An Uphill Task

An Uphill Task ​

The hillock was barren and desolate. I manoeuvred the jeep with ease over rocky terrain almost reached its plateau when monsoon rain started lashing.

Its rear left wheel caught in a deep ditch and engine stalled. My efforts proved futile.

To seek help, I had decided to proceed downhill by foot. The long rexin-rain coat and its hood protecting me from being drenched in rains, my legs loose in tall gumboots, I ambled over the rock and patches of moss and grass.

At a distance, down the hill I spotted a Landrover with its head lights blinking just getting parked. It was my new local boss- a full Colonel - who was supposed to come on any day on surprise inspection. He would be writing my “dossier”.

As I reached downhill, the fury of the rain abated. He was posted from active army unit to the zonal office to oversee activities connected with inspection and supplies. He was stocky, looking majestic with a thick robust moustache and did display gallantry ribbons on his olive green shirt.

My eyes met the Colonel sitting erect behind the wheel; and as he returned my salute, in stentorian voice queried “Hello young man. What had kept you up and why you are down by foot?”

I gave a graphic account.

At the end of it, he just quizzed me what I did for retrieving the wheel. I told him I tried to drive in 4 x4 forward in the lowest gear. He seemed to have got the technical point and from his driver’s seat he leaned backward reached behind the backrest- a hanging pouch- containing jeep technical/service manual.

He opened a section on transmission and glanced through some particulars and figures across and tapped his stiff index finger repeatedly over a table.

He drew my attention to this figure which denoted the driving force for various combinations of gear ratios. His broad dense stiff moustache got pampered repeatedly with his left thumb and index finger over its contour.

He shifted his gaze from manual to gauge whether I got the point. He just told “my dear young man -you are thorough with the manual but yet you are not on the dot.”

He gestured me to hop into the seat by his side and switched on the ignition and the engine roared to life; the Landrover with crunching sound behind, moved ahead in a long curve ascending the hill.

The rain began pelting the windscreen and wiper struggled to sweep. Colonel drove in middle gear holding the large steering wheel with steely hands and it was a smooth haul over uphill; and in a couple of minutes the Landrover reached the spot where my jeep got stuck.

We alighted. Colonel briskly ran round the stuck jeep. He occupied the driver’s seat in the stuck jeep and checked something and seemed satisfied. He came out of the jeep and told step by step the action plan.

He positioned the Landrover behind the stuck jeep bumper to bumper. I got into the stuck jeep released the parking brake and engaged the reverse gears in main and lowest in auxiliary gear box and the vehicle kept in readiness to move in reverse in 4 x 4 mode.

Over the lashing rains, I heard colonel’s commanding voice directing me to commence reversing the jeep.

As I had depressed the accelerator gently and releasing the clutch by & by, the power of the jeep engine gradually built up resulting in some jerks at the rear and lo I felt the spinning wheel from the ditch bouncing back on to the level ground and jeep moved slowly backward pushing the land rover which was cushioning the jeep.

The rain had stopped and we alighted at the foot of the hill. To celebrate, Colonel took a cigar from a metal case and lit it with the click of golden coloured lighter.

Blowing twirling rings upwards away from me, he shook hands and whispered that manual says the maximum driving force of the jeep generated only when you drive in reverse direction.

 

Thanks Sir.
I feel humbled and overwhelmed with your wonderful comments and that exuberance you compared the post to depiction of epic scenes by Kavita Kane. If my memory serves correctly, sometime, during your last visit to India you had mentioned in-flight you enjoyed reading this book.

I enjoyed your highlights of nominated post in that nomination page.
God Bless.