Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
(This is the incident narrated by a senior army officer while he was addressing a student gathering as chief guest)
In 1975 (or so) there was a function in a defence organisation for which late Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa was the chief guest. By that time Cariappa had already completed 20 years as a retired army chief and he was 80 years old. While he was delivering his address, the power went off. The organisers were not prepared enough to restore the light immediately by alternate means and they ran in search of petromax lights. The entire auditorium was dark when the first light appeared from where Sri Cariappa was speaking. He could restore the light immediately because he had a candle and match box in his own pocket which he brought with him from his house. That much was the foresight he had 20 years after his retirement. It was, neither his responsibility nor his need to restore the light and the responsible people failed.
Matchbox and candle are too cheap, small and trivial things to be discussed. But it is his foresight that matters so much. The incident must have strongly inspired all the young cadets in the auditorium. Otherwise the military officer wouldn’t have recalled the incident 20 years it and narrated later in a gathering attended by more than thousand University students, many senior professors and university officers.