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The days I nooded off

On a couple of days in recent weeks, I really nodded and must apologise to readers. In Miscellany, July 3, my item on Egmore Railway Station was a repeat of the item published on June 19. How it happened, I haven't the faintest idea _ unless I put it down to what is now described as "systems failure." Worse still, on July 10, I muddled up my dates on Clive and Plassey in relation to the Vellore Revolt. Being involved with the Ziegenbalg celebrations at the time, I had 1706 in mind at the time I was writing about the events in Vellore, instead of the correct year, 1806, and thus had Clive taking his troops to Plassey "50 years later", when it should have been 50 years earlier and Clive returning to India "150 years ago", when it should have been 250 years ago. The former Army Officer I had referred to had only pointed out that when Clive had handled Madras troops at Plassey, there was no question about their loyalty to the Company, but later officers never had quite the same empathy with the troops that the founders of the Indian Army, like Stringer Lawrence and Clive, had. My take-off from there had me muddling dates at a time I had just one date in mind.

S. MUTHIAH

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