The Seventieth Special LXX

" Agar firdaus bar roo-e-zameen, hameen ast, o hameen ast,  o hameen ast!" Most of us are familiar with this famous Persian couplet where Jahangir is supposed to have described Kashmir  as the heaven on Earth, with this quote. Well taking nothing away from Kashmir, but for two days the heaven had actually shifted its base to the precincts of NDA Khadakwasla, for the 70th NDA course and their families who attended the reunion on 3rd and 4th Dec.  No I am not referring to the "seventh heaven" that we all saw quite regularly back then. I mean heaven as we imagine it to be. Seventh heaven for the uninitiated was the seventh strand in the wire meshed grill in the cabins by which we would hang for our dear lives with our fingers bearing the brunt. We the lucky bunch of  the seventieth revelled in the revellings for two days as though in a trance. Who would have imagined four decades back, when we lived from one session to other, just managing to keep our heads above the torrent of activities 'survival of the fittest' was imbibed in us back then. The 0300 knock on the cabin and being escorted to the bathrooms for the sessions for a "supposed" misdemeanour by any of our 25 odd brethren is still alive in our memories and so are the countless others which followed only the time and place changed the characters and their dialogues remained the same. 

Someone was extolling the virtues of training and the camaraderie which was visible to any outsider and was also was wondering what specific aspect was it that inculcated this spirit in an ex NDA. I was hard pressed to explain it, was it just the "ragda" or was there something else...I don't think there was any one thing which made us into what we are, it was the collective three years  which probably was responsible for it. Looking back now, I dare say, for good or worse we turned out to be quite ok.

Every reunion rejuvenates us, but this one was special, after all we got to stay in the squadrons, the smell of mansioned floors in cabins brought back memories of all the "cabin cupboards", that we were subjected to. For the ignoramuses, this was the means to get the Cadets to clean up their act literally, spruce up the cabins, find places to hide our dirty, filthy socks and undergarments and be presentable. For a 16 year old busy with all the thousand other activities, laundry was the last thing on his mind and was invariably postponed. One innovative method resulted in a near fire incident, when all the stinking socks were shoved into the kitbag which was neatly covered by a clean white handkerchief and an incense stick was lit strategically on top of the kitbag to suppress the foul smells. Murphy's law had to strike and sure enough, the lit incense stick decided to fall into the kit bag resulting in a fire incident which was controlled without any losses, other than the socks which any case had outlived their useful lives.

There were a few firsts in this reunion, it was the first time we managed to touch base with almost all the families of our dear friends who have moved on to the heavens above. Seven brave ladies of these decided to grace the occasion and rekindled the memories of our departed friends. The Seventieth was a unique course, each course believes theirs is one, but we are sure ours is something special, not in terms of just brass which almost all courses can justifiably boast about, we have amongst us guys who have charted their own course in their lives in service or out of service. Those who joined for merely a term or two have also remained connected as the bonds forged even in the initial days have been extraordinarily strong. We have Tarun Bhagoliwal who had joined NDA after having quit  IIT, but he realised that he is not cut out for a life in uniform and so went back to civilian ways and has done phenomenally well, with umpteen numbers of patents under his belt. So have Asim Mahapatra or Ranjit Nambiar, who have made a mark in the world of business and advertising respectively. Then there were those like Yash Saxena and Inder Dagar who had to quit NDA due to medical reasons but their 'never say die' spirit  saw them making a comeback in uniform through IMA and OTA respectively and making us proud of their achievements. Some others like Rajinder Chauhan had to call it quits after having survived full quota of six terms albeit with different courses, who did not let this setback pull them down but propelled them to bigger league. Even post retirement, the Seventieth guys have been following their passion, so we have Arvinder the COO of Gujarat Titans, Satish Mallick a wizard behind the lens, Jagan having started his own Cargo airline and delving into Film making as well. KPS Rana and Sanjay Bose have taken on the mantle to train the SSB aspirants, Yogesh Virlley is busy off roading with his  Red Thar, Ashutosh Tewari is pursuing spirituality in his unique cycling and photography trails, Patanjali Puri and his famous Tree House, Raghu the story teller whose two novels are best sellers Vikramaditya and Saumen De literally carving a niche in the wood art, NK Sharma, Joginder Chandna, Krupakar Reddy have been crisscrossing the globe running to glory…. just to name a few.

So with this pedigree, it was obvious that we are not the regular old fogies who will fade away, we have it in us to still contribute to the greater cause of nation building. The Seventieth Foundation came into being with this very premise and we have started to take some baby steps in this direction. It was also the first time that our course unveiled a Coffee Table Book for the reunion, I am sure others will follow in the years to come. I can take some credit for it, my third Coffee Table book in the last two years besides my maiden book, "Musings of a Military Mind". It was also the first time that our ladies got the real feel of NDA squadrons and our cabins. They loved the experience vowing to do it again in 2036, when we have our next do. 

The wreath laying ceremony at the Hut of Remembrance was a solemn occasion our comrades who had fallen in the line of duty, PK Pande, Madan Ghatge, Rohit Datta, Pankaj Batra, Sanjay Mishra, Vijay Kumar Rangi, their sacrifice etched forever. Group photograph saw us beaming as for once it was the turn of the ladies to turn into paparazzi clicking us in our ceremonial regalia. Lunch at Peacock Bay was fun with beer flowing and stories being shared, more squadron, school groups being sought out for photography in the picturesque setting. The finale was the Musical Evening which has been the forte of our very own Michael James, who weaved this amazing   extravaganza purely online and the amazingly talented officers and ladies regaled us all, with Mike himself leading the charge, Shilpa, Preeti, Sumita and Vikram Aditya mesmerising us with their soulful music. Meenakshi kept the audience in splits with her witchcraft. Thanks to Dear Bob Bakshi and Sanjeev Dogra, this reunion turned out to be a truly memorable experience. 

It may sound cliched but all good things must come to an end, although each one of us had turned into the child in the vintage Esselworld ad, “NDA  main rahoonga main; ghar nahi jaoonga main!”(I will stay on in NDA and will not go back home!)