Finally got him!

Daljeet Singh Chopra had joined us in 'Hunter' squadron as a coursemate in Spring '73. His father was the CinC of the Southern Command and his elder brother, a sixth termer in the same squadron. For a first termer, it was an ideal situation for good performance in those days of ragging and tough life when our seniors behaved like gods!

But for Daljeet, alas, it was not to be. His 'waterloo' was long distance running and little did we realise that he saw nightmares thinking about 'cross country' - a championship that saw the participation of the complete strength of a squadron and where each participant's enclosure, post - competition, mattered most to the squadron for its placement in the hierarchy of the Inter Squadron championships that contributed towards being crowned the 'Champion Squadron', by the term's end.

It was our first X-country and we're putting ourselves through the pace of practice runs towards the run up to the championship. Two more days were left for the fateful day and as usual, we're going through our morning chores in the rest room, when Daljeet came in matter-of-factly, handed over his hockey stick to Suresh Inani(another course mate of ours) who, in turn, gave a tight thwack across the former's outstretched palm according to a pre-conceived plan hatched between the two of them. The result - Daljeet became a medical category thanks to his fractured wrist and was exempted running the x-country.

Eventually, Daljeet's waterloo overtook him in the second term and he was, consequently, withdrawn from the Academy on grounds of being weak in outdoors. He'd then joined the merchant marine and went on to be a successful mariner. I'd lost contact with him soon after.

In my endeavour to get my squadron mates networked, I'd fallen back on the help of the ethernet and thank god, finally was able to get in touch with Daljeet today. Delightfully, he has neither lost his bluster nor his sense of humour! We've decided to interact and make up for lost time over the coming days!!