Mingling Slogans
Mingling of Slogans
We had to connect two freshly cut roads between two adjacent hills directly by constructing a Bailey Bridge between them while I was posted in BRO somewhere in 1995. It was a remote location ahead of another remote place called ‘Pongchau' in Arunachal Pradesh . After the construction of abutments was completed on which the bridge was finally to be rested we started to construct the bridge. Constructing it was not as simple as we do it in sapper courses under strict guidance of experts as the same was to be constructed by illiterate labour who were not conversant with any common language known to us for acting as a lingua franca. They were from the tribes who followed the jungle rule. The only person who could make them understand of what is to be done was their own mate. I had only a JCO(junior commissioned officer) with me who with some difficulty was able to converse with that mate to make him understand what is to be done.
We first created a backspace by cutting the home side hill for days together with a bulldozer where the counterweight of the bridge was planned to be kept. For executing the job I would first pass the instructions s to the JCO, which he would pass it on to the mate and who would finally translate it to his work force after which the work was actually executed on ground.
They termed the Bailey panel as' Khey', lifting the panel on to their forearms as' eeee' and pushing it as ‘OOOOO' of what I understood. They initially had problems of handling such a heavy load but after a few hours they grasped the technique which we take 6 months to do in our YOs course. It took me 3 days to make half of the bridge as we kept on joining the panels and pushing it ahead on the rollers so that the 110 feet long bridge would get completed some day. We would work for 2 hrs at a stretch doing Khey, eeeeee, oooooooo and would then rest a while in which they had fried crabs which they ate with a pinch of salt while we had our tea made in situ. This carried on till such time that the day finally came when I had planned to land the nose of the bridge on the rollers at the far bank side abutment. They did not know the significance of the nose of the bridge for first two days but when the bridge was about to land on the rollers on the far bank side it was a great excitement for them and sense of satisfaction for me. I only feared that there should be no mistake in deciding the counterweight in the restricted space or else the bridge could fall down 100 feet below into the gorge. That day I prayed and finally passed orders after carrying out all my safety checks saying,
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Ahead went the bridge along with my heart and with a thump it landed on the far bank roller saving my heart from sinking down.
Everyone jumped around as it was a great achievement especially for them. In the excitement I being a Bengal Sapper shouted the sikh slogan at the top of my voice,
"Boleeeeeeeeee Soooooooooooo Nihaaaaaaaaaaaal!"
My ears expecting to hear "Satsriiii akaaaaaal" instead heard
"KI JAI" in a loud voice which shaked the valley. It was a reflex action on excitement on which I was tuned to in the unit hence not my fault.
I did a tenure as a OC of a Park in MES at Allahabad in UP where we had Mandir Puja every Monday ending with the OC shouting the Hindu slogan (as per the old traditions going on there)
"Bajrang Bali Ki-------------"
followed by the troops replying in chorus ----------------"JAI"
My ears would not have been surprised if they had heard "Satsriiiiiiiiakal" instead of "JAI" this time as they already had such an experience.
We had to connect two freshly cut roads between two adjacent hills directly by constructing a Bailey Bridge between them while I was posted in BRO somewhere in 1995. It was a remote location ahead of another remote place called ‘Pongchau' in Arunachal Pradesh . After the construction of abutments was completed on which the bridge was finally to be rested we started to construct the bridge. Constructing it was not as simple as we do it in sapper courses under strict guidance of experts as the same was to be constructed by illiterate labour who were not conversant with any common language known to us for acting as a lingua franca. They were from the tribes who followed the jungle rule. The only person who could make them understand of what is to be done was their own mate. I had only a JCO(junior commissioned officer) with me who with some difficulty was able to converse with that mate to make him understand what is to be done.
We first created a backspace by cutting the home side hill for days together with a bulldozer where the counterweight of the bridge was planned to be kept. For executing the job I would first pass the instructions s to the JCO, which he would pass it on to the mate and who would finally translate it to his work force after which the work was actually executed on ground.
They termed the Bailey panel as' Khey', lifting the panel on to their forearms as' eeee' and pushing it as ‘OOOOO' of what I understood. They initially had problems of handling such a heavy load but after a few hours they grasped the technique which we take 6 months to do in our YOs course. It took me 3 days to make half of the bridge as we kept on joining the panels and pushing it ahead on the rollers so that the 110 feet long bridge would get completed some day. We would work for 2 hrs at a stretch doing Khey, eeeeee, oooooooo and would then rest a while in which they had fried crabs which they ate with a pinch of salt while we had our tea made in situ. This carried on till such time that the day finally came when I had planned to land the nose of the bridge on the rollers at the far bank side abutment. They did not know the significance of the nose of the bridge for first two days but when the bridge was about to land on the rollers on the far bank side it was a great excitement for them and sense of satisfaction for me. I only feared that there should be no mistake in deciding the counterweight in the restricted space or else the bridge could fall down 100 feet below into the gorge. That day I prayed and finally passed orders after carrying out all my safety checks saying,
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Ahead went the bridge along with my heart and with a thump it landed on the far bank roller saving my heart from sinking down.
Everyone jumped around as it was a great achievement especially for them. In the excitement I being a Bengal Sapper shouted the sikh slogan at the top of my voice,
"Boleeeeeeeeee Soooooooooooo Nihaaaaaaaaaaaal!"
My ears expecting to hear "Satsriiii akaaaaaal" instead heard
"KI JAI" in a loud voice which shaked the valley. It was a reflex action on excitement on which I was tuned to in the unit hence not my fault.
I did a tenure as a OC of a Park in MES at Allahabad in UP where we had Mandir Puja every Monday ending with the OC shouting the Hindu slogan (as per the old traditions going on there)
"Bajrang Bali Ki-------------"
followed by the troops replying in chorus ----------------"JAI"
My ears would not have been surprised if they had heard "Satsriiiiiiiiakal" instead of "JAI" this time as they already had such an experience.
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