A great time after so long!!

A chance to experience something which gives you a sudden change from the near monotonous life you have just got used to. I happened to have one such thing, I got a chance to attend the SSB interview of the Indian Army. I happened to get a city named Allahabad as the place to where I had to travel to attend this. There were 77 other guys alongwith me who had come there. I reached the city of Allahabad on 9^th July. This is the city where the holy rivers of Yamuna, Ganga & Saraswati meet. The river Sarawati doesn’t exist as such, it is believed to be a historic river which used to flow thousand of years ago. The city is also known as the Prayag or the city of Sangam. It hosts the famous Kumbh Festival (Kumbh ka Mela, where twin brothers supposedly get separated in Indian movies to meet later in life under tragic conditions). Sangam resembles the confluence of these three holy rivers of India. I had to stay in a hotel for the first night to which I traveled by a rickshaw after a long long time.

Anyways, there was enough time for me to see the city and the next day I had to report to the Army station. I reached the Military office at 1 in the afternoon from where we travel to the selection center by the Army bus which came to collect us. Yes, collect us. We reached there and straight away we were called for our first instructions. The instructions were quite brief telling us not to roam around, not to be outside campus after 6:30, not to even see the girls let alone chasing the girls batch (this was told very sternly). The next day we had to report at 6: 30 inn the morning which meant waking up at 4:30 and the day was followed by lots of psychological type of exams. The results of that were out by afternoon, which meant only 14 of us were left, rest had to turn back and leave. We all were given chest numbers which we had to wear everytime. Mine was 5, and so was my name. My name was Number 5.

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The whole 5 days that followed after were real fun. There were lot of things to be learnt, lot of new things to be done and new friends to be made. The best part was that I made a lot of new friends and met lot of people whom I would remember for the rest of my life. Probably, I enjoyed this more than most of the guys there, the reason is pretty simple to me. I have been living in Mumbai almost since last two years living a very mechanical life. It was all about moving to office, sitting infront of your computer, waiting for the mails, a conference call once in a while, an occasional meeting I think there was no dynamism and nothing to look forward to. I had kind of lost the will and passion to do what I was doing. I seemed just so out of place to myself. Meeting new people in Mumbai is easy and happens all the time, but they don’t really count as friends. But only 5 days with some of these guys and I got so very attached. It was a relief after such a long long time. It was as if we were carefree, ready to take on whatever may come, buzzing with confidence like back in a school or college. I would like to count these 5 days, the dates of 10-14 July of 2009 as a time when I reinvented myself. Whatever I am writing right now might sound a bit off track but I guess all of us have different ways of seeing things and getting motivated. This was the thing for me.

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Thank you Number 1 to 14, me included, we made a great lot!! Heres your intro for you :)

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Number 1: Shashank HN, self proclaimed Wolverine, also the guy who almost made it, bad luck buddy, but cheer up!! I will change my orkut name for you to find it more easily.

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Number 2: Deepak Singh, cool and confident, I thought you never spoke but you did that well.

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Number 3: Bangali a.k.a. Victor Chatterjee, Bangali was made to sit on a iron T with a heavy plank over his balls by Number 1. Bangali later said it dint hurt but I wonder! He can speak at times, but all he likes is whistling. His interview question was repeated two times “ Why is your name Victor??”

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Number 4: Mr. Moradabad or Bada Hanuman, dude you rocked on the beer table that night, I am going to remember that always!!

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Number 5: Areey..thts me!!!

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Number 6: Ashish Doifode, couldn’t climb the long wall, kept falling from the last obstacle with the snake in between his legs…(when I say snake between the legs, it doesn’t mean what you re thinking right now).

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Number 7: Abhishek Diwan, he was smart enough to say he works with Mahindra Satyam and not Satyam! I wore your shoes for the interview..thanks dude!

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Number 8: Ansad K, very polite and seedha saadha baccha. Moradabad was telling something to him in Hindi which he couldn’t comprehend at all at the railway station and almost missed his train.

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Number 9: Anurudh Yadav, poor guy whose name was suddenly changed from Anirudh to Anurudh on a fine bright day due to typing mistake in Class X. Worse, now he doesn’t know what his name means.

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Number 10: Parwesh K Rangra, always to the point.

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Number 11: Bharat Chawla…yaar phir se propose kar de, you are tall fair n handsome!!

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Number 12: Sandeep Khanchi, first real Haryanwi guy I met in my life. On his way to become a police inspector with Delhi Police…bahut kamayega ye to!!

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Number 13:Raut Amit Khemraj, fundooo hai boss!!

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Number 14: V Satyanarayana Bhiri, he dint know hindi and wanted to learn it. The Second day, I went over to his bed, he takes a good look at me, holds my hand and says “ Man, you are very handsome!!” I never went to his bed again….! But he was the most polite and the most confused too. Whenever any instruction was given in Hindi, he would come over and ask me “kya bola??”

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Anyways, we were allotted our rooms thereafter and we were told that we had to report the next morning at 6:00 A.M. at the testing hall for further exams & tests. That meant I had to wake up at 4: 30 in the morning as breakfast was at 5:30. Well, after 6 a round of exams followed with lots of stuff. The results were out by afternoon, we came to know that only 14 of us were now left, it meant the rest had to leave. 14 of us were selected and that day was the start of 5 days of grueling, exams, interviews. It also meant for us great fun, outings, gossip, friends. Something to remember for a lifetime.

Wish you loads of luck!