My Journey - A Left Right Left Story

XII

(back to the weird pov that I do)

19th April, 2006.

Four months after the session started. Four months since training started.

Now according to the famous quote "It takes 21 days to form a habit and 90 days to form a lifestyle", our training should be less of a habit and more of a lifestyle. And ideally that would be true, but this is not an ideal situation. We are not trying to build habits like studying 8 hours a week or run 10 miles a day. We are doing military training and that takes time to get used to, let alone becoming a lifestyle.

So obviously Mucchad had a bloody brilliant idea of holding the end of semester examinations, or at least the physical tests and drills(like school, college ke practicals) now. To weed out the weak (i.e., girls and the boys he doesn't like). And surprise, surprise Dr. Mishra agreed with him. And who is B.C. to disagree with a psychologist and his M.C.

Hence the tests had started padso se aur kal khatam bhi ho gaye.

And by god uss se pehle kissi ka katal karna itna tempting nahi laga.

You wanna know why, let me show you.

Fancy flashback music,

Flashback :

1. Mucchad's drill :

Major Nair : Good morning cadets.

Aapka phela test aapki speed aur strength ko test karega .

Aap logon ne normal drills mai sand filled sacks ko lekar obstacle course ko complete kiya hai.

Par kyunki aaj aapka endurance test ho raha hai iss liye aaj aap double weight sand sacks uthayenge aur yeh hill dekh rahe uss ke top tak jayenge.

Wahan ek bell hai ussey ring kar kar tapas uss sack ke saath niche aayenge.

Yeh pura course aap logon ko 20 minutes ke under aapne buddy ke spath taal mel banaey rakh kar complete karna hai. Aur har extra minute ke liye ek mark minus kiya jayega.

And suddenly it started to rain, fishing perfect right ?

NO ! Not perfect or nice or aesthetically pleasing. Nor was it symbolical to our current predicament. NO, okay just NO. Nothing artistic please.

The rain was a major pain in the a...neck. You want to know why, I'll tell you. You see milawat sirf doodh mai hi nahi balki sand sacks mai bhi hota hai. Aur iss milawat ki wajhe se yeh sand sacks thoda nahi balki kaafi bhaari ho jata hai. So now we are going to carry bricks made of concrete and covered with plaster of Paris. And if that wasn't enough now the whole track is going to be slippery and muddy making the climb even more tricky and hard.

Major Nair : Lagta hai Indradev bhi aap ka test lena chate hai.

Your time starts now.

Har pair ne top speed se aapne, aapne sacks utha kar course full spoed ke saath shuru kar diya. Including us, kyunki aaj warm-up karne ka time nahi tha. I personally wanted to be done with it in under 15 minutes.

Is point of time tak agar kuch adaat baani thi toh wo tha unspoken communication with our buddy.

Aalekh aur main ne aapni aapni bhorhi uthai aur trek shuru kari. Slipping, falling, helping each other with carrying sacks we somehow reached the top in 12 minutes. Severely off course but okay. We rang the bell and.......bloody went mud sledding down the hill.

I know, I know, sab such rahe hai ki kya pagal log hai slope par mud sledding kar rahe hai. What if you get hit by a tree or a boulder ? What if you sustain injuries ? What if the sack tore ? etc., etc.

Par luckily essa kuch nahi hua aur Mucchad hume dekha bhi nahi. God that was one judgement we reached Mucchad, only to be told,

Major Nair : Exactly 22 minutes. 25 marks ka test hai aap logon ko ye course complete kar ne ke liye 20 minute diye gaye the. Par aap me 2 minute extra liye iss liye aap dono ke final marks hai 23 each.

Dissmiss.

Ali and Huda scored a 20.

Pooja and Yudi scored a 15 which was pretty much the average score for that drill. Good enough but it was clear that both were dissatisfied.

2. Rajveer's drill :

Rajveer : Good afternoon cadets.

Aap logon ko dekh kar lag raha ki Major Nair ka test kuch khaas nahi tha.

I know yeh sab kafi unfair lag raha hai, but I believe in all of you. So believe in yourselves and everything will go well.

Okay.

Everyone : Yes Sir.

Rajveer : With a bit more energy.

Everyone : Yes Sir !!!!!

Rajveer : Good

Toh aaj ke test ke liye main aapki precision test karunga.

Aapko wo rifles di jayegi jo actual border par posted soldiers patrolling ke waqtuse karte hai. Yeh aapki normal practice rifles se thoda alag hai par not by much.

Aap ko 3 shots fire karne hai. Try to shoot as close to the centre as possible. And I'll evaluate you accordingly.

Three targets set up hai, you know the drill.

Let's begin.

This test, with out a doubt bohot accha jata AGAR Mucchad baki faculty ko lekar shooting range mai nahi aate toh.

Aur jo first drill mai hua tha wo fir se hua.

Major Nair ne koi kassar nahi chodi sab ko demotivate karne ki.

Jo dhangh se aim nahi kar paien unko dharthi ka bhojh declare kar diya. Aur jo dhangh se aim kar paien unko overconfident showoffs declare kar diya.

We could all see that even B.C. was trying to stop himself from shouting at Mucchad.

Seriously, the only reason why I didn't shoot him was because,

A. Main ne Aalekh ko yeh karne se rokha tha.

B. Rajveer mujhe aisa karne se rokh rahe the.

Aur

C. Mujhe waqi mai Dr. Mishra ka anger management ko le kar repeat performance nahi sun tha.

Wesse C ko avoid karne ke liye main Dr. Mishra ko bhi shoot.....Nope I can feel the disapproval rolling off of Rajveer.

Ufff.......Naaye naaye baane doston ko comfortable aur khush rakne ke liye kya kya karna padhta hai. I mean I've to shoot a triple bullseye on the target board instead of the target board and two living targets. I mean the latter would be so much more cooler yaa..........

To be continued...........................

Note : Extremely weird and wacky chapter, yeh writing ke waqt hi main ne realise kar liya tha. But the crazy bunnies in my head did what they did.

No regrets.