Here comes the bride

One of the greatest fun events in the services is the induction of a new bride. The idea is that she should never forget her entry into the service.

The young bachelors of any unit/squadron are entrusted with all the dirty work while the commanding officer (CO) plays judge and jury. Kamal and Nippy were the two young men who were instrumental in bringing at least three new brides to tears. Then, when we heard that Kamal was going to tie the knot very soon and his childhood sweetheart, Renu, would be joining him for a spell in Jodhpur, we were all very excited. But the ones who were excited most of all, were the brides who had been reduced to tears by Kamal. They threatened vengeance with a capital V.

Soon it was time to receive Renu and Kamal at the Jodhpur railway station. Two vehicles were waiting. Kamal was whisked away in one. In the other car, Shalu, one of the recent brides, was waiting. She asked Renu to come along.

Suddenly her car stalled on an uphill turn. From behind a boulder, out jumped a fierce character in black clothes, straggly hair flying, wielding a shining sword. With a fierce growl, he told Renu to hand over all the jewellery she was wearing. He grabbed her vanity case, which she had been clutching. Then he took away Shalu’s rings and bangles too.

Back at the mess, Shalu gave graphic details of the robber and the CO was informed. Renu could not stop crying and only wanted to see her husband. The CO made the pretence of calling up the civil police and informing them that ‘‘a new bride had been waylaid and all her jewellery had been taken away’’. Kamal was sent for.

‘‘I nearly died today.’’ Kamal was rubbing her back and murmuring sweet nothings, ‘‘There there, koi baat nahin. It’s all right now!’’

All this while, Kamal carried on smiling at us, behind his wife’s back. Now the ‘robbers’ returned to the scene. Nippy was introduced as Flt Lt Arora. Very seriously, he started questioning Renu about the description of the robbers. She kept insisting that if the man was to ever come before her a second time she would recognise him.

It was time to call off the charade. Renu had cried enough tears to satisfy all of us. Nippy gave her the packet of jewellery and my husband gave her the lowdown on the ‘robber’ — Flt Lt Arora himself! When a young sardar lets his hair down and rubs some shoe polish on his face, he sure can be a fierce sight! I doubt if Renu will ever be able to forget that day.