Bottoms up to Teja punch!

Col PS Sangha (retd)

In the armed forces every unit has some traditions. Some are of historical nature while others get formed for specific occasions. When I joined the Gunner Regiment in 1965, we had some traditions in the officers’ mess. Whenever an officer of the unit is dined out, he is the chief guest that day, irrespective of his rank or seniority. But the tradition I saw throughout was that the officer being dined out never got to eat his dinner. Before dinner, he was mostly carried out to his residence, totally out of his senses. The procedure-time varied with the drinking capacity of the officer concerned, but it always ended in an identical manner. When I left the regiment, I was determined to beat the system, but failed due to some devious tricks adopted by the wine member. 

Some 11 years later, I returned to my parent regiment in Nasirabad. The Commanding Officer (CO) had a big heart and loved the good things of life. Soon I became the Second in Command. We felt it was time to bring in some fresh traditions in mess functions. The dining-out procedure was already there, but we felt that the dining-in and the promotion procedure needed to be pepped up a bit. In most units, when an officer is promoted, there is a party in the mess. A beer tankard is brought up by the waiter and the new rank cloth epaulets are dipped in it before being put on the officer’s shoulders by the CO. He then has to drink that beer in one go. 

We decided to pep up that drink. I tasked the mess secretary, Capt Teja Singh Grewal, to suggest changes. He came up with the constituents of the new promotion drink. It was to consist of a large peg each of whisky, rum, brandy, gin and vodka. After getting his new rank, the officer had to drink this concoction; not an easy job even for a regular drinker. It was a Herculean task for a teetotaller! But a tradition had to be followed by all. Although no one was encouraged to drink liquor, this was one time he had to do it. The same drink was to be taken by an officer being dined in. This drink was christened ‘The Teja Punch’ in deference to its creator. 

During my tenure, I saw a lot of promotions and dining-in procedures. I myself drank it when I was promoted as CO. It tasted evil, but it was fun to watch the faces of others when they drank it. For the CO there was a concession though — on his dining-out, he was never carried out totally drunk. Everyone wanted to listen to his last speech before carrying him out on their shoulders, singing ‘For, he is a jolly good fellow and so say all of us!’