh right now. It’s a rainy day here in Warangal district and the farms are greener as compared to the farms in Vidarbha. Even the paddy farms are livelier than that of in rice growing Ramtek and Nagardhan area of Nagpur. Water bodies, especially, the farm lakes are pleasant to watch here and they are wealthy enough to make a person from rain-fed Vidarbha a bit envy.

Being a subscriber of Hyderabad edition of The Hindu, I have some idea of what is going on here in Andhra Pradesh. Farmers are suffering here, too; just like they are in Vidarbha. But, after watching the beautiful farm lakes, and considerably big rivers around, I wonder the problem of Andhra farmers can be solved with effective measures. Well, who takes effective measures here? Is the master question – applicable to Andhra Pradesh as well as for Vidarbha. 

But, there is some similarity that joins Vidarbha and Andhra Pradesh. I had been to Lucknow and Bhopal several years back, and I felt a terrible detachment to the land and atmosphere there. But, the Andhra land and the atmosphere is something homely, attached. The color of soil, the greenery, and even the feel in the air is quite homely here. The temples and buildings, houses and huts, bulls and buffaloes – all are like that in Vidarbha. After all, like Vidarbha, this part of land is also struggling for the separate statehood – another joining thread!

As I proceed further through Andhra Pradesh, I will be getting an opportunity to spend some moments at the feet of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirupati, where the train is scheduled to stop for ten minutes. After bowing in front of the Lord from the train itself, I will proceed for the God’s own country tonight.