At a function organised at the Officers Mess at MCTE recently to bid farewell to him, lt Gen Rajesh Pant, AVSM, VSM, Commandant MCTE and Senior Colonel Commandant, Corps of Signals, released the book, Baobab and The Babbler - Tales from MCTE. The book has been compiled by Col Sanjoy Mukherjee, an officer serving as Faculty at the College.
A quiz on the history and traditions of the Corps of Signals and the college, is traditionally held at the Officers Mess at MCTE. This book, a blend of facts and fiction, set against the backdrop of the quiz, traces the history of Mhow, the birth and development of the college into a centre of excellence, through a series of questions being asked by a quiz master.
The Baobab tree which has stood at the Officers Mess for more than 200 years as witness to events that shaped the college, provides the answers except that all answers are not borrowed from history but also from tales heard from babblers. The large grey babbler (Turdoides malcome), a bird found in large numbers in Central India and named after Sir John Malcom, the founder of Mhow, and also the author of Memoirs of Central India, has been selected as a motif to connect with the scribes of the past and the pioneers of the college. The Baobab and the Babbler have also been selected as metaphors to assert the commitment of the college to preserve the environment.
An initiative of Gen Pant as much as the quiz, this book is an excellent amalgam of history, stories, limericks, humour, news clippings and environmental concerns through text, photographs and cartoons and provides an interesting insight into the growth of Mhow and MCTE and some pioneers of Corps of Signals.