JOURNEY WITH SAF ACADEMY

MISSION: FIRST TASK FOR RECRUITS- PART 1

Faizi had shown all the recruits their rooms and their phones were taken. By the time, all the recruits had gone to their rooms, Faizi and sanjana were thinking about the plan that Karan had made for the recruits. 
In the rooms, they were paired up and were supposed to share their rooms. Sumanji was sharing her room with koel, chitra was sharing her room with some other recruit. Sanjana is a special agent and so she wasn't sharing her room with anyone yet.. 

Coming out of Col. Batra's office, karan and monami parted ways. Karan went towards the training grounds and monami went towards her room. Within 10 minutes all the new recruits were called on the training grounds. It was 6:30 in the evening by this time. They were explained all the rules, their training methods, the canteen staff and every other basic information regarding the academy. They were told that the training would start at 6 in the morning. They would have their breakfast after that and there would be another training session and then lunch and another training session before dinner. This rigorous timetable was set because karan was hell bent on throwing these namunas out. His only plan to do this was to make the training so difficult that they leave on their own. 
During this whole time, karan and sanjana were stealing glances at monami in anger. Well, this could only mean that her journey in this academy is going to be very difficult. She was sharing a room with sanju and was training under karan. They could easily give her extreme drills to practice and she would have to do them without complaining, thought monami. 
But monami being monami, questioned her thought about not complaining..
this train of thoughts could go to any distance( women do have a tendency to think too much!!) 
Then karan took the oath of protecting their nation and their civilians along with all the recruits. 
No matter what the reason, every single cadet had come there to do something for their country. To learn to be better civilians. To be able to protect others when the time comes. 

we all have lost people due to many reasons, but people who die in terrorist attacks are just innocent victims who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. To protect these innocent victims, someone has to take the lead. The main agenda of this program is to make those leaders.

At the dinner table, all the recruits were taking a bit of time to talk to each other. Koel was still maintaining a cold exterior. Monami was easy going so she started talking to Sumanji and chitra. 

That was it for today as it was just the first day and the real academy life was going to begin from tomorrow. 

Next morning all cadets woke up at 5 am and then started getting ready and all arrived on the training grounds by 5:30 am. 

Karan had a little smirk on his face as his plan was about to begin. He was very sure that the new recruits are not going to last even a day. He just wanted to show to Col. Batra that his idea wasn't going to be fruitful. 
He started taking the oath along with all the cadets. 
" first day par kuch aasan hona chahiye, right? aap log abhi bhi neend me lag rahe hai. 
Chalo neend bhagane ke liye kuch karte hai. Academy ke piche ek jungle hai, zyaada nahi kuch 20 kms. Aap logo ko iss jungle ka ek round lagana hai, that's it". 
Everybody thought that this was like morning walk but nobody knew that there was no concrete road that connected the jungle and the academy, that means to come out of the jungle, they would still have to be in the jungle. 
The sun had not risen up yet and it was still dark. Everybody started moving with ustaadji in the front and sanjana in the back. They were all carrying small torches. 
From an overview, anybody could tell that the academy was on an uplifted platform, which meant that the jungle was also uneven, it could have deep valleys and waterfalls as well. 
Ustaadji knew the forest like the back of his hand, he was quick in his movements but the cadets found it difficult to follow. 
Monami being a nature lover was liking the ambiance but it was still dark and so having a proper vision was difficult. Suddenly a recruit stumbled on a rock and slipped down and screamed, his pain echoed throughout the forest in response to which a lot of native species of bird got disturbed and cried out. The sudden noise startled everyone. 
Premji in a low tone said" saavdhaani hati, durghatna ghati" 
They had barely covered a kilometre when they had to cross a waterfall. It was a small one but the area was quite slippery, making it difficult to climb up. 
Ustaadji within seconds was up and all the cadets were in shock but nobody could take the first step. 
" are jaldi jaldi chalo, saare din yahi baithno hai ke" ordered Sanjana, but still nobody could move from their places. 
Monami took the first step, she placed the torch in her mouth, holding it their and started climbing up. The rocks were slippery because of the water and mud but she still somehow managed to climb up and ustaadji lent her a hand. The rest of the recruits did the same. 
with most of the recruits done, Ustaadji started moving forward, when sunshine started penetrating the multiple layers of the huge trees and fell on the ground. It was a beautiful sight as things were finally visible but they couldn't enjoy it for too long as Sanjana kept commanding them to fasten their pace.  Every forest has something hidden, which is not supposed to be touched by humans.  
Most of the recruits were panting already, as not all of them were used to early morning trek!! 
Monami decided to slow her pace followed by sumanji and chitra. 
They sat down and drank water to catch some breath. But by this time, the whole group had covered quite the distance and these three were left behind. 
They were not in sight so chitra decided to climb up a tree and see atop. 
Monami helped chitra climb up, "monami #thoda aur dhakka do na", hearing this monami and sumanji start pushing and somehow chitra manages to hang on a big bark. She tries to stand by holding the big part but stumbles a lot. 
"#itne upar se kahi mai sidhe upar na chle jau, monami mai ye #nahi kar sakti", 
" nahi chitra, its ok tum upar pahuch gayi ho, thoda sa aage chalo, tumhe wo dikhenge, agar hume nahi pata chala ki wo log kaunse direction me gaye hai to hum yaha phas jayenge" 
somehow monami convinces chitra and she takes the step forward. 
"monami, mujhe wo log # dikh rahe hai " pointed chitra towards the east direction. 
Monami was glad, she helped chitra down, but while jumping Chitra accidentally twisted her leg and fell on the ground. 
" hey bhagwan, chitra tum theek ho", asked a concerned suman ji. 
monami checked her leg and said it could be a sprained ankle. She was in no situation to walk and her ankle was starting to swell. 
Monami could only think of only one solution. She gave all hers and chitra's things to sumaji and told her to get on her back. 
Now sumanji was walking ahead leading the way, and Monami was walking with chitra on her back. 
It was almost 8 by the time they reached the academy. Everyone was waiting for them. They reached the training grounds and  Monami quickly put chitra on a chair and inspected her leg again. All the recruits surrounded them. She asked ustaadji to bring an ice pack and some pain relieving spray. Monami was sweating tanks after carrying a heavy chitra on her back for an entire hour and walking through that forest. She elevated her leg on the chair she was sitting on, and started icing her ankle. this would take about 20 minutes as the swelling had grown alot. 
By this time, Karan and faizi were on the ground, and it was a spectacle to see Monami doing her job. After icing her leg, Monami sprayed the spray and took off her scarf and tightly wrapped it around the swollen area. She was feeling little guilty as she was the one who insisted her to climb a little more. All recruits got a little scared as chitra was in alot of pain and this was just the first day. 

karan dismissed everyone as it was time for their breakfast. Ustaadji and Faizi helped chitra up her room. 
Now monami and karan were face to face, he had an angry look, she looked guilty and upset. 
Before monami could explain anything, he took her to the Agents lounge room and showed her the footage of the forest. Monami felt like he was blaming her for everything that had happened to chitra. 
" samajhti kya ho tum khudko, agar usse zyada chot aa jati to kya karti tum. tum jaise logo ki wajah se chitra jaise log problems me phaste hai. tum chahti to khud upar chadh sakti thi, par tumne use kaha chadhne ke liye". 
Monami was speechless, she was ready to accept her mistake but she felt he was unnecessarily blaming her. She did not purposely tell chitra to climb and neither did she hurt her. Then why does she have to bear the brunt. 
She started crying because it was unfair and she could not defend her. She quietly left the lounge and ran upstairs. 
karan felt like he overdid it, but it doesn't matter, he chose to blame her for this. All the recruits are his responsibility and now chitra was hurt. 
He went upstairs to check on chitra and saw monami sitting by her leg and massaging it. He was both surprised and angry, just now he had blamed her for chitra's condition and now here she was, tending to her wound. 
Just then monami was going back to bring spray and saw karan standing in the door. He had a sarcastic look on his face that clearly said," seriously, kitna natak kar sakti ho tum", monami shot her eyebrows up at his look but he ignored her and went to chitra to ask her how she was feeling. Monami left the room. 

" i am fine sir, monami di ne # bhot care kiya mera" said chitra, feeling a little better. 
" agli baar monami ki baat sunkar aisa kuch karne ki zaroorat nahi hai, take care of yourself" saying this he was about to leave when chitra added " mai # khud chadhi thi, agar monami meri help nahi karti to pata nahi kya hota". 
Karan chose to walk away. 

He went back to the lounge and rewatched the tape, he noticed at a second time how monami put her weight between chitra and the ground by holding her by the waist otherwise Chitra would have fell hard on her face. He watched the entire footage where monami was carrying chitra on her back. He felt like he could have approached this in a different manner. 

It was time for breakfast. Would he apologize to Monami? 

"Yaha itne machchar kyu hai, na so paa raha hoo na baith paa raha hoo upar se ye monu bro phone nahi utha rahi" exclaimed an irritated sid who was now in his dadji's farm house. 
why did Sid go there? 

THANKYOU!! 
BYEEE!!