After paying tributes to Dr RK Keshwani, my mind is aflutter and is still dwelling in those nostalgic days at the NDA. As a cadet, I'd this propensity to get into trouble with a consummate ease that bewildered and amused most of my coursemates and friends. I shall let you into an incident and leave it to your judgement to pronounce me guilty or not.
Lock locked......bike unlocked.
No, this isn't a riddle. It's a charge put on me by the redoubtable and smart N/Sub Bhoop Singh, the 'drill ustad' of Charlie Squadron.
As I'd said earlier, I'd this quality of losing my keys, quite often, especially during my first term at the Academy. Exasperated by the consequential loss of valuable time, I deviced my own method to tide over the discomfort. My bicycle(H 73) used to have the chain and lock like the others had, except for the fact that the lock remained permanently locked(its key having been lost quite a while before) and one of the links in the chain was purposely broken. Consequently, while the others took time to lock up their respective cycles I didn't and the arrangement worked wonderfully well. At least for a while.
But the idyllic situation had a surprisingly short life, when N/Sub Bhoop Singh stumbled upon it one day(to this day I'm baffled as to why the theory of probability did not work in my favour especially because there were 1499 - give or take a dozen due to medical categories or flats - other cycles in the reckoning!) and caught me at my game. I'd realised that something was amiss when I found the locking system missing - after the classes - but didn't give it much thought as precious lunch time could not be squandered away worrying about trivia.
Retribution was swift. Two days later came the day of the reckoning. As I was getting ready to charge off to the mess for wolfing down my breakfast came a message that I was to meet the Batallion Commander. And so, much to my anguish, I was marched into his 'haloed' office. On his table was a sheet of paper with the charge 'Lock locked, bike unlocked' written against my name and he was contemplating the punishment to be meted out to me but wanted to know what the charge was all about and was awaiting enlightenment from the protagonist himself!
As I explained the stuff, he burst out into laughter and awarded me two days' 'Restrictions'. The reasons:-
(a) For getting caught after having committed a mistake.
(b)And a silly mistake at that!
Lock locked......bike unlocked.
No, this isn't a riddle. It's a charge put on me by the redoubtable and smart N/Sub Bhoop Singh, the 'drill ustad' of Charlie Squadron.
As I'd said earlier, I'd this quality of losing my keys, quite often, especially during my first term at the Academy. Exasperated by the consequential loss of valuable time, I deviced my own method to tide over the discomfort. My bicycle(H 73) used to have the chain and lock like the others had, except for the fact that the lock remained permanently locked(its key having been lost quite a while before) and one of the links in the chain was purposely broken. Consequently, while the others took time to lock up their respective cycles I didn't and the arrangement worked wonderfully well. At least for a while.
But the idyllic situation had a surprisingly short life, when N/Sub Bhoop Singh stumbled upon it one day(to this day I'm baffled as to why the theory of probability did not work in my favour especially because there were 1499 - give or take a dozen due to medical categories or flats - other cycles in the reckoning!) and caught me at my game. I'd realised that something was amiss when I found the locking system missing - after the classes - but didn't give it much thought as precious lunch time could not be squandered away worrying about trivia.
Retribution was swift. Two days later came the day of the reckoning. As I was getting ready to charge off to the mess for wolfing down my breakfast came a message that I was to meet the Batallion Commander. And so, much to my anguish, I was marched into his 'haloed' office. On his table was a sheet of paper with the charge 'Lock locked, bike unlocked' written against my name and he was contemplating the punishment to be meted out to me but wanted to know what the charge was all about and was awaiting enlightenment from the protagonist himself!
As I explained the stuff, he burst out into laughter and awarded me two days' 'Restrictions'. The reasons:-
(a) For getting caught after having committed a mistake.
(b)And a silly mistake at that!
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