LT COL NOEL ELLIS
24/VII/2022
What a cloudy morning! Sun was totally screened out. Morning appeared to be like late evening. A shower in the night had washed each leaf. Leaves with bright shiny faces greeted me and I greeted them back. What was in store ahead? I took a walk to unravel it.
Next to the Colony Temple there is an old well. A pigeon sat looking curiously inside. It twisted and turned its head side to side as if searching for something desperately. Out flew his partner and he took off behind it. Atta, dal, sabzi, bhaji, doodh dahi are none of their business but daily survival definitely is. Off they must have gone for a ‘peck-peck’ patrol.
As I approached the colony gate leading to the riverfront, a loud call by the ‘Teeter Brigade’ greeted me. It feels nice to be welcomed, as if you are a VIP coming to inspect a parade. Moment the staff car approaches the parade ground, buglers sound their call. The timing is so perfect that as the staff car halts, ‘notes’ are over. That’s what happened. Call sounded like “chak-chak, procedure-procedure-furniture-furniture, chak-chak”. Then there was this eerie silence.
We played hide and seek. I hid behind a clump of bushes. Out came marching a family of seven partridges. One by one they popped over the bund, one was observing, one was looking for its path, one following and the last one keeping a close watch on the rear. It appeared like a typical patrol where you have your areas of responsibilities and observation clearly defined. Suddenly, all of them halted as if asking, ‘Scout number one fire kahan se aya’.
They had to cross a kutcha track about ten feet wide. The partridge patrol halted like a typical ‘army manoeuvre’. All ducked and lay as low as possible. The patrol leader rose up on its legs, with his neck stretched and came to the edge of the track. Another procedure of ‘dahine dekh and bayen dekh’, while the rest of them did the ‘listening drill’ trying to sense danger, if any. All clear was given with a ‘Chak-chak’. Why did the partridges cross the track? Dana-Paani, I suppose.
Have you guys ever stood at a level crossing and seen a brown colour goods train passing by at full speed? The bogies go zup-zup-zup-zup-zup. If you try and count how many there are, the speed of the train is such that you keep rocking your head left to right and back and lose count after two.
That’s what these partridges did. Zup-Zup-Zup. They maintained their distance perfectly and moved with such lightning speed that I could not count how many crossed over. First partridge hit the end of the track at full speed, followed by the second and then the third. I thought they all had crossed.
They actually took a tactical pause. Then the last four zipped in the same manner. The last one after crossing said, Chak-chak. ‘All in’, I suppose. Like we used to do the counting drill after we crossed any obstacle, patting each other’s haversack and saying numbers in increasing order.
I was wondering if the ‘army pamphlet’ on patrolling was made after observing these birds. They blend with the ground so perfectly, that if they halt you may not spot them or you would mistake them for a dry leaf or just a jutting sand clump.
My day was made. I too tried to do some ‘dauro-leto-rengo-aar pakro-aur fire with a camera karo’. Not realising that the ground was wet and mosquitoes found me. The “hunt” with the camera had to be abandoned.
I kept thinking of my basic army training, which at times we used to circumvent. Risk was known and still we took a chance. Will the partridges survive if they forgot the basic teachings of ‘watch and then move’? Will the Army guys take note? I wonder!!!!!!!!!!
JAI HIND
© NOEL ELLIS
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