Captain back in city of childhood

November 27, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:37 am IST

Captain Gurcharan Singh, commanding officer of stealth destroyer INS Kochi.-Photo: S. Anandan

Captain Gurcharan Singh, commanding officer of stealth destroyer INS Kochi.-Photo: S. Anandan

ack in 2009, when stealth destroyer INS Kochi was being launched at Mazagon Dock, Captain Gurcharan Singh, then a Commander, was in Mumbai as executive officer of stealth frigate INS Shivalik. Several years on, he was chosen by the Navy to skipper the brand new Kolkata-class vessel INS Kochi which sports state-of-the-art capabilities.

“To be the commissioning commanding officer of a ship that’s named after the city of one’s childhood is an indescribable experience,” said Capt. Singh in a conversation with The Hindu on board INS Kochi which is now undergoing sea safety checks under the Flag Officer Sea Training at the Southern Naval Command.

Kochi formed part of the naval inventory in September.

Capt. Singh studied for eight years in the Kendriya Vidyalaya at the Naval Base when his father, a gunnery officer, was posted at the base and subsequently at the upcoming missile and gunnery school INS Dronacharya in 1978. His spouse Kamaljit was junior to him in the same school and his future father-in-law, an electrical officer in the Navy, his father’s best buddy.

“The skyline of the city has changed since. So much so, that it looks all different. There was just one multi-storey apartment in that corner,” he pointed across the Venduruthy-Vikrant Bridge to Thevara standing by the captain’s chair on the ship’s Bridge. “How many skyscrapers have come up there!” he wondered.

Assuming responsibility of the vessel about a year and a half ago as the CO-designate, Capt. Singh was happy to see the ship evolve into a potent war-fighting platform armed to the teeth.

Newspaper reports of INS Kochi’s firing of BrahMos cruise missile early this month amuse him no end. “Decommissioned vessel Alleppey was the target for firing. But the media played on the place names and reported that Kochi had destroyed Alleppey with a missile. I don’t know how people in Alappuzha may have felt about it. I tell my shipmates not to reveal that they are from INS Kochi when they are in Alappuzha,” he said with a chuckle.

INS Kochi has its crest depicting the region’s rich martial art tradition, the Kalaripayattu, and the snakeboat race’s agility and manoeuvrability. Its specially designed logo, with the bust of a tough tusker so endemic to the region mounted on hexagon is reminiscent of the ship’s advanced MFSTAR radar atop its foremast.

The vessel’s chambers are decorated with paintings depicting scenes from Kerala’s backwaters, beaches with Chinese nets and wildlife, done by a gifted artist from Mumbai.

The vessel will take part in the naval Ops Demo to be held in the Kochi channel on December 6.

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