'National Defence Academy' .....The pilgrimage passed off with me being known as Chandran.But that is not all, the common names that one got used to here were neither for keeps nor permanent, could denote any one and the names were totally the Academy property or shall I say propriety? It used to range from..... clot,twit,twit and a half, dope, idiot, bum,....the list is endless, but all of them werealways prefixed with 'You bloody' and rather liberally peppered with swearwords that would make even a blue blooded sailor blush.
Yes, there were special cases. Sirdars, speckies and worse still a specky sirdar....They were the first and always the worst hit in a
crowd/course as they were like homing on beacons, were identified and yelled at even from a quite a distance. I had three of them in my class, Manjeet, Labana and Mann with KJ Singh joining up whenever the classes were nearby.(I knew KJ since we were techies together in C, earlier).They would always be in the same squad, cycle or otherwise, all these were innocuous to the common eye.......but common was a term that has bypassed me,a long long ago........I found it odd that these guys would wait on each other, when time was brief between classes and at times you had to trek almost two km if the classes were in different blocks.
I did confront them and the prompt reply was, if there were more than one sird, and if none of us looked back, when yelled at, how can the sarge differentiate and persecute, no sarge wd say all three sirds come here, sound reasoning, But KJ bowled me saying, my glasses go into my pocket the moment I am with them. Now that led me to wonder about those wisecracks on sirdars!!! Weren't these sirds smart and adapting/evolving rather fast and NDA really ensured that they did.... conclusion was Sirdars from NDA were definitely smarter than Sukhi's sirdars from US of A..
While at the topic of NDA,how can one forget the first day.The course 48 that was.... or is rather unique,very close knit and so fond of each other,.....never knew that till we all crossed and came home to roost in our middle age, be it a Pondy, parrat, shiggaon, cjsingh,aksingh or my colleagues at DSSC ak anand,rameshrai, roychowdhry or the late Ravi mehta.....and now Ike&Ajith in the virtual/chat world with Manali in
person.....recently that is.Oh God I am digressing again, love for the 48 and the whiskey that is keeping me company you see!!
Well back to the first day....... previous day,or in fauji
parlance D-1, ie.18 jul 1972, I embarked on the then popular 'south express' named so since you had all the southies in one common train/comptt( mallus,tamils and some gultis/kannads) There were Sukumar,Murali, Ramani and everyone was downcast. My BIL had come to see me off and commented as to whether it was a train filled with recruits or snotnosed, homesick schoolgirls. I would normally have come up with some rather sharp retort, but I really was not upto his brand of jokes now that my morale was at an all time ebb. I was contemplating on my incarceration and wondering if I did it right. I was a medico student (all of three days) in the Madras medical
college(Dad had pulled some strings…..I suppose) and have I thrown up something I would regret, later. ...Those thick voluminous books were immediately dancin' in front of my eyes and a prompt 'No,Never' was the prompt reply from my conscience, that too in bold bloodred capitals,all of them!!!!!... well, the Docs and a host of would be patients would've heaved a huge sigh of collective relief, had they been around.
A brief bye-bye and the train took off.I found the amravati guys a bit too straight faced, in otherwords OG and speaking in low hushed tones. Loneliness and sadness was back. As the train reached Arakonam we had Manali, Krish, Cyriac, Unni, Binu, Ike..... (all class mates)joining up and I got a boost, they seem to be conditioned already with twelve odd hours behind.Once we reached Guntakal we had Deshpande(pondy) , Subbiah and Shiggaon (all ex-Bijapur) joining up...all of them were with us on the SSB and generally the morale was goin' up. It was back to horsing and hee hawing right thru.
Next day,a sunny wednesday morning, Poona station in sight and all those tails neatly went back, tucked betw'n the legs and moods back on the downswing again.....Whoever said sunny days brimmeth your cup of cheer would hasten to rewrite it, had he had one glance at the motley crowd that disembarked.
Apprehension and fear of the unknown was rather high and here is where dear Rajiv Manali stepped in.He huddled us together,explained to us that we were goin to get jacked any which way ,why not delay it?We were to report by 1800hrs at the latest and that is what we should be doing,why should we go in early and get screwed for an extra eight hours,instead shouldn't we be spending the last few hours of freedom watching movies and loafing....logic and very sound at that,my heart really bled and my head acceded at full throttle with my mind saying'What an idea,sirjee' .....,but then we had Binu,unni and Cyriac to contend with!! Well it was a No go.....a stalemate with Rajiv,Krish and I on oneside..... ......Finally it was Ike who tipped the scale and joined us for the movie.
After freshening up,luggage into cloakroom and off we went hunting.All the buses had its itinery written in Marathi, new place, funny language, hence we decided to go to the closest Theatre and our luck seemed to have taken a weekend too. The Movie there was an age old one,'Kagaz ke phool' a slow paced,rhona dhona kind. I was almost certain that Cyriac & co must have cursed us.
End of freedom.Trooped into the bus,entered the shrine.After filling a couple of forms,kitissue and a brief,I was sent off to my squadron with my faithful man friday(Nathu ram-surprisingly he seem to be promoted with every term I went up and used to constantly supply me with cigarettes …er..Beedies towards monthend) lugging around with the luggage.He kept on saying what not to do as we were approaching the battalion gate.
Lo, sight was not encouraging at all.Guys were doing to the bikes what the bikes were supposed to be doing,carrying and running around in their squadron premises,with some very unsavoury characters barking around.There were some familiar faces but in a hairdo that would shame even the hardcore niggers. Yes, I spotted dear Cyriac on one side, Binu,Sukumar and subbiah on the opposite squadron side with cycles above their heads and a doleful expression that would have a Meenakumari or a Dilip kumar give their right arms to etch the same expression on screen.
As I was watching the scenario unfold, all was quiet on my squadron front(Hunter) .....Calm before the storm, most likely,..... .yes,yes and yes.
But not for long,a loud yell from hunter, my future squadron, a guy with
a shining pate(yul brynner was a standard here, it seems)...."You bloody clot,what are you standing there with your thumb in your bum and brain switched to neutral? come here on the bloody Double,you twit !!!"(Capt Queeg of Caine Mutiny really seemed to be a hero around hereabouts). As I neared him, another hoodlum standing nearby asked me,if I knew 'Raindrops keep fallin' on my head'.Vague request,eh!! Not really.
I, like an idiot said yes, and when I sang it full throat two
tight slaps and a kick on the butt awaited me from Yul brynner..(BTW, Yul brynner was later cmdeBR Bhatia,one of the finest naval officers I have come across and a thorough gentleman to boot.God knows what NDA does to us when we were there!!).. 'Raindrops.. .. was the course's swansong for yul and his shiny pate.....
How was I to know that, anyway the hoodlum would've hauled me over coals, had I replied in the negative,'Damned if I did and damned if I didn't'..... ..
First lesson learnt,it is better to be damned if I didn't...... and when in doubt act like a dope.....and doubting was a cadet's birthright.
All this and I have not stepped into the sanctum sanctorum yet.
Guys,it is 1600hrs and the dawn is just breakin'. OK, another day, another time….stresses of Whiskey on the mind, you see!!!
Regards,
Ravi
.bmp)