After an illustrious career of service to the Indian Navy, Commodore Medioma Bhada retired in 1994. Brigadier Neil John was commissioned into the Army as a young officer in 1992. The two highly decorated officers of the Indian Armed forces on the request of Evergreen Story, in October 2021 connected over a conversation for the purpose of recording an oral tribute to one’s man efforts to honour India’s iconic and first ever aircraft carrier, the INS Vikrant. This is first of a two part conversation, wherein Commodore Bhada from his home in Mumbai and Brigadier John from his home in Wellington, discover many common connections. First, they are alumni from the same boys highschool in Belgaum, India. Second, they grew up in homes that were less than a mile away from each other and finally, they are also faculty training India’s finest men and women in uniform at the Defence Service Staff College in Wellington, India. Let’s listen to part one.