THUNDER AT NIGHT

THUNDER AT NIGHT

(Continued from my previous blog ‘WE ARE ON THE MOVE’)

The truck lurched to a stop and I woke up with a start. I realised that we had arrived at our destination and jumped out with my kit bag like my friends travelling with me. We had boarded the Army vehicle early in the morning at Silchar in Assam and now arrived at our destination- Teliamora, a small town in Tripura. Stretching out my arms, I tried to shake off the fatigue of 200 km road journey and looked around.

So this was it. Our new hospital, where we had to work for the next few months. But all I could see was this large clearing in the forest with a number of huts neatly laid out. A small sign post with the universally accepted Red Cross sign announced that this was indeed an army Hospital in field conditions. There was not a single building made of brick & mortar anywhere!

Soon we were standing in the office of the Registrar signing our details in the book for new arrivals. We were taken in to see the Commanding Officer (CO) in neat Colonel’s uniform, smoking a pipe, with two rows of medal ribbons on his chest, sitting at a large table with a picture of a beaming Mahatma Gandhi in the background. The CO briefed us about the hospital and stressed on security aspects in the hospital. He told us that we were not to venture out of the hospital area especially after dark as armed sentries were on high alert for enemy intruders. We had to memorize a new password every day and give the word whenever challenged. Otherwise the sentry has orders to shoot intruders, he added grimly.  As we were standing there,I felt a strange rumbling sensation under my feet and soon the furniture in the room started shaking a bit. “Ram Singh” the CO shouted and a soldier standing outside the room quickly rushed inside, saluted and ran to hold the picture of Mahatma Gandhi behind the CO, as it was shaking about. Within a few moments the rumbling stopped and the soldier went back to his place outside the door. I realized that we had just witnessed a small earthquake and these rumblings under the earth were a common feature in this part of the country and everyone just carries on with their jobs without interruption.

We interns (me, Rao, Chandra and Pradeep) were shown our living quarters (actually they were two small tents with two metal cots in each tent). We were told that there was a common bathroom tent and a large mess hut (they called them Bashas) for all officers to relax and another area where a common dining table was arranged for meals. We wore our uniform all the time except during dinner when we could come in with our civilian clothes!

The bashas for the patients were at a distance of few hundred yards away and were designated as surgical wards (4 of them) a medical ward and an isolation ward. The Operation theatres and the ICU were in tin sheds and were backed up by generators. Otherwise the whole area would totally dark at night with soldiers patrolling in torchlight! We saw a big Red Cross sign being painted on the tin roof of the make shift operation theatre and were told this was a protection against aerial bombardment as per Geneva convention! 

As we rested in our tent later that evening, I asked Lt Bhargava if he was as excited as I was! He nodded his head vigorously and told me he was never more thrilled than this. We both realised that we were probably the youngest greenhorns, finding our feet in an adult world of war games. We wished we could share our feelings about this adventure, but sadly there was no way to communicate, as we had no phones, no postal service and no way we could tell our families that we were in a battle zone. We were told that we could write letters to home but should not mention the names of people or places, nor the working condition or hospital work. Each letter will be deposited in a box and will be read by the censoring officer (who will block out any prohibited bits) and then closed. Our families could reply to us as c/o 99 APO (Army Post Office) and the letter will reach us.

At dinner time, the CO introduced us to the other officers and specialists of the hospital and offered us a welcome drink (a traditional offer for all new comers to any army mess). There were nods of approval from the majors & colonels when all of us declined alcohol and asked for soft beverages. Maj Mukherjee, the surgical specialist asked me if I had any experience of surgery and I told them that I had 3 months surgery and 3 months medicine training during internship, which made everyone smile and he reassured me that I would see a lot of surgery very soon. 

“Excuse me Sir” it was our shy and silent friend Lt Rao speaking up, “How far is the..I mean..the..the border from here.”. The CO nodded and took off his pipe from the mouth before answering “Good question from our new officer! Well, during a military operation, the first medical post called RAP is just away from the range of small arms fire and behind RAP, the next post ADS is located 15 km away and the large hospitals like ours are around 25-35 km away from the battle front. Don’t worry, you are safe here!”

An army waiter in uniform started serving hot soup to all the officers in the mess and I realised that we were all feeling very hungry. Normally we have a music system ( a record player with gentle music) always a popular fixture in any army mess, and I was very fond of the music in our hospital officers mess back in Barrackpore. I looked around for any music player in this makeshift officers mess and asked if any music was available. Maj Bhaduri, the radiologist smiled at my enquiries and told me that they had only one battery operated transistor radio in the mess. “As for music, don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of music every night,” Everyone in the mess laughed loudly at his words as they got up for dinner but the joke was lost on us the new interns!

Later that night, as I lay on the cot in my tent trying to catch up on sleep on my first night in the new place, my mind was restless as I was wondering where my journey is taking me and how my parents must be worried about me as they followed the war news! Slowly I drifted off in to a light sleep thanks to the silent forest around the hospital area.

Suddenly, the silence of the night was shattered by a loud booming sound in the distance. Even as I and Bhargav woke up with a start, more booms started in the distance. We scrambled out of our tent in our pyjama suits in alarm and looked at the direction of the sounds and could see the distant dark sky showing brief flashes of light as the artillery guns of the Indian Army started to reply to the firing of enemy guns from across the border. I looked around and found no other officers had stepped outside their tents as probably become used to this cannon sounds night after night. ‘Boom..Boom..continued the sounds as the Huge guns spoke to each other across the border for the rest of the night.

Now I could understand the joke at dinner time that’We are going to have music every night’!

I realised that this was the true life in the army and we have arrived at our destination!

(to be continued further, please watch this space!)