WHEN SOLDIERS BULLIED US

           WHEN SOLDIERS BULLIED US

                                                           .......AN ANECDOTE

It was a sudden programme. The same evening, Kishore had telephoned me to tell me that Apte Sahib was conducting another Personality Development Program at Lucknow. I didn’t want to miss and decided to go.

May and June are the months of vacations. One can’t get the reservation in trains on a short notice during these months. So, we decided to travel on unreserved tickets by The Lucknow Mail.

We reached New Delhi Railway Station at 9 pm, bought tickets and waited for the train. The departure time was 10:05 pm.

We boarded the General compartment which was the last bogie in the long train and looked for seats. It was my instance of travelling in an unreserved compartment. Most of the seats were occupied by Army men; an enigma to understand how so many people reached the compartment before two young men as we were.

Ten or more people were sitting on a berth that is meant for only three people in reserved compartments. People were at all places, on the floor and also on the luggage racks. Some lone Army personnel lay on the upper berths. They refused flagrantly when somebody asked for a little space to sit.

On one of the seats could accommodate two of us. All soldiers were sitting there. They obliged us.  Not comfortable, but we had a seat and our legs could relax to attend a two-days PDP just after reaching Lucknow.

The soldiers started boozing soon after the train left New Delhi. The label ‘Sundari’ on the bottle showed that it was a cheap country made whisky. They were twelve in all; three lying on the upper berths and nine sitting on the lower berths.  There was a middle-aged person among them whom they were addressing as ‘Sir’. Their language was filthy and abusive. After an hour, high on boozing, they started harassing the passengers on the side berths. Nobody dared to retaliate. That, perhaps, didn’t interest them. They wanted a belligerent and more aggressive prey.

Another half an hour passed. Their binge-drinking was still on as was their tormenting of passengers.

The guys on the upper berth were more notorious. They would ruffle the hair of the passengers, passing by or standing near them. Seeing a woman coming, they would drop their hand in the passage, already narrowed by the standing crowd.

When a woman and her husband confronted, they thrashed him savagely. There were many other soldiers in the bogie. All collected and warned everyone against meddling in.

After that, they were in high dudgeon and asked Kishore and me to vacate the seat. We didn’t comply and ignored.

They did, again after a few minutes.

I politely replied, ‘Everybody is comfortable. Why should you have any problem?’

The ‘Sir’ among them took the lead.

‘What do you do?’ He asked, sternly.

‘He is a teacher and I am an engineer.’ Kishore answered him.

‘Really!’ He wrinkled his brows and mimed to his peers, ‘A teacher and an engineer are sitting with us.’

‘My father worked in Indian Air Force. In a way, I belong to the family of Armed Forces,’ I said, trying to influence them with my Air Force connection.

‘Another lie,’ the ‘sir’ said scornfully. He didn’t seem a fraction more cultured than others, ‘stand… at once. Vacate the seat.’

‘Have we done any wrong to you? Did we misbehave?’ I asked.

‘Dare you?’ One, sitting beside the ‘Sir’ spoke.

‘Don’t argue. Stand up or I will throw you out of the train.’ One, on the upper berth, spoke.

We stared at them controlling rage.

The soldier, sitting next to Kishore kicked him on his thigh.

Another one, hanging above, pulled my hair.

We stood up.

‘This is highly unbecoming of a soldier,’ I said.

‘Bloody bastard. Prophet! Keep that f***ing wisdom inside you. Now, I will not allow you in this compartment. Get down at Barelley or we’ll throw you out.’ The ‘Sir’ said.

We didn’t argue further. When the train stopped at Barelley, we got down and boarded in a reserved compartment. The Ticket Examiner was sympathetic; hearing our explanation he didn’t ask for a fine and issued one seat to us for a meagre two hundred rupees. He told us that it was a routine occurrence.

We completed the rest of our journey peacefully and comfortably.

Years after the incident, I feel no malice for those soldiers who I feel, were class 4 recruits.

I have seen the life of Army men closely and have utmost respect for them.

The bitterness those soldiers treated us with, was not in their culture and blood. It was due to the harsh conditions and the discriminatory environment of the armed services.

         Workplace bullying is no more or less frequent in the Army than in many                other demanding, high-stress occupations. However, when workplace bullying does occur in the armed forces, it may well be harsher and more aggressive due to the chain-of-command structure of the military. My point of recalling and sharing this bad experience here is to point out and stress the need of improving the work conditions in the armed forces.

The one-off incident can be overlooked. We do ignore occasional bad behaviours of our friends, family, parents, children and neighbours because we know that they are not bad always.

The soldiers do great a job for us civilians. We bank on them in all emergencies. They oblige us every time without complaining. They will do better when we keep them smiling.

A smiling soldier will spread more smiles than they do.