Lunch at Officers’ Mess

A Civilian’s Dilemma!

Subha ka nashta room pe karenge!

Dopeher ka khana Mess me khayenge!

Madam ki shopping CSD me karenge!

“Koyi Shaq?”

“No Sir!” my josh-type reply came hearing his full day plan.

With the almighty being graceful, my man was in town and I had all the reasons to be super happy. It was the month of May and with that came the soul wrenching heat. I hate summer, but more than me there’s someone who hate this season to the core. With back to back cancellation of leave I had almost given up on destiny and was completely hopeless about our much awaited meeting. But these men in uniform tend to surprise you at the moments when you least expect that.

His CO finally decided to show some mercy on him and the day before his sailing was about to start, his leave was granted which was in no way expected. Okay! So my man is in Indian Navy, ruling the ocean and my heart at the same time.

I have clearly no idea of why and what things take such turn whenever he plans to meet me. As he was the CO of one ship [“Chhota Ship” according to him!], his schedules were always packed. As he applied for the leave knowing there’s no upcoming sailing for a week or so, destiny started playing all its trump cards to make things difficult and unbearable for certain reasons. The approval was about to come when suddenly another CO, who is his coursemate, fell ill for which he was unable to sail.

By then I had made all possible plans to spend some awesome time with him. Summer never seemed this soothing before. But wait!! It didn't last for long. I was in office when his call took away all my attention and I rushed outside to answer it.

"Hiiiiiii. So I have planned everything and counting days! I am so happy!" I said these all at one go!

"Listen!" his meek voice came.

"No! Don't tell me! Just don't," sensing the worst nightmare coming true I was trying to run away from the reality.

"I can't help. He's not well and at least four ships have to go for sailing!" he narrated in vain as my heart wasn't ready to accept it.

"Fine. Bye!" I disconnected the call and he also didn't get back to me for few hours knowingly.

I mean, it was just the matter of 5 days and the leave was on the verge of getting cancelled.

"In Navy, don’t be happy till you reach your home. Because they can even delay the flight to hijack you from there," these were his words when he came to meet me the first time.

Knowing every circumstances I was still unable to cope up with the situation.

It was the day before when he was supposed to come and meet me. I got a call at night, "I am coming!! But wait. For some work!"

I didn't care what the second line was but all my blues certainly turned into red hearing the first line. "I am coming!"

As already mentioned that God was graceful. One of his seniors came to his rescue knowing that it was the third time that his leave was getting cancelled and he handled all the odds like a saviour!

So finally my man was with me! I bunked my office and it was early in the morning when I reached his room where he was sleeping peacefully.

As decided earlier, he was supposed to wait outside the mess so that I can know where was he staying. But wait. He was so engrossed in sleeping that he didn't pick up my call. It was about ten minutes that I was waiting outside the "Mandley House" for my man in shining armour, oh wait! Let me correct, my man in sleepers, squeezing his sleepy eyes to come outside.

Seeing me standing outside and making several calls in vain one of the jawans came towards me asking, "Ma'am do you want any help?"

Now the biggest issue started. Being a complete civilian I was totally away from this royal fraternity and was completely puzzled as what to answer and how to reciprocate. With a smile on face I shove off all the nervousness and was about to answer when a voice knocked my eardrums, "Hey! What are you doing outside?"

I turned my head and it was him! As described earlier, he didn't disappoint me. He came exactly the way I thought of him.

The jawan saluted his 'sahab' and went back to his duty.

"Why didn't you wake me up? I would have come to pick you up!"

"Oh really? Where's your phone?" I immediately shoot my questions.

"Oh! I just saw your call," he was about to explain when I cut his words saying, "Not call. Correct it. Calls!!!"

But his smile melted all my anger and we went to his room from where we were supposed to execute all our pending plans like... Movie, shopping, lunch, long walk, long OLA drive and what not. All planning went in vain when he started narrating his plans. He was too lazy to go anywhere so his planning was around the cantonment area only, where being a civilian I wasn’t at all comfortable. Because we civilians are not at all accustomed to the hardcore discipline and here every second thing including the trees, the cars in the parking are all well-disciplined.

“No Way! I am feeling like a potato,” I promptly said.

“It’s quite normal. Why you overreacting?” he tried to make me feel comfortable.

“I’ve never been to such lace. What if someone says anything? How am I supposed to reply?”… “What if they ask me who am I?”…“ What if I fail to follow the table rules?”

My continuous questions were hitting him up!

“Relax. Nobody will say anything. You are with me so just relax. I will be there with you!” he comforted me with a big smile.

But that wasn’t enough. Somewhere I was still nervous. After making the plans it was now about the dress. “What should I wear?” I shouted all of a sudden as I didn’t have any clue of the dressing code. He came out wearing formals and smiled.

“You’re perfect! Don’t panic. If you don’t want to go it’s okay!”

“No. I will go,” I didn’t want to let him down so I was almost ready to have my lunch. So my simple kurta got approved for the purpose.

The place where he was staying was five minutes away from the mess, Army Mess to be very precise! For few moments I forgot all my dilemmas and was enjoying the walk; holding his hand and taking little steps together. The best part of the cantonment areas is the serenity and the placid calmness.

“Jai Hind Saab,” the voice pulled me back to reality. 

“Holy shit!” I murmured as I read the board… “Officers’ Mess”

“Ghar jana hai (I want to go back home)” my heart started beating faster.

“Relax!” he whispered, and we went inside the mess.

As I entered, I could feel the royalty at every corner of the place; well decorated, properly maintained, well-furnished and moreover away from the world of civilians where I belong.

I was busy admiring the whole place which had many hidden tales behind it. At the left hand side there was the bar where two people were talking about some or the other thing while one jawan was talking to him. I was standing like an infant who had no idea about the place where she was taken to. Right in front of me there was a group picture of men in uniform which was probably there for many years.

As their conversation ended the jawan asked him to come inside and I silently followed him as I didn’t want to be left alone for even a single moment. Now leaving behind the entrance we landed in another decorated part of the Mess which was probably for people to sit and talk [It was completely my view]. The sofas were placed perfectly whereas the center table was just at the center.

“What happened?” he came towards me and asked.

“Ain’t it too empty?” I asked.

“Yes it is. He was telling me that most of the people will have their lunch at their places and as it’s Sunday, so mostly people don’t come at lunch hour!” he winked and briefed me what the jawan told him.

That was a little relief that I didn’t need to panic for any reason. Now it was the time for lunch and I entered that part of the mess where we had our lunch. A long [Read it as loooooong!] table with around 16 chairs were at ‘Savdhan’ and the combo of white tablecloth and the dark brown wood were just too classy to handle.

“In our wardroom,” he was about to say something when I interrupted, “What’s wardroom?”

“In Navy it’s Wardroom! Okay?” he smiled and answered.

“Oh! Why are these things so perfect? I mean just perfect!” 

He kept smiling till the time they arrived with some mouth-watering dishes: Idli, Sambar, Dosa and White Chutni.

They kept serving everything hot and amazingly delicious. Trust my words, you won’t find a single comparison to the dishes which you will once have at the Mess. I simply loved the meal and somehow overcome my fear as well.

As we finished the meal I couldn’t stop myself from complementing the dishes. Together we thanked them for a delicious meal and came outside. I giggled and said, “I was just pretending to be nervous. It wasn’t that tough!” He laughed and we took five minutes’ walk back to the room.

But the dilemmas are somewhere there inside which will trigger once again when this civilian will encounter some other side of Defence Life.