An Eulogy to a hero and leader par excellence-Cdr BN Kavina,Vrc

My Speech on the occasion of immersion of ashes of Cdr BN Kavina Vrc on 24 July 2017

   

I stand before you as a member of the prestigious Killers Family which has been in existence since the attack on Karachi during the 1971 hostilities with Pakistan. We have now lost another of the few remaining decorated sailors of the original Killer squadron, who lived to tell a tale. A tale of dedication, bonding ,camaraderie and professional competence.

Undoubtedly that level of bonding and loyalty to the squadron  would not have been achieved without the difficult conditions under which we were trained in a remote part of Vladivostok, that too on an island in 1969/70. Sequestered as we were with no liberty to leave the island except for a few hours on weekends, the secret nature of the city itself  and given the extreme temperatures of -32 C in winter, we learnt to survive together. Survival under harsh conditions, as the Army would tell us, bonds people like no other activity in ones life.

 Letters from home took more than a month to reach us via the embassy.  Married officers and sailors had no means to contact their families since telephones were rare to find and the cost of a call unaffordable. That is where we became comrades in arms. We learnt to eat what was served, live with scanty winter clothes and celebrate any occasion that would keep us happy. Thus living together and sharing  common spaces and joint activities helped us to bridge wide gaps  in seniority. It also enabled us to assess each other's strengths and weaknesses. The entire contingent at Vladivostok learned to trust each other. The fact that we were poised for combat operations further cemented our camaraderie.

LtCdr Bahadur Nariman Kavina  was one of the handpicked Commanding officers among the eight. I was the XO of the eighth boat , later to be named INS Veer. Our association commenced in 1969 and continued to grow even after his premature retirement in 1981.

As I now gather from Mrs Kavina , Farida, to us, just a day prior to his passing away, he enquired about the health of my wife Gita who is recovering from a surgery. That tells you how our association went well beyond retirement and even death as some would say.

Much has been said and written about the Killers. Let us not forget that Cdr Kavina was later the Commissioning Commanding officer of INS Hosdurg a Missile Corvette.   Capt, then Lt Prabhakar (Pubs)recalls that the Commanding Officer managed to maintain a smiling face and that he never saw him angry throughout the 28 months he served under him. However Cdr Kavina was known to be firm when required. One such example was when he refused to accept Hosdurg  from the Russians as one of her engines was sub optimal in performance . No amount of pressure from Delhi and Moscow would make him relent until the engine was changed.

Earlier when the Commissioning crew was being mustered at Mumbai and was preparing to complete departure formalities, Pubs had to face a dilemma. His wedding had been fixed during the pre departure preparation. Torn between the desire to commission a new powerful unit and his impending wedding, he apologetically broke the news to his Captain. To his utter surprise his CO said, "Pubs don't worry. Your wedding is more important in your life. Proceed on leave forthwith ." Pubs left two weeks before the wedding date with orders to return a week after his wedding.

Pubs goes on to add, when the ship was returning to India, soon after crossing the Suez canal, he was summoned to report to Captain's cabin. It was there that Pubs was told that his father at Bengaluru was very serious and that arrangements had been made for disembarking him at Aden from where he would fly back to India via Cairo. Capt Prabhakar declares that he practised what he learnt from Cdr Kavina during his command of Dunagiri. That is a great tribute to Cdr Kavina.

The 22 missile vessel squadron has from time to time invited us to partake in the annual Killers day celebrations during the navy week . Fortunately, many of us had gathered here in 2015 and that was the last speech delivered by Cdr Kavina to the Killer squadron. He was later given the opportunity to be present at the decommissioning ceremony of INS Nipat  as he was in Command of the original Nipat.

Coming now to the event today, I recall two quotes of General Patton during the second world war. "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived" unquote. It is the same General who had earlier said, " It is not your duty to die for your country. Your job is to make the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. " The Killer squadron did just that. In both operations Trident and Python, we lost not a single ship or sailor. The enemy  lost ships and sailors and Karachi was left burning.

Bahadur Kavina who later became a guide and guardian to both my wife and me, with whole hearted support of Farida, has shared every joyous occasion in our lives and equally our sorrows too. Young Carl and his sister Roshni gave us great pleasure  of babysitting them at Kochi in 1972.

 On a solemn occasion like this when the serving community has joined us to complete the formalities of Cdr Kavina's  last journey, I must clarify that ceremonial funerals and their procedures are laid down in our orders. Immersion of ashes is however left to the family as a private affair. In this case an exception has been made since he died in Australia during his annual visit to his children and grand children. That the navy accepted my suggestion to immerse his ashes from a Missile boat, speaks well of their credo, "We care."

To the serving community I have two messages. First, let me restate what  George Washington said a long time ago." The willingness with which young people are likely to serve in any war no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by the nation." 

To which I will add that until our nation as a whole learns to do that, let us, both, the serving and retired community, honour our heroes to the best of our abilities. The presence of men in uniform at functions such as these, is vitally important for morale of the fighting forces. The larger the gathering the more forceful will be our message that we care.

"Although no sculptured  marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stones bear records of their deeds ,yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honoured"

Second,  what is it that kept relations between my generation and Cdr Kavina's  going for so long, defying time and space.?

It is, I believe, as I quoted Gen Pershing on another occasion recently, " In a social order in which one person is officially subordinate to another, the superior if he is a Gentleman never thinks of it and the subordinate if he is a Gentleman never forgets it." Most such long lasting relationships of mutual trust and faith in each other's intentions have perhaps followed that adage or aphorism.

 Let us rise and give Cdr Kavina the most befitting "Teen Jai".