Tshering22
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Tajik officer stuns Anthony with his Hindi diction
India’s long-term projection as ‘soft-power’ in central Asia is now showing in small spurts at the social level. Last week when Defence Minister AK Antony and his entourage of senior ministry officials stopped over at Dushanbe in Tajikistan, a serving officer of the forces stunned everybody by speaking fluent Hindi.
It was an unusual thing as the officer, Captain M Saied, while answering a query from the minister replied in Hindi. Captain Saied was attached with Antony as local liaison officer a normal protocol on such occasions. Antony was informed that the Captain had been trained at the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune, and Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun.
The first thing Antony did was to ask the officer his opinion of the training at NDA and IMA. Antony had asked in English — the language, besides Malayalam, he is comfortable in — “How was your training?” Capt Saied replied in fluent Hindi, “It is lifetime training and it changes you totally.” A senior functionary said, “The Indian entourage was surprised at the response in Hindi from a Tajik, who then explained the details.”
Captain Saied explained that he had spent his formative years — from the age of 17 years to 23 years — in India, training at the academies where he picked up Hindi.
Antony’s Tajikistani counterpart, Sherali Khairyulleov, thanked Antony for the role of the Indian Army in providing training. Khairyulleov had earlier welcomed him with a traditional “bread-dipped-in-honey welcome” in Dushanbe. India-Tajikistan defence cooperation covers a wide spectrum of issues, including training. Young military cadets from Tajikistan started training at the NDA in 1998. Besides, India has re-built the Soviet-era Ayni airbase located just 10 km outside Dushanbe. It is located just 100 km from Afghanistan and is strategically located with Pakistan and Xinjiang province of China nearby.
Besides this, India and Tajikistan have an agreement on sharing of information, material support and joint exercises.
Guess we're going places, gentlemen.
India’s long-term projection as ‘soft-power’ in central Asia is now showing in small spurts at the social level. Last week when Defence Minister AK Antony and his entourage of senior ministry officials stopped over at Dushanbe in Tajikistan, a serving officer of the forces stunned everybody by speaking fluent Hindi.
It was an unusual thing as the officer, Captain M Saied, while answering a query from the minister replied in Hindi. Captain Saied was attached with Antony as local liaison officer a normal protocol on such occasions. Antony was informed that the Captain had been trained at the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune, and Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun.
The first thing Antony did was to ask the officer his opinion of the training at NDA and IMA. Antony had asked in English — the language, besides Malayalam, he is comfortable in — “How was your training?” Capt Saied replied in fluent Hindi, “It is lifetime training and it changes you totally.” A senior functionary said, “The Indian entourage was surprised at the response in Hindi from a Tajik, who then explained the details.”
Captain Saied explained that he had spent his formative years — from the age of 17 years to 23 years — in India, training at the academies where he picked up Hindi.
Antony’s Tajikistani counterpart, Sherali Khairyulleov, thanked Antony for the role of the Indian Army in providing training. Khairyulleov had earlier welcomed him with a traditional “bread-dipped-in-honey welcome” in Dushanbe. India-Tajikistan defence cooperation covers a wide spectrum of issues, including training. Young military cadets from Tajikistan started training at the NDA in 1998. Besides, India has re-built the Soviet-era Ayni airbase located just 10 km outside Dushanbe. It is located just 100 km from Afghanistan and is strategically located with Pakistan and Xinjiang province of China nearby.
Besides this, India and Tajikistan have an agreement on sharing of information, material support and joint exercises.
Guess we're going places, gentlemen.
