The beginning - joining NDA

Prelude

I know you all must be thinking "why has he not started his blog with this, why now'..... Because I am like that only..... Confused, just like I was in my 12th and college. College!! Well yes, I was in final year of BSc when I joined NDA.

Till 12th I aimed to become a doctor, thought of becoming a biologist, practiced electronics and dreamt of flying. My confusion ensured that i did not clear the medical entrance and had to join college in Shillong. My father was posted to Eastern Air Command.. The session for 1st year there ended in December and the 2nd year started in Feb, BSc was of 2 years only. so by default i reached final year within 6 months.

Lekin door door tak mujhe apni life ke horizon mein kuch dikhayi nahi de raha tha, so I decided to put my heart and soul into preparing for NDA, my second attempt.
My efforts bore fruit and i cleared the exam, interview, medical etc. My parents were delighted and gave a party at our house before I left to join NDA.

There was only one ex-NDA posted in Shillong that time and off course he was invited. He said something which i remember to date, he said "Son, you may not love being in NDA but you will love being an ex-NDA". I realised that much later.

The year was 1991, month of Jul when I was called to join 86th NDA course as an Army cadet. My calling letter reached me a month late and so I managed to join NDA one week after a few of my course mates.

Arrival

I caught Jhelum express from Delhi to Pune and reached NDA in an Army bus and was awed by the grandness of it all. Each and every building, the roads, the gardens.... Everything, was just grand (can't find a better word to describe it all). We were taken to the office and were allotted our Squadrons. I was allotted November Squadron, which was a new raising.

A truck was detailed to drop and I was dropped outside one of the flanks of November Squadron. It was an imposing building with scores of windows on each floor. It was tea time and from each window of the flank I could see heads poking out.

a typical squadron building

Someone shouted "Oye dekho, naya murga" and all heads turned towards me. Another voice asked "Blaady whats your name", I shouted back "Cadet Salil Prashar sir"..... Same voice "who made you a blaady cadet, say civilian so and so sir", which I dutifully repeated.

A cadet appeared from the ground floor door and beckoned me. I walked over to him and there was a shout from the group above "look this civilian wants to walk when CSM calls him, go doubling bloody chap" (CSM = Cadet Sergeant Major was a 6^th term cadet appointed for command and control of the squadron).

Doubling? I had heard of tripling on the scooter, doubling with laughter, being singled out..... But what was the connection between doubling and walking? I stopped and gave a confused look.

The CSM looked like a nice chap (how wrong first impressions could be) and told me quietly, "start running boy, you can't walk here". So, that was doubling....hmmm.... I ran the short distance towards him. Till then a few of the audience from the floors above had appeared next to the CSM. One of them said "yar CSM isko welcome toh karo" and he called over another cadet who came running as if the building was on fire. He was told to help me with my trunk and to take me inside. The gang followed us like vultures awaiting their prey.

My new lodgings

The corridor

There I was made to stand outside a room with a board saying CQMS (Cadet Quarter Master Sergeant, another sixth termer who was in charge of anything logistic). He asked me sweetly "what kind of room would you like, deluxe or luxury", I was amazed and happy at the sheer sophistication of accommodation and the luxury of choice . A voice from the accompanying audience piped in "Yar ask for one with attached bathroom" so I confidently replied "sir luxury with attached toilet"...... CQMH "will you have meals in the room or will you join us in the mess", to which I replied "sir I am a little tired so I will have it in my room". I was told to wait in the central lobby till my room was cleaned.

 After 10-15 minutes a cadet came and told me that my room was on the 2nd floor (the top floor) and I was to take my luggage there. I asked him to help me and he told me to start by myself, an orderly would soon catch up and he left. I started lugging my trunk and bag up the stairs, no orderly came, but I managed to take the trunk up and came down to get the suitcase, which also I carried up. 

A room with a view

I was standing on the 2nd floor sweating badly from all the effort, when another cadet came and told me that I have been given another room on the ground floor. I had no option but to get my stuff down, and there stood the CQMS who asked me to go back to the top floor as I had been wrongly informed. The climb back appeared to me like climbing Mt. Everest, I suspected fowl play and correctly so as I was again sent down. This continued two more times.

Finally I was called by the gang of seniors and asked "If you want we can give you a deluxe room, looks like you are not used to luxury", I was standing there drenched in sweat and about to collapse, and I got the first lesson of surviving in NDA, keep your trap shut. They called another cadet and told him to take me to my actual room.

We both picked up my stuff and started walking, On the way I saw scores of cadets in various yogic positions being guided by Gurus, it was a little later in the day that I came to know what these yogic positions were and that the Gurus were not Gurus but villains.

The initiation

I moved my stuff to the cabin and I was told to reach the tea room flank of the building where all 6th termers were having tea, thoda entertainment bhi chahiye tha unhe.

While I was doubling to my destination I encountered a few 'karm yogis' doing the 'rolling ball' asana with their Guruji standing with a hockey stick in his hand (the next period must have been sports, so I thought).

Finding the corridor blocked I went close to the hockey wielding Guruji and told him "excuse me bhaiya, can I pass from here"...... Something was wrong with bhaiya, his expression suddenly went from wild to crazy, to me he looked a little close to a stroke. The asana do-ers became motionless and I could notice the hint of a smile on their faces.

So, Guruji asked me real nicely "What did you just call me?"  and I repeated. He pointed towards the 'karm yogis’ and said "beta aap inke sath join kar lo, yeh gadi bhi wahin jaa rahi hai, aapka mann laga rahega". I took my place on the floor with the band wagon and tried my best to do what was being referred to as a front roll.



And so it all started. I really don't know what hit me, was it a road roller or a train or a tank. That is a part of another account and account for it I will.

The Crew cut

The civilian who joined NDA was called a cadet only after his locks and mooch were shorn. lots of drama preluded this act. When the time of baptism came, the sheep were flocked and herded to the barber shop.

The NDA barber had a mentality similar to the Drill Ustad, he took his job very seriously and believed that it was his scissors that would finally decide the outcome of all future battles. Their specialty was the 'katora cut' which on culmination gave the look of the hair having been manicured around a katora kept on the head. The only variation they made was to reduce or increase the size of the 'katora' depending on their mood or the seniority of the occupant of his chair.

Some of the newbies had been highly influenced by Mithun Da in his version of commando and felt that his was the right cut for a fauji, while some had Akshay Kumar in their mind. Whatever they may have had in their mind, the barber only had the 'katora' in his mind. The pleasure they took in removing the locks of the chokras was a sight to behold.

There was one such barber, Babu, who had the habit of asking, "sir, kaisa style chahiye", the ikki (thats what the first termers were called) would then describe how he wants a little snip here and a little snip there. Babu would nod in agreement and would then proceed to place the imaginary katora and snip it all from here, there and everywhere. He really enjoyed the look on the ikkis face when he realised that he had been had. All the barbers would enjoy this joke enormously and in good humour would further reduce the size of the katora for the day.

Cutting off of moustaches was a different ball game, some of the ikkis would claim "In our family removing mooch is a sign of mourning" for which the standard reply from the seniors was "Yahan hum tumhare mayi-baap hain, no bloody mooch", and off would come the mooch.

In went a civilian to the barber shop and out came a cadet looking fresh and military like.

The Introduction run

After a week most of the first termers had joined. We were called by the sergeant and informed that there would be an intro run the next day, We were to be taken for a small run (small in NDA was a misnomer, didn't I already say that everything in NDA was grand in scale) at the end of which we were to give a brief introduction about ourselves to the complete squadron and this was also our intro to x-country running.

The complete Squadron was mustered for the run in the morning, being a Sunday. Run on a Sunday? Preposterous, but my adjectives were left for me to ponder in my free time if there was any.

The route was simple and kept short as we ‘The First Termers’ were not yet physically tuned for longer runs. we had to start from the squadron, keep the mess to our right, MH to the left, MT section and then the firing range, from where would start the climb up a hill with a 50 degree gradient and our intro would take place on top of the hill,. Oh, by the way, the distance was barely 4 Km one way plus the climb.

The run started and within the first 15 minutes there was a distinct gap between the experienced runners, the casual runners, the walkers and the 'The ghost who walkers' i.e. those who were near crawling due to their initial exposure to something resembling physical effort and were having a near death experience.

We were pulled and pushed and somehow managed to reach the firing range. Then began the torturous climb to the top, lekin woh bhi kisi tarah se ho gaya. We were given some time to regain our breath, mine was lost somewhere near the mess so it took me ages to regain it, but regain it I did.

The complete Squadron sat down in a semicircle and each one of the first termers were told to come and introduce themselves.

Each intro was interrupted with comments like

"So you are from Delhi, yeh Delhi wale saale bahut smart samajhte hain apne aap ko, you bloody get rolling that side"

"You are from Sainik school, purana papi hai, you get rolling this side"

"You got 80% in 12th and still joined NDA, bloody get rolling here"

"What, you had cleared engineering entrance and still joined NDA, you get rolling there"

"Tum RIMC walon ko toh waise bhi aadat hai, get rolling"

No matter from which city you were, whether you got 40% or 90% in 12th, whatever school you belonged too...... The end result was to start rolling.

After the intro there were ikkis rolling in all cardinal directions on the hill, by the way the cardinal direction vocabulary was restricted to 'here, there, that side and this side', which the rollee had to understand by the actions of the proclaimer.

Then would be the turn of second termers to start rolling just because they were present there, followed by third termers because the first termers were not rolling properly. The next couple of hours on the hill were spent in such holistic development. This activity was then terminated and we were made to run back from there to the squadron.

From the top of the hill we could see a large part of NDA campus and our destination loomed far away............ But the show must go on, and go on we did with this shayari playing in our minds 

"रास्ते ओर मंज़िलें दोनो ही बेपरवाह हैं,

जो गुज़र रहे हैं, वह पहले न थे,

और जो वहां से गुज़र गए वह आखरी न थे।"

Take care!!

PS - all of you must be having similar experience, please do tell us in the comments