James Moses joined our course in NDA as a “general” from the 54th course. Moses, born on 08 Jun 1957 was a navy brat; his father was an education branch officer who settled down in Vizag where the family owned a school. He liked the good things in life; smoked Rothmans in the NDA and had a great music system in his cabin with headphones. Moses was known to take risks and as a perpetual panga taker during the NDA days. He was excellent at tennis and swam well.

Navy buddies of his have vivid memories of him and with him because he was a most interesting character, as well as a “character” in the funnier sense of the word. His command of the English language was such that he could deliver a sermon from the mount without preparation, and sometimes without much of an idea of the subject at hand. Moses made the entire “Gun room” of the midshipmen’s training ship rock when he said that in the Oral board he understood that answering questions from three captains would be far more difficult than asking them questions, and generally being in the driver’s chair. So, he ended up steering the questions, and in his light-hearted and irreverent way said he even cleared the board relatively easily! But that was James Moses- intelligent, laid-back, living for the day, well-read, and articulate. Immediately after the NDA, on INS Mysore, the cadet’s ship, he nick-named almost everyone in the course, and most names still stick four decades later. Some were quite impolite! The senior sailors, for some quirky reason particular to the Navy, would call us in the plural. Thus we had Baaths, Davids, Ramnujams, Shrikhandes, Pillais etc. what did they do about Moses? They discovered his singular qualities and always called him “Moss”, having been born to plurality. And singularly good-humoured, and smiling and fun he was.

During Sub Lieut’s Courses, he acquired a monkey for some weeks as his mascot and tried to get him to like rum, cigarettes and hard rock. Roxanne was a bit stubborn though and refused to share all of Moses’ eclectic tastes. In his younger days, he served in several small ships and in the mid-80s was a DIVO in NDA. He must have been what cadets might have thought to be “a cool DIVO.”

Through much of the 1990s, he worked in a few analysis units, but his “spiritedness” sometimes got in the way. He also had to contend with some property disputes and health issues. Through all this, he retained his cheer, his sophisticated sense of humour and his love of books. He was the first to retire on 01 Jul 2000 at precisely the twenty years’ mark. Navy guys, in Vizag then in large numbers had a celebration on a beach to mark their potential pensionable service. Moses wouldn’t drink and drive, so he had hired a driver and set up a bar on the back seat to bring him in from the city, saying that drinking and driving don’t mix! He joined the merchant navy for a few years but came ashore due to failing health, and then was on dialysis for some time. He remained a bachelor till the very end. His final months were tough on several counts, and towards the June of 2010, he answered his summons, and it was “Love all” for him again. RIP, friend. You were a singular guy!

🙏May his soul rest in peace🙏