The National Defense Academy is known for its extremely rigorous training schedules.The cadets are grilled over three years to inculcate officer like qualities and high endurance levels. The young 'officers in the making' are expected to follow strict rules and regulations and maintain decorum at all times. Flouting rules result in 'simple' punishments like- 'rolling' the whole day(means you cannot use your feet,just roll everywhere), or maybe another punishment could be to stand on each other's shoulders for half a day,or maybe climb the Sinhgarh fort mountain and be back(22 kms) in flat four hours.So you can imagine how well the cadets are expected to follow instructions.
They have extremely strict instructors known as 'Ustads', who are acclaimed to be heartless and so you have no choice but obey(or else you had it).
Orders passed by any senior in the hierarchy are final and binding(no scope of questioning).
Now the cadets are expected to be in proper uniform at all times,which means that it has to be washed,starched and ironed,or else you get ticked off 'bigtime (no such luck called 'warning letters').
So one day a senior officer came for inspection to the squadron(a wing). During drill he expressed an idea that baffled the Ustad and the cadets, he said that the cadets worked too hard and that ironing clothes was a waste of time,so they would be allowed to have creases in the uniform. Naturally the cadets were overjoyed, though i doubt if the drill instructor aka Ustad shared similar sentiments(all he could say was Sir,yes sir!!)
The next day the senior officer came back for inspection and was surprised to see the cadets still in immaculately starched and 'IRONED' uniforms. On enquiring about it, this is what he learned.
A notice had been issued the previous night by the Ustad, that read.
"All cadets are allowed to have CREASES in their uniforms but they cannot exceed more than TWO in number,one along the front of the pant and one along the back."
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The "punishment" word is quite harsh if it is read in it's literal sense, it will be more appropriate to call it "training or on the job training". The whole aim behind this hard training is not only to produce mentally and physically robust officers but also to grill into them one thing that is "obey orders" and obey them at all cost.
ReplyDeleteOn this account i'll like to express a small incident where in an officer from civil commented to me that in army you have men without brain where in they can only follow what you tell them, to which i replied that sir that is what we are looking for that our men our obey order or else people (civilians whom we guard) die.
That is the greatness at your end sir,things that are 'punishment' to us are taken in the spirit of 'training' by you.These are the small things that differentiate people like us and the Indian army soldiers who make us proud.
ReplyDeleteBottom Line : If you are a 'Soldier', you gotta play it like one.
ReplyDeleteArmy stories are always so fascinating.
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