Sports Officer At INS Hansa
By
Cdr BS Hothi
Dated : 15 Dec 2020 (IST)
INS HANSA is largest Naval Air Station of Indian Navy at Dabolim,Goa. INS HANSA was commissioned on 5 September 1961 at Sulur near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. After the liberation of Goa from Portuguese rule in December 1961, INS Hansa was transferred to Dabolim.
It has never been easy to be a sports officer of this big Air station. I got the chance to hold this ‘appointment’ when I was Sub Lt, probably facilitated on account of my reputation as a sportsman.
I was very young and out of Punjab university athletics team. My pet events were 400, 800, 1500 and cross country race. Another sport which I excelled myself was rifle shooting.
I won gold medal twice in 1970 and 71 for young officers match number ten and for rapid fire match…Chaudhry, who was a great shooter and represented India in Olympics, came second…
Commanding Officer, HANSA was himself a very keen sportsman and was determined to see that his unit did well in sporting events.
The best I know of my tenure as a young officer was to create golf course and HANSA playing grounds…..
Commander Chopra, the CO of HANSA then, called me in his office and gave me the plan to build golf course and playing grounds.. I had no clue as to how to do it but took on the job..
My first aim was to get paddy fields levelled on both sides of HANSA road. The agency to do this job was MES( Military Engineering Services).
Accordingly, I went to Garrison Engineer (Works) who, in few seconds threw me out of his office by saying that it will take six months and a whooping sum of seventy thousands….a very big amount of those times…?
I returned like a bad penny but never lost focus…Captain gave me a clue and that was my savior; he told me to tap Punjabi labor force which had come to build Zuari Agro Chemical Factory.
I mounted my new Jawa and headed towards Madgaon area…few minutes into the travel, I saw few Sardars sitting on charpai having evening fenny..I was also a Sardar then with turban, stopped my bike and was greeted with the warm hearts of Punjabis.
:Sir ji baitho..oh mundya sahib layee kursee lya te naal jaraa saaf suthra glass bhi lai aa.” ( Sir, Please sit, Oye Boy,bring a chair and a clean glass for Saheb). I was touched and preferred to sit with them on Manji..( Cot)
Fenni went down the throats and we actually felt in Punjab..
I finally came to my actual reason for sitting with them….”yaar meri ek problem hai jo tuseen hal kar sakde ho”…
( Friends I have a problem, which you all can solve…..)
“Sir jee hukam taan karo..jaan vi hazr hai”
(Sir, Please Order, Our life is for you)
” Mere veero dekho..jaan di haale koyee lod naheen par saada thoda jiha kam kar dyo keonke tuhade truck saade base whichon di jaande aa…give and take kar lao”
( My friends, I don’t need your life, but I need some work, your trucks go to our base also, please give and take some for me)
“Sir ji agar naa vi jaande hunde taan vi aseen karange. kumm ki hai taan dasso?
( Sir ji, Even if trucks don’t go, we will do the work, tell us the work?)
” Saade kush khet padre kar deo.Tuhade kol bull dozer hunn jis naal kush time naheen lagna.”
( Our Farm fields need levelling, your bulldozers can do that)
” Sir ji done..kal nu aseen do janne te ek bull dozer Hansa wich 8 baje hazr ho jayega> Tuseen taan uthe hovoge ji”
( Sirji, Tomorrow, two of us with Bulldozer will be at Hansa by 8 AM, please you be there)
“Bilkul main uthe hi hovaanga poora din tuhade naal”
( Sure I will be there with you whole day)
I think I had my fifth or sixth fenny, I dont know how, but I did manage to reach Officers mess in one piece…very happy at meeting my Punjabi brotherns.
Sure enough, the guys, as promised, reached Hansa gate at 8am. I recieved them and took them direct to our sailors galley. They wanted to have meat and fulka right then and there…we had no problem at that…dupehr da khana ban rihaa si..koyee gall naheen see uthe.
To cut the long story short, two of them levelled grounds on both sides by 5’O’clock. The first guy got down at twelve and had a bottle of beer where as the other guy got on and only got off at five…
Between both of them they levelled everything possible on both sides of the road. I had requested Captain to come to the grounds only at five and not before…which he agreed to.
CO arrived there, to be absolutely astonished at what he saw…we all sat down under the mango tree and praised those two guys to no end..
Captain asked them what drink would they would like to have…they wanted whiskey which was there in a minute…I had already kept with me as I could sense their taste….
After having few drinks, Captain asked them one question…Oh vai mundyo, meri car Ambh taak kis taraan ayegee..there is no road here.
( Oh my boys, how will my Car reach there, there is no Road?)
One guy wanted to come the next day and make the road…
“Oye adha kam karn da mera koyee iradaa naheen..deh mainu chaabi. Main hune hi road bana dendaan..ehde ch kehda mantar padan di lod aa”
( Oye, I don’t leave work for next day, give me keys of Bulldozer, I will make the road today only)
The guy got on the bulldozer, pushed all the boulders up and made that road leading to golf hut in another hour…He then told captain..
“Sir ji…apne driver nu kahoo ke oh gaddi thale lai ke avei.”
( Sir ji, Tell your driver to bring the car down)
I truly felt proud that those jat Sikhs did in ten hours what MES wanted six months, for a cost of two good meals, four bottles of beer for lunch and for one bottle of whiskey between four of us….
Tail peace
That road still exists the same way I got it made except that now it has been tarred.
Our south side grounds became the HANSA playing area which now have two football fields, one hockey field, a volleyball court and a modern gym that came up sometime in 90s.
….Whenever I go visit HANSA, I look at these amenities with nostalgia, and reminisce the contribution of burly Sardars in probably the most unexpected part of the country…
