Making it through the Sieve

"Report at 7.00 in the auditorium tomorrow", these were the last words I remembered before I slipped into a deep, wonderful sleep. Sleep, aahn! The name makes me grin. Probably there's no better invention to life than the ability to sleep according to one's will. Sleep is a very just player. He makes you forget all the worries, problems and anxities which you have to bear no matter who you are. And I hate it when someone wakes me up from my sleep, no matter how important the matter at hand maybe. 

Dreaming about something really romantic(typical me :P), I heard a horrible, loud sound in my ears. I tried cutting out the noise by putting my head beneath my pillow but to no avail. The screeching, shrill sound was still clearly audible and was getting onto my nerves. A good night's sleep can work wonders on your spirits but when waken up in such a lousy manner, can even ruin the best of days. And as I was slowly gaining my consciousness, I realised that it wasn't a noise but rather a song sung by a woman. And a few minutes later, I make out that it is a bhajan dedicated to Vaishnavi Devi. The goddess must have been cursing herself for creating mankind but with helpless desperation probably might have muted her ears from the horrible noise. But for a mere human like me, blessed with no divine powers of Gods, all I could do to protect myself from that torment was close my ears with my fingers. 

A few people around me were already awake and a few who were stirring up, wore shocked expressions at that sudden explosion of sound. I pull my phone from beneath my covers and look at the time, 6.35. Shit! 6.35. I suddenly find myself awake as if I had never slept and come out of the bath in 15 mins. After making sure that my formal shirt is neatly tucked in, my un-combable hair neatly combed and my shoes shining, I stand infront of the mirror and examine myself. My Ammamma would have loved me had she seen me then and my Thatha would have surely fainted. Seeing my hair oiled and neatly combed is one of his all-time prayers to Gods. 

By the time I drink tea and make it out of the hostels, the dormitories are empty. Just me and Rajan. And we run as fast as possible to the auditorium. Had any officer seen us then, we would've surely made it through the physical tests. We were actually running for our lives and you can't run faster than that. By the time we reached the auditorium panting, everyone was already queued up in two lines and we are punished to do 5 push-ups because we were 5 minutes late. This CHM I tell you, would have been the perfect high school headmaster. 

In the auditorium, we are informed about the day's schedule and the test for the day is GD or Group Discussion. Looking around at others(around 40), I feel pretty confident. Arrogance or Confidence, I feel superior in argumentative skills and language skills when compared to most of them. We disperse for breakfast and while eating(a perfect breakfast of 2 boiled eggs or cutlets, 4 bread slices, a dallop of butter, two tablespoons of mixed fruit jam and a glass of milk) I make acquintances with quite a few other, notably a Tamilian and a Dehra fella Anurag. 

We are taken back to the auditorium and there we are shown a hazy picture of a girl playing a piano. At the end of 2 mins, we are asked to write a story based upon the picture. I don't remember exactly but I think I wrote something about the girl being a music prodigy and whatever her emotions are, she shows them by playing it on the piano and then one day her dad is taken to a prison or something. I know, I know that is really dumb but come off it mate, you are given 10 mins to write the story and mere mortals like me cannot make up Oscar-Winning scripts in 10 mins. 

We are then divided into groups of 8 and then in the colonel's office, we were made to read our own interpretations of the picture and then debate upon whose story was the best. My neighbour's story was elected to be the best and mine wasn't even in the running. That really was a setback for an aspiring writer like me. Anyways, after the GD we are made to wait outside until the other batches had their turn and half an hour later, the previous day's captain who addressed us the previous day, addresses us as gentlemen again(the swelling of the chest again :D). He tells us that the GD was actually a filtering test and those who couldn't make it through the test had to leave. I wait with bated breathe. True, I did not want to get into the NDA and badly wanted to get into my Engineering, but I wasn't ready to accept failure. Winning and forgoing is heroism. Losing and returning was losing afterall. 2 mins later I let out a sigh of relief when my name is called upon and I'm guided into the auditorium. 

After all those who are selected are assembled, we are congratulated by the Major addressing us as gentlemen again(I have to mention the reader here that from then on whenever the Major referred to us, it had been "Gentlemen" and I will not mention it again but my chest still swells with pride at the memory of it :P) and tells us that the second cycle of selection process started the next day and lasted upto 3 days. At the end of the speech, we are alloted Chest Numbers(a chest number is a cloth like a bib, colour coded according to your batch and with a serial number printed on it) and we are feeling good about being in the Army(the food was really good :D).

We are free for the day and are given Identity cards bearing our chest names and with "NDA Selections- Sultania Infantry" printed upon them. I come back to the dormitories and with my new filtered room-mates and pass time idling around. The day passes rather uneventfully unless you count two folks fighting over a bar of soap in the baths, Nayan's towel accidentally slipping off his waist and making us find cover or we being shot by Dev's new N73. The ass said he would post the video on youtube but I still cannot find it. Apart from a large amount of time spent on gossiping about girlfriends and typical dirty jokes, the day remains quite boring. We plan to go on an outing but none of us feel like going, so we drop the idea. And after that dinner with formals, we go to call up our respective families( and I call up my "friend" too :D) and spend most of the evening in the Recreation room(which consists of magazines, a TV and a couple of TT tables).

We are asked to report at 7.00 the next morning in the auditorium for the next test by the CHM who visits our dormitory and complains about our neatness. That's all for today. Cya tomorrow then.

Have a great sleep and come back tomorrow for the really exciting parts are yet to come. I know you will return ;). I'm far too irresistable.

The Whole Wide Beautiful World beckoning me...

25th September, 2007

Woke up abruptly when I heard someone yell in my ear. I'm no light sleeper and it must have been a test for the patience of the TC to wake me up from my deep slumber. I check my watch and the time is 1.14 a.m, damn man. And even after the TC passes my berth, I can still hear him yelling at someone in the same bogey for the next half-an-hour. I cannot sleep now and I think what a thankless job the TC's got. People are so irritated and yell back at him when he wakes them up but isn't he doing his job? Whatever...

Anyways, I roll into sleep again and the next time I open my eyes, the train is slowing down at a station...Bhopal Station. The time is 8.25 a.m and I sleepily get off my berth and check my things. I go have a face wash and by the time I'm ready, the train's already stopped. And now with a bag slung over my shoulder and excitement in my eyes, I gaze out of the door. Bhopal, a city I've never visited and have no first hand experience of. I'm about to enter a virgin land where not even one person knows me. Isn't that really cool. Isn't that all the really arty people, Writers and Directors, dream about. Go somewhere where no one knows you and experience the place and express your thoughts and become the next big sensation. I, myself, was on verge of being an arty sensation and I was ecstatic over the prospect of it. I could already see people fighting over for my autograph and I being arty am wearing a kurta on a jeans with a short crop and loadsa beard :D...preferably salt and pepper and with that all-knowing, enlightened expression on my face...anyways, I'm deviating again...

So, I get off the train and go i search of breakfast. Moni mama told me that poori-jilebi was a delicacy in Bhopal. But I'm pretty reluctant to bear the torment of my taste buds early in the day. Poori-Jilebi for breakfast...OMG! So, I head to a South-Indian food dabba and order a plate of idlies. The idlies taste like, well rather taste like nothing and the sambar's very very viscous(Physics can help writers at times ;) ).

So, after that dreadful breakfast, I report to the UPSC office on platform 1 and from there I'm guided to a restroom which surprisingly is full of 17 year and 21 year olds. Oh! I wasn't the only one appearing for the selections, right? So, we sit there reading magazines, introducing ourselves and apprehensive about the other guys. No one talks a lot and among others, I actually find a Telugu fella but he was the one in for CDSE. How good it feels when you see your brother among a continent of strangers, no matter how horrible your brother may seem to you back home.

Anyways, at 1.30 p.m, after ages of waiting, we are aked to follow a military man. He escorts us to the bus arranged for us and after checking all our identities, we are boarded onto the bus. That was the first view of Bhopal I ever had, through a bus window. It is a poor city, nothing compared to my beloved City of Pearls, Hyderabad. Wherever you see, all you can spot are dishevelled huts low crumbling buildings. But as we are taken to the outskirts, I realise that it isn't a big city, pretty small for the capital of one of the largest states in the country. And about half-an-hour later, we enter the Cantonment area. And by the way, my neighbour in the bus was this guy from Nagpur(first impressions: small-towned, nervous, cowardly and a nice guy) and 5 minutes of conversation with him proves all my impressions.

We get off the bus at the Sultania infantry, and are given instrucions about our stay. This guy called the CHM(which I later learnt stands for Company Hawaldar Major) screams at us because we cannot stand in a straight line and says he expects better from Officer calibre folks. After that bit of intro, we are guided to our hostels. The infantry is a beautiful place, full of greenery, clean swept roads and officers clad in full uniforms with crew cuts and aviator glasses(I wanna be an armyman atleast for the sake of those glasses :D).

The boarding house consists of a huge hall partitioned into 3 huge rooms which consist of 10 beds, 5 in a row. I go to the last room and some of my roommates include a Bihari guy whose name I don't remember but it sounded really funny in his accent, a UP guy called Rajan Singh, a Maharashtrian called DevDutta, a Simla guy, a Sikh and a Darjeeling cheerful fella, Nayan MoniRoy. Talk about unity in diversity ;). All of them appear to be nice friendly folk and after unpacking our cases, we have our baths and then sit about and introduce each other. Everyone is really excited about the prospect of getting through the NDA and I realise that the madness of NDA in other parts of the country is huge when compared to AP, wehre it is miniscule. People actually regard NDA in level to the IITs and many actually do their long-terms. It is my first time in a boarding camp(if you don't count my disastrous SSY experience years back) and I really like the feel of it. The typical boyish talk, ranging from girls, to heroines, to cricket, to girls, to comparision of each others' bodies, to bollywood buzz to girls again (Oops! did i mention girls more than once? ;)).

We report to the auditorium at 6.00 p.m and everyone is dressed in formals. We look at each other and grin. Formals, for God's sake. We are welcomed by a captain who congratulates us for making it through the written test. And then after his speech, he hands it over to a major who addresses us as "Gentlemen" and everyone's chests bulge with pride. Someone actually adressing us a gentlemen is the best feeling in the world. He tells us about the schedule of testing(which I will reveal to you folks gradually, trying to build suspense you know :P) and in the end wishes us luck. We are to report the next day in the auditorium at 7.00 in the morning.

Everyone disperses and the few veterans who are attending the selections for the second time grab all the attention. At 8.00 we are called for dinner at the dining hall and are chucked out the first time. We arrive at the place starving, wearing shorts and T-shirts and are asked to come dressed up in formals. A few of us protest about the need of formals at dinner and the reply we get is a finger pointing us out. Dressed up in formals and wearing shoes, we go to the dining hall. The food is amazing, all the organic healthy raw stuff and the really nice stuff too.

We return to our wards at about 9.00 and decide to sleep early because we had to report so soon the next day but only at 2.00 in the morning, were all the lights switched off.

Cya tomorrow then. Good Night.

Bhopal Calling!

Hmm...now, exactly an year and abt 2 hrs ago, I was aboard the train to Bhopal for my NDA selections... ;)...Yep, I was even called for the selections, you don't have to be so surprised...

anyways, all the posts in this category report to the events which happened exactly an year ago...the dates are the same but you need to rewind your brains back to a year...this is sort of my dedication to my Bhopal trip...and the details are not entirely correct, come off it, I went an year ago and you can't expect me to remember even the minutest details...so, with the fictious right vested upon me, I make up quite a few things(all in part of being a writer and so that you folks have a good read...Im so selfless you know ;) )...but I had a really great journey...really memorable it was :D...

anyways, I was talking about my train journey before I gave you that boring set of instructions...good, so now, about my journey thing... 

today is 24th september, '07...hmm, a really memorable date...and the time's about 1.30 p.m and I'm busy packing my bags with the huge list of things I was asked to get, which include 2 formal shirts, 2 formal trousers, a pair of formal shoes and two pairs of white shirts and shorts(for God's sake) among many others... amma's yelling at me that I'm going to be late and should have started packing the day before...why brood over the well-slept night, I reflected, but not so loudly for her to hear...she was already pissed off enough and it didn't do me any good irritating her further...

and before i forget, I received a telegram(Yeah! a "TELEGRAM", and addressed to ME...that was awesome...someone actually sends you a piece of antique addressed to you) from the UPSC asking me to be reporting at the Bhopal railway station by 1.30 p.m on 25th sept...the goddamn telegram was sent on 18th sept and I receive it on 22nd...Indian Postal Service zindabad ;)...

so, we reach the station(well in time too...see, amma was wrong... :D ) and I'm pretty nervous about my trip...frankly, I didn't even wanna go...I had already paid(yeah! PAID a fortune) for my engineering seat and there was no point going for the selections...except for the exposure(as amma and moni mama pointed out) and fun( as bujji mama said)...I didn't expect to get through my written exam in the first place, so it was a bit of a surprise for me to be called...the train arrives and I bid adieu to amma and ammamma and call up my "frnd" as soon as my train starts rolling...

I'm suddenly feeling all grown-up and all...going for recruitments sounds good...anyways, 5 days of joy without anyone bothering me, with a postpaid phone so that no one ever disturbs me how much ever i talk, 5 days of pure untouched world because I don't even know one soul all through the trip and 5 days of pure freedom...aahhaa!...freedom already smells good even before I reach Secunderabad ;)...5 days of freedom, wait a sec, did I forget I was actaully going to a Military Camp...a MILITARY CAMP for God's sake and I'm looking over the prospect of 5 days of liberty...only if i knew what was in store for me... :D

I love trains...the journey? well, not so much...the leisurelyness of it...you know you can't do anything except WAIT for your destination to arrive or for you to reach your destination, wateva! the typical time and space relativity(thanx to the ambiguity created by the great mr. Einstein)...anyways, don't you mind guys...i have this very annoying habit of deviating from the current topic and lecture about something else very unrelated..as Sherlock holmes points out...wait a sec, I'm deviating again...phew!...we'll discuss trains, einstein and holmes some other day...no problem :D...

the journey was pretty uneventful...i mean uneventful if you don't count the fact that I cudn't find a single person whom I could converse with properly and undisturbedly...that meant half a day of no gossip and ages of torment for me...i stuck to a book(I think it was R.K. Narayan's collection of essays) and ate my meal...a good night's sleep then...Good Night folks! cya tomo...

oi! what are you hanging about for?...Can't you see I'm sleeping...gn... :D