The Moment Of Darkness Had Befallen- The Inside Story.
*_Light interlude....._*
*Humour in Uniform*
The sleepy little Cantonment was suddenly abuzz with hectic activities preparing for the General’s visit.
The Commanding Officer (CO), made meticulous plans to cover scheduled activities & catered for all the contingencies – well, nearly all. The tradition bound General tolerated no deviations, particularly when it came to dinner night in the Officers’ Mess. He was known to have ticked off many officers on this count, in the past.
Obviously a better part of the CO’s efforts was directed towards making the dinner night a grand success. All officers were to wear newly stitched mess dresses. The Officers’ Mess building underwent a facelift; crockery, cutlery & the furniture were inspected with a hawk’s eye & replacements & repairs carried out; mess staff was put through a refresher course & liveried afresh. Rehearsals were held every alternate day.
Still one problem continued to elude a satisfactory solution. Frequent power failures lasting several hours, posed a major threat to smooth conduct of the dinner night. There were no generators & the only effective substitute to electricity, was candles. For a big room like the dining hall, far too many candles were required & lighting them was time consuming, causing prolonged periods of darkness. This could mar the success of the function.
The worried CO assigned the task of training the mess staff, in cutting down to bare minimum the ‘dark interval’, to an energetic, young Subaltern.
The Officers’ Mess housed in an old British style bungalow, had huge French windows. The intrepid youngster, formed teams of two men each & positioned them behind the curtains of these French windows, in the dining hall. His method of ensuring alternate lighting speedily was very simple – one of the men behind the curtain, was to hold candles in both his hands, while the other had a matchstick in one hand & a matchbox in the other. The moment the lights went off, the candles were to be lit up & placed on the candle stands, without the men being seen. The whole sequence, after vigorous practice, took only thirty seconds.
Came the day of reckoning & a visibly happy General walked into the Mess, for the dinner night. An equally happy but tense CO, was hoping for a flawless performance. And flawless it indeed was, till the final course appeared on the table. That’s when the lights went off. Within twenty seconds flat, the dining hall was brightly lit up & the dinner night went on unhindered. The General left very pleased with the standard displayed & mentioned so to the CO.
It was now the CO’s turn to compliment his officers & he did so lavishly. He singled out the intrepid Subaltern in charge ‘Alternate lighting,’ for praise. “Your performance young man was splendid & to you, goes the credit for making the dinner night a grand success! You deserve a drink! But first do tell us, how you managed such a top class act?”
“It was actually quite simple Sir,” replied the young man, “I waited anxiously till the last course arrived, the lights just wouldn’t go off. So I switched off the mains, Sir.”
Cheers.
