Keeping Up with the Jones' in India: Parents and Parades; the countdown to the end of the course begins!

After the hectic week Louise and the girls had with JP and Doris we didn’t have to wait too long before our next visitors when Neil’s Mum and Dad came to visit for 2 weeks. Daisy and Ava were very excited to see their Nana and Bampa and had made a ‘Countdown Wallchart’ to count off the days till our visitors arrived. Daisy enjoyed crossing of the days with ‘sticky stars’, just like counting down the days with an advent calendar but without the chocolate; much to Daisy’s disappointment.

Nana and bampa with Daisy and Ava

Out and about at Lambs Rock

Carole and Len arrived on Sunday 04th Feb, and Neil and Anandh headed down the hill at 5am to meet them as they landed at 0730 in the morning. Despite the long journey they were both full of beans and Neil and his Mum and dad talked all the way up the mountain, making the 2 ½ hour journey fly by. During their visit Louise and the girls kept them both entertained, as Neil’s time off was quite limited due to a busy exercise period on the course. All the local sights of the area were covered, Upper Coonoor, Lower Coonoor, Ooty, Dolphins Nose, the ‘Toy Train’ from Wellington, Tea Plantations, Lambs Rock, local parks and a wide variety of playgrounds; much to the enjoyment of Daisy and Ava.

Family photo at Lambs Rock

Tea tasting at Tranqilitea!

Just missing a cow on the toy train to Ooty!!

We also had a busy social time in the evening, with us heading out for various meals and parties with Indian officers on the course. Mum and Dad’s visit was non-stop and they certainly enjoyed themselves and had a hectic if relaxing time during their 2 weeks in Wellington. They were made to feel very welcome wherever they went, and were treated wonderfully by all our friends. They also took full advantage of the great clothes shopping in Coonoor, with Dad buying 3 pairs of trousers and 4 shirts; more than he would normally buy for himself in a year. One pair of trousers and all the shirts were hand-made-to-measure and he was very happy with the end result. Mum also caught the Indian shopping bug, and went home with a beautifully woven, lace pattern Indian top.

Nana in her new Indian outfit

Bamapa and Ava

Nana, Daisy and Louise

All aboard the Toy Train

Nana reading stories at bedtime

All-in-all, a very fruitful trip on the shopping front. The time that Mum and Dad spent here flew by and just after they’d arrived, or so it seemed, it was time for them to head back. Thankfully there were no tearful goodbyes as it’ll only be 2 months before we are heading down the hill to Coimbatore to travel back home.

During the final few days of Neil’s parents visit the final College level exercise, Ex KURUKSHETRA got underway. The exercise involved all 3 wings of the college and the entire student body taking up the roles of 2 warring countries, Agar and Multan. Neil was appointed as the Air Vice Marshal in charge of administration and so was given the rank to wear; something he enjoyed very much, although after 2 ½ into the 3 ½ week exercise the novelty had worn off! As well as being in charge of all administrative aspects, Neil also took responsibility for all the press reporting for his assigned forces.

Playing a 2-Star - Neil as an Air Vice Marshal!

His most important role, however, was ordering the Samosas, Jalebi and Chicken patties for the 6 o-clock tea break every evening. As we write this blog, the exercise has 3 days left to run, and whilst it has been enjoyable and given good learning vale, the whole thing is starting to drag and could have been completed in around 2 weeks. That said, this is the last major assessed phase of the course with the 6^th Tutorial, which starts in 2 weeks time, consisting of mainly briefings and guest lectures.

During the exercise Neil celebrated his 43^rd Birthday, or 50^th as a number of the Officers on the Air Wing congratulated him on. Birthday and anniversary celebrations are really big in India, and each Officer took it upon themselves to personally wish Neil ‘Many happy Returns of the Day’. Some even rang him late into the evening if they’d missed him during the day. As the working hours of the College are quite long during the exercise, the birthday celebrations were quite low key. Thankfully, Neil’s AOC let him finish at 6pm, so he and Louise could head out for dinner. They were joined by Prashant and Aparna, a naval officer and his wife, with whom Louise and Neil have become good friends. Dinner was nice and relaxed in the Kingscliff restaurant in Ooty. A few beers, some wine and a well cooked plate of fish and chips allowed us all to celebrate Neil’s happy day and make his first Indian birthday a memorable one.

Earlier in the course Neil had visited the Madras Regimental Centre (MRC), an Infantry Regiments basic training unit for its cadets. The Regiment has a long and illustrious history both under the British and as part of the Indian Army since Independence.

At the beginning of March, the International Officers were invited back to the Regimental centre to be guests at the ‘Pass-Out’ parade of some 100 cadets who had been undergoing basic recruit training for the last 6-months. As ever, the weather was beautiful as we paraded in our No1 uniform, before being ushered into the front row for a great view of the proceedings. The MRC parade square is an impressive setting with the classrooms, offices and accommodation blocks of the Regiment framing the parade round and really adding a wonderful resonance to the words of command as they are barked out and the slamming of boots into the concrete as each drill movement was executed immaculately on the words of command.

The eldest cadets were only 18, with most of them being 17 to 17 ½. Their drill was outstanding with the discipline, uniformity and precision extremely impressive. The parade was reviewed by a 3-Star General who had travelled up form Chennai; a particularly impressive man who wanted to meet all the international students and was very engaging with us all.

We were very hosted by the Madras Regiment after the parade, and as all the cadets headed off to their various units to commence their trade training, we were treated to samosas, cake chai and coffee. The whole event had only lasted a couple of hours, but it was a real experience to attend. Louise had also been invited and we both thought it was a really fantastic occasion; Neil also enjoyed the 3 hours off from Ex KURUKSHETRA.

As the exercise continues, so does the course. In fact things are really happening at a pace now. There are only 8 weeks of the course left. We still don’t know where we will be living when we get back to the UK, as Neil is awaiting the results of an In-Command Board which is due to sit sometime late March. That said, we have provisionally booked our removals and the British High Commission have booked our return flights to the UK; so we arrive back at London Heathrow on 29 April 2013. That said, 8 weeks is still a long time and we still have a lot to do. In the next 10 days we are travelling to Delhi and Agra to visit the sights of the capital and, of course, the Taj Mahal; we’ll tell you all about it in the next blog!