Down Memory Lane…

I recently cut another cake..and blew out some more candles…enough candles to activate a duff smoke sensor, at that!! In short, I just crossed another yearly milestone on the path of life.

As often happens, the event took me down memory lane….dunno why it happens most on birthdays to me, but it does.

I was transported back many years to my alma mater..the institution that turned me from a boy into a man..the NDA (the National Defence Academy, for those readers who’re a bit clueless about this acronym) .

Well, unlike for a lot of kids, it was NOT a dream come true for me to have got selected to join the NDA. In those days….ages ago..all that a normal middle class kid could aspire to be was an engineer, doctor or soldier (and while using this term, I include sailors and aviators).

Now, being very middle class, being very non technical and being the son of a very Olive Green army man…the options for a career were but very limited for me.

So off I went to take the NDA exam, followed by the SSB (oops, that’s Services Selection Board, for the clueless ones), further followed by a stringent medical….and having cleared all of the above I landed up at the NDA one fine July evening.

I remember rolling up in a train at Khadki (then known as Kirkee), a suburb of sorts to Pune (then known as Poona) ………. (which makes me deviate a bit..shouldn’t the Poona Horse now be called the Pune Horse??)

Anyways, I got off the train..all agog with excitement..ready to take on life..ready to enter the hallowed portals of the finest Armed Forces institution in the whole wide world.

I found a make shift reception manned by some smart army guys who promptly ticked my name on some list and lugged me onto a bus..a squeaky clean olive green bus with the NDA crest emblazoned on it.

A longish drive and we entered the Academy. My, my..what an awesome sight…a huge campus, spotlessly clean, beautifully landscaped and superbly laid out.

I think that’s the precise moment I fell in love with the NDA..love at first sight, so to speak.

Well, like most love affairs, this one didn’t last long.

I got off at the Mess, got my name ticked on another list and was led by a reluctant 2nd Termer to my Squadron (the hostel I was assigned to, for the clueless). En route, this reluctant senior made an even more reluctant me do some front rolls, some push ups and sundry other nonsensical and unwelcome stuff.

Anyways..I landed up finally at my Squadron, was shown my cabin and got down to settling down. It took longer than I expected because every few minutes some senior or the other would come in and harangue me.

Well, the task was finally done and soon enough I was absorbed into the typical beginning of term activities..getting a haircut (or rather, a head shave), kit collection, book colection, etc, etc.

All through these activities I met some other first termers, all very friendly blokes and also more than some seniors (ranging from 2nd to 6th term)..none of whom was even remotely friendly.

The first day of Term arrived. The entire Academy got together in the audi to listen to the Commandant welcome us and to distribute the inevitable gyan.

But prior to the Commandant walking in…the Academy Cadet Adjutant walked in (for the clueless, that’s an NDA equivalent of the School Captain or some such senior prefect).

I still remember the guy..tall, slim, handsome…very, very impressive (now, a not so slim Brigadier) striding up to the stage and looking down his aquiline nose thru’ bright hawkish eyes at us…and he delivered his welcome speech:

“Good evening, all. This is the start of this year’s autumn term and I wonder how we’ll get thru’ it. I look in front of me and I see a sorry bunch of 1st termers sitting right in front. I had never in my worst nightmares thought that this great nation would have to really scrape the bottom of it’s muddy boots to find new cadets for this august institution..but that’s precisely what seems to have happened………………

I was shocked, zapped, horrified!!! Some welcome this was turning out to be…were my thoughts as the ACA continued….

” I’d really thought the Academy is going to the dogs…but I was mistaken……….

Wow!! I smiled…maybe the guy was about to say something nice finally…

” Yes, I was wrong, very wrong, absolutely wrong….the Academy has NOT gone to the dogs…it’s the fukkin dogs that’ve come here!!”

Lol!! Some welcome, some one liner that..but all in all..that was sooo typical NDA…