I was posted to a unit where a majority of soldiers hailed from southern part of India. Every morning after briefing, I had to pass orders to my men. Once, a phone started ringing in the adjoining room while I was passing orders. 

I asked a jawan to see whose phone it was. The lad went inside briskly and didn’t return for few minutes. To my surprise the phone was still ringing. I hurried to the room to find out what was going on and found that he was staring at the phone.

I immediately bellowed, “phone ko uthao.” The jawan then immediately picked up the phone.  Earlier, he was staring at phone because I had asked to see whose phone it was.  Such were jawans from South India who followed the literal meaning of orders when these were given in a language other than English.