COMMODORE (Retd.) Lancy Gomes who finished with the Indian Navy in 1976, never misses the sea. It is right there in Vizag at his feet! The Commodore stays in a penthouse duplex apartment at Balaji Towers on R. K. Beach Road. He and his wife Lulu and daughter Lynette. The Gomes, who are an old East Indian family from Bandra in Bombay, have another daughter called Debbie who married into an aristocratic Andhra family and settled down in Vizag. That is one of the main reasons why the Commodore decided to pack his bags and shift to Vizag. The other, of course, is the sea. It is everywhere around him. He looks onto the Bay of Bengal out of which the sun rises every morning. From the terrace of his penthouse, he sweeps the bay with a pair of powerful binoculars, looking at the ships that bob on the horizon in the distance and making out the Indian Navy�s destroyers, corvettes and frigates from among them. That is time-pass. Rest of his time is spent in living life to the fullest in Vizag.

The Commodore is 77, a rugged heavyweight of a man with a bounce in his stride and an iron-like grip. Briefly, he runs through his career for me: �I�ve led a colourful life. Joined the Navy at 18, served on all its ships from the HMS Achilles to the Vikrant. Did submarine training in London and specialised in underwater war training in which I dived upto 180 feet. Was the Pakistan naval attache before 1971, personally knew Bhutto, my daughter Lynette was in Benazir�s class. Was the deputy chief of protocol for the government of India and worked with Indira Gandhi. Retired as Commodore of the Naval Barracks in Bombay in 1976. Joined the merchant navy, an Indian company, Hede Navigation, and then was the chairman of the shipping company Nauru Pacific Line. This appointment took me to Nauru, the richest island in the world per capita income, but which is only eight square miles big! Came back to Bombay, to my 16th floor Cuffe Parade flat, and my daughter Debbie married and moved to Vizag. So we moved too. Uprooted ourselves in 1993 and came here. And what a lovely life we are leading!�

And they really are! The Gomes�s daughter Debbie, who is married to an Adeep Bhanoji Rao, runs the Centre for Mentally Handicapped Children in Vizag; the other daughter Lynette who stays with them, works for the ITC�s Grand Bay Hotel; and the Commodore and his wife Lulu, who recently celebrated 50 years of marriage, are having the time of their lives in Vizag! �It is a retired life totally,� he says joyously, thrusting a cocktail in my hand. The Commodore is big on mixing cocktails and getting people drunk. Lulu tells the story of how some nuns came visiting and had some of the Commodore�s specials. �They had to be helped back to the church,� says Lulu with a laugh. �But God has been kind to us with this city, this home and life,� she admits. �Vizag is a small city, the people are friendly and everybody knows each other, life is simple. There is plenty of socialising, that is the only activity here. We get invited to all the Navy functions because the Eastern Naval Command knows Lancy.�