National Cadet Corps- NCC came into existence in 1931. It was to act as the second line of defence during war but later shifted its focus to develop leadership and officer like qualities in young men and women. It has 3 wings- army, navy and air force. The supreme commander of NCC is the President of India, etc. etc. etc. ... read it many times before? Well, I did it too. That’s why when I wanted to write an article about NCC it had to be new, it had to be different; it had to be ‘the untold.’ So here I let loose bits and pieces of my experiences for you to sit back and enjoy.. The ‘
ankahi kahani of NCC.’
I look back at the three years that went by seemingly in such a hurry that I’m still craving for more of it. More of ‘IT’ here of course means the discipline, ragda patti, drill, frog jumps, back rolls, front rolls, elbow walks, rifle runs, weapons drill, parasailing, firing, flying, etc. but along with these, those special moments with friends, those funny incidents, scary accidents, getting caught at the wrong time at the wrong place doing the wrong act and how can I forget mentioning 'the socks stinking away to glory' as a friend puts it! Remember before going ahead that night is the time for all interesting and memorable things to happen.
The ankahi kahani of NCC
We usually sleep hugging each other because of the cold. one day a girl had a very warm body sleeping beside her and as it was chilling cold, she nicely snuggled up to it and slept the whole night happily. It was only in the morning that she realized she had a DOG for a sleeping partner!!
The other sleepless nights were because of our dear seniors ragging us. If you think it happened to you before, think again coz nothing can match this 24 hours company giving to seniors. They wake us up at 2 in the night when we get to go to sleep at 12 after all the preparations for the next day, only to parade in front of their tent, do frog jumps or count the exact number of stars in the sky or to sing and dance inside their tents fro them to aleep. When they were ‘kind’ enough to let us sleep for the night, the next morning would be the time to find out that our faces had in the night, transformed into canvases for our seniors for their talent to be exercised with their painting tools- the shoe polish and the tooth paste. If you are thinking about us complaining to the officials, dismiss the thought coz ‘ye andhar ki baat hai!” and honestly, when we look back, those were our most fun-filled days in life.
We had activities like lots of flying, skeet shooting, trekking, mountaineering, para jumping, and my favourites- firing and parasailing. Sometimes it was time for some great work for the society including activities like taking out rallies for AIDS awareness, assisting police in traffic safety week activities, running for peace in the UN peace walk, door to door administration of pulse polio drops in backward areas( it was an insight into different psychologies of people. Where one didn’t allow us to vaccinate their kids, others were forcing us to vaccinate 15 YEAR OLDS!!), volunteering in the world military games, etc.
A normal parade includes peeche mud, aage bhad, dhayine salute, kadham taal, etc. but we another variety parade called blanket parade wherein the person who dozes off first of all gets it.after dinner, the one who gets to the tent and sleepd by the time everybody else return is the bakra for the day. A blanket is thrown over her and jumping, kicking, hitting, tickling, boxing, all in one for a minimum of five mins happens and then she’s let off. Its so much better at the girls’ end with the boys doing even worser stuff.
Rain rain go away come again another day is our favourite rhyme during the monsoon season camps. As we stay in cloth tents, our groundsheets, bed spread, uniforms, socks, shoes everything gets soaked to the last thread so we dread rains. But as it was our last camp in the final year we thought we could derive fun even in the rains as we wanted to have fun in everything and that was how the ides of rain football was born. There was an imaginary football that we had to kick at each other and the empty dug out pit for pitching up the tents inside the girls’ tent area was to become our stadium. What’s more with the knee deep water below and the natural showers above and the pushing, pulling, throwing girls about that ensued in our ‘stadium.’ The happiest moment came when we were sent home due to the incessant rains and the officers never got to know our antics in the rain as we have a high length clothed boundary around the girls’ area.
Sometimes the food that is served in camps hosted by units other than our 1(A) AIR SQDN unit are so hopelessly tasteless with egg shells in the egg curry, watery dal, stones in the chapathi, and the list goes on of non-edible things in the edible things. It is then that the lady with pudina ras bandi comes to our rescue which we have to buy across the wall. We take too many glasses and glasses of them across the wall and confuse the poor lady and always end up paying either less or much more and never the exact amount.
Talking of food reminds me that our parents brought us home food sometimes and boyfriends, junk food! Not one is spared if he gets food only for his gal, he’s gotta get food for all 12 in the gang or we don’t allow the guy to meet the girl as we don the roles of moral police for our gain. Once in tent, there’s no other phrase to describe us except
‘bhukkad kutthe’ and we are never ashamed of our self conferred title. We can nibble on anything and everything in a matter of minutes just like piranhas. In the evening, we get ready for cultural activities and our favourite hangout is the langar and temple area for dance practice. The temple is a unique thing I’ve ever seen with a snake hill, Hindu god’s statue, a cross and a moon with star all placed side by side symbolizing unity in diversity.
As the Use of mosquito coils is banned in the cloth tents, our only refuge from the mosquitoes is odomos cream. As if the problems of sleeping at 12 , waking up at 3 are not enough, we have cry babies to look after. School children of almost ten different schools known as junior cadets in the NCC lingo cry for their parents and we are pushed to console them, to act like their elder siblings. Though there are many things to crib about, its always fun with those little kiddos around with their genuinely innocent doubts and mischievous acts. With all the above mentioned activities, do you think we’ve got time to bath? We postpone bath for days together until somebody forces us into the bathroom with a bucket and towel in hand. In the morning we are in a hurry to polish shoes, brasso the belt and eagles,etc. and in the evening there’s no time to sleep with the cultural competitions and ragging.
Ah! The hanging grapes- sleep, which I once tried to cope with at the firing range. After I was done with firing, along with a friend took permission to go drimk water but ventured into a shady shed, sat for sometime and I swear we didn’t know we were sleeping till we were woken up by a gruff, male voice shouting at us from outside the protective shed. It was so embarrassing to be found dozing off in an area where you are supposed to be alert at all times- the FIRING RANGE!!
I leave it at this as its getting more and more difficult writing about them.. Experiences that would never come to meet me again in life. I’m gonna miss them so much. Feeling so sad that the days I would be in the uniform I take pride in walking tall, commanding respect and dignity, are all over. With all these and many more memorable incidents, I just want to thank NCC and specially 1(A) AIR squadron, our unit for A very beautiful chapter in life which has ended but has left us with precious moments, treasurable memories and wonderful friends for life!!
