Horse sense

The only horse I was close to before joining NDA was chirutha which drew Chinnan’s carriage. When we visited our grandfather during summer holidays in the late 1950s, we were always received at the railway station in the wee hours of the morning by Chinnan with his carriage and Appukuttan with his cart drawn by a single bullock. While the former was for us to travel, the latter was for carrying our luggage. Chirutha was a perky skinny creature well looked after by Chinnan who would order us to alight and cross the river at the ford on foot to relieve the stress on the filly.

It was in NDA I saw a real good horse as seen in the movies. There we were seated in a semi circle in front of a huge horse tended by a burly ustad who was explaining the anatomy of a horse. Starting at the tip of the nose he traced the pointer along the complete length of the horse until the tip of the tail and beamed “cadets, isko pure ko kahatehain goda”. He then went on explain all body parts et al. I was impressed as this creature which was many times more magnificent than Chirutha – “Iska nam hain Ravan aur isse aap aur milenge” he concluded. How ominous was that ‘warning’, we realised only once we were well into our equitation training. Ravan was reserved for late arrivals and the errant pupils. This I suspect Ravan knew through his horse sense.

He would never hold on to a rider. After a couple of attempts this cadet (let us call him SS; he left the NDA in a later term) who was perpetually late with a punctured bike, could be seen holding the reins and going in circles along with Ravan. This became a constant sight in our first term equitation classes. SS parted ways with the course after the first term. Then he was probably never late for the classes. Ravan passed away in action during the following year…did he miss SS? One will never know. I too fail to recall vividly the last days of Ravan.

Though I did not excel in equestrian sports, I learnt a lot about horse sense in NDA.

What is in a name? II

“What is in a name?” the original bard asked. A rose is a rose call it by any name he opined. Who was I to oppose him? I just believed him as I believed that Caesar’s wife was the most beautiful woman to be born after eve and ghosts were for real.  The trouble with a name like Kalpathy Lakshmanan Viswanathan actually started with my ambition to join NDA. Let me explain. Some of us South Indians have half our address in our name. Kalpathy was the name of my village followed by my father’s name and finally my name. The UPSC form asked to fill in my first name, middle name and last name (or surname or whatever). Adding to the predicament was there was not enough space to write in my name in full capital letters while I did my best to fill it all in the space provided. If I went V,L,K as asked. it is more than likely I will be known as ‘Kalpathy’ and thereby lose my identity. If I went V, KL well a better option. But again I would lose my own name V. After all I had to fill in the form so I risked it all and went V, L, K. Then somewhere along the way I was asked “Name to be printed” or given some such option and I promptly wrote KL Viswanathan. Much better than a Sashimohan TV, I know. I have somehow managed to retain my identity and name since then. That I consider as an achievement below par (as in golf and not in real life). 

The next test was when I joined NDA. Firstly a lot of my course mates were annoyed at my name, what with having to spell it at the drop of a hat. I was down in the dumps to have annoyed those who would be my friends until they and I met CVSS Ratnakumar. My name was a lot easier. But yet I was called by many names, though nobody called me names. It was the effervescent Kuru Hasang (May he rest in peace) a dear friend, who christened me Kelly. He of course could not pronounce any portion of my name legibly. ‘KL’  was tried and discarded for its rigidity. ‘Vish’ sounded too subtle and hopeful (we were not in those days supposed to exhibit ‘hope’ publicly) as first month first termers. It was then probably we watched Clint Eastwood in Kelly’s heroes. Whatever, Kuru Hasang called me ‘Kelly’. The name stuck in the Academies in such a manner that many CMs even now possibly do not know my real name. This was true in service too where ‘Vish’ (we could be more hopeful after commission) overtook ‘Kelly’…but that did not change matters as I suspect a majority of my acquaintances still do not know my real name.

What the heck. The bard was right after all. What is in a name?