Saw the movie '3 Idiots' yet again this evening. I don't tire seeing it because there are many incidents shown in the film that reminds me of my days as a cadet at the NDA. Reminiscing about it now, I'm amazed at the restraint and calm exhibited by me those days.
Let me recollect my first day at the Academy. My train had reached the then 'Poona' station by 8 AM and there were a few others like me who had reported to the 'reception counter' set up for the purpose. The young and smart looking army Captain on duty did not seem to be happy at our turn out! He'd us don our neckties before filling us up in the olive green coloured buses of the Academy. The 17 km journey was incident free and as each signboard, enroute, depicted the exact distance alongwith a tantalizing view of our abode for the next three years, the butterflies in my stomach had attained a fair amount of excitement.
Soon the buses had come to a halt at the main entrance to the cadets' mess where the Deputy Commandant(Depcom as he was commonly known) - the then Commodore Ronnie Pereira - was at hand to receive us. He then made it very clear, over hot chocolate and biscuits, that we'd be made men within no time - worthy of the country and the service - towards which fagging by the seniors was an essential must and that he neither expected us to give up nor squeak while going through the process! I was the lone guy in that group to be assigned to 'H' for Hunter squadron and the tall, blue eyed and tough civilian bearer, Hari Singh, had lifted my black steel trunk and hold all on his head with the airbag slung on his right shoulder as he led the way to my new home. No sooner had we crossed the main road in front of the mess did Hari Singh and me have a role reversal (at his insistence) and on surveying the scenes around I could see that my friends had also eased into similar roles.
I was stopped at the squadron's entrance, as I was poised to put my first foot into the longish corridor, by a loud voice which directed me to commence front rolling and I obeyed the order without giving it a second thought. Meanwhile, Hari Singh had collected my personal effects and put them away in cabin 16 that had been earmarked for me. I rolled and I rolled and I rolled up and down the corridor - had lost count by then - puking a few times in the bargain and that senior made me clean up the soil with my handkerchief every time it happened (why he did that to me that day defies an answer to this date but what I remember was at the 'end of term social', as per tradition, when juniors could 'deal' with their seniors and when he'd offered himself to me, I remember hitting him with a knotted towel continuously with tears streaming from my eyes, as that act of hitting him was actually hurting me!!). I must hasten to add that he became my friend consequent to that.
* * *
In between, there were other activities like the famous 'Academy haircut' at the end of which yours truly resembled a convict in prison, the issue of bicycles which spent a good amount of time on my shoulders and a lot of quizzing by a lot many others (whose identities were unknown as they're in civvies )on various aspects which were punctuated with punches and bad mouthing. By that time, we're repeatedly told that we constituted the lowest form of existence upon this earth!
* * *
My brand new Zodiac tie had by then become a miserable blob, as I'd chewed it beyond recognition, at the insistence of yet another senior! Alternate hot and cold water showers, followed by cycle lifts at the inner quadrangle in the cold, breezy January evening of Poona made my acclimatization process with the weather complete.
* * *
At the end of it all, as I lay on my bed absolutely devoid of any hard feeling towards the seniors that I'd come across that day, I knew that I was learning the art of survivability. It was childish and outright silly to exhibit one's tears in front of the others while going through tough times. They're only meant for the pillows carried out in the darkness, after lights out and it was an art perfected at school!
And my first day at the Academy had become history!!
Let me recollect my first day at the Academy. My train had reached the then 'Poona' station by 8 AM and there were a few others like me who had reported to the 'reception counter' set up for the purpose. The young and smart looking army Captain on duty did not seem to be happy at our turn out! He'd us don our neckties before filling us up in the olive green coloured buses of the Academy. The 17 km journey was incident free and as each signboard, enroute, depicted the exact distance alongwith a tantalizing view of our abode for the next three years, the butterflies in my stomach had attained a fair amount of excitement.
Soon the buses had come to a halt at the main entrance to the cadets' mess where the Deputy Commandant(Depcom as he was commonly known) - the then Commodore Ronnie Pereira - was at hand to receive us. He then made it very clear, over hot chocolate and biscuits, that we'd be made men within no time - worthy of the country and the service - towards which fagging by the seniors was an essential must and that he neither expected us to give up nor squeak while going through the process! I was the lone guy in that group to be assigned to 'H' for Hunter squadron and the tall, blue eyed and tough civilian bearer, Hari Singh, had lifted my black steel trunk and hold all on his head with the airbag slung on his right shoulder as he led the way to my new home. No sooner had we crossed the main road in front of the mess did Hari Singh and me have a role reversal (at his insistence) and on surveying the scenes around I could see that my friends had also eased into similar roles.
I was stopped at the squadron's entrance, as I was poised to put my first foot into the longish corridor, by a loud voice which directed me to commence front rolling and I obeyed the order without giving it a second thought. Meanwhile, Hari Singh had collected my personal effects and put them away in cabin 16 that had been earmarked for me. I rolled and I rolled and I rolled up and down the corridor - had lost count by then - puking a few times in the bargain and that senior made me clean up the soil with my handkerchief every time it happened (why he did that to me that day defies an answer to this date but what I remember was at the 'end of term social', as per tradition, when juniors could 'deal' with their seniors and when he'd offered himself to me, I remember hitting him with a knotted towel continuously with tears streaming from my eyes, as that act of hitting him was actually hurting me!!). I must hasten to add that he became my friend consequent to that.
* * *
In between, there were other activities like the famous 'Academy haircut' at the end of which yours truly resembled a convict in prison, the issue of bicycles which spent a good amount of time on my shoulders and a lot of quizzing by a lot many others (whose identities were unknown as they're in civvies )on various aspects which were punctuated with punches and bad mouthing. By that time, we're repeatedly told that we constituted the lowest form of existence upon this earth!
* * *
My brand new Zodiac tie had by then become a miserable blob, as I'd chewed it beyond recognition, at the insistence of yet another senior! Alternate hot and cold water showers, followed by cycle lifts at the inner quadrangle in the cold, breezy January evening of Poona made my acclimatization process with the weather complete.
* * *
At the end of it all, as I lay on my bed absolutely devoid of any hard feeling towards the seniors that I'd come across that day, I knew that I was learning the art of survivability. It was childish and outright silly to exhibit one's tears in front of the others while going through tough times. They're only meant for the pillows carried out in the darkness, after lights out and it was an art perfected at school!
And my first day at the Academy had become history!!
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