Doon 'Light' Infantry...


Envy is a mild term. Mild because there are other; more suitable terms (like spiteful, green-eyed) to describe my current feeling towards Army Officers. Ok, let’s face it…I’m plain Jealous.

My friend DK , who commands a rather decorated unit in town, recently got posted, to a beautiful country in the southern hemisphere. His posting meant a farewell party, a band, booze as usual, some dancing and a lot of handshakes and ‘good byes for now’. This is what it meant to most people at the party. But no, not to me, no Sir…this is completely unacceptable. For unlike the current generation, to us passing school in the late 80s and early 90s, the army was not one of the many career options. It was one of the maybe 2, not counting sitting at your father’s shop (that wasn’t a career, it was plain bad luck!). So invariably, about 80% of the class would take the NDA exam, half would reach interviews and a quarter finally become officers. Two of my close friends are senior officers now. I always told my dad that I didn’t like the army. I lied.

The fact was that I was so worried about ‘Grammy Awards’ that I couldn’t even study to save my life. So whilst I have always considered my self ‘General material’, I’m sure even Generals went through a basic math test to get into the army. Well, I couldn’t. So after a couple of attempts at staring at objective type questions, and filling all ‘A’s on the first page and all ‘B’s on the second, I just gave up. Gave up, attempting to crack the NDA exam, not loving the army.

My last 16 years in HR, training and business experience has taught me the following lessons in our current context.
1. You can make all the money in the world, but you can’t live in the cantonment (usually the best part of any town). 2. Your ‘Hugo Boss’ tie cannot make people salute you. 3. Riding a bike on Rajpur Road may be dangerous, but is still not considered an adventure sport. Army gives you a full and free supply of real adventure.
I sometimes wonder why the army has a shortage of officers. Maybe because; they don’t have marketing managers like me. Jealous and green-eyed. By the way, if any of our readers is close to the President of India, may I request a favour? I’d like to raise a unit of officers who couldn’t crack the math exam, but love the army. We’ll call it the Doon ‘Light’ (in math) Infantry; or any other name the President likes. Anyone?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Making of Audio Wagon (Aug 2008- August 13, 2009)

Image
“You must be joking!” “Are you really serious?” “You’ll soon get over it.” I was expecting people around me to say this and similar stuff when I declared that I don’t want to work for a company (read another person) anymore, even when a respected training organisation gave me an offer and stock options. But the voices were all mine. The doubts personal and the feeling real. When I left my last role as the HR head of a group, I knew I was different. I felt different and unlike other times in the past when I would worry about my future, this time I felt absolutely confident. “I am never going to work for another man again” (or women for that matter). Sounds a little brash and stubborn …exactly the way it should be to be able to get this right. Shadab, Gaurav and I have dreamt of Audio Wagon earlier. Even gone to the extent of writing our mission statement, defining our vision, even participating in the Economic Times’ ‘Power of ideas’ contest and getting to the last but one leve
Read more

Small towns ,breathe easy.

Image
This time when I went to DehraDun, I felt different. The biggest reason was that I wasn’t thinking of my work back in Delhi and taking calls or looking at the Blackberry. I had quit my job and was relieved quickly and (though I hated the silence), I suddenly realized how important this small town was to me. A month before this visit I had paid thirty two thousand rupees for a ‘4 day, 3 night’ package at Kanatal and gone back a happy man. Happy because the 3 nights in the hills usually calm me down and make me ready for the race to nowhere. I had packed much in the three days in the hills, to the extent of regimentation. Walk every morning and evening. Must sit in the sun. Must have a bonfire. Must have the right whisky, sharp at 7:30 PM. Must have ‘chicken tikkas’. Must play (for at least 45 mins) with my daughter. Must (try to) talk to my wife. After doing everything I had put in my Outlook calendar (synced with my blackberry), with reminders 15 minutes prior to the even
Read more

Saala Bh@#$%^&*

Image
I don’t usually use swear words, but this had to be; maybe the most appropriate response from a guilty and absolutely angry man. I was guilty because, whilst like every Indian, I was furious and angry at what happened on 26 th November in Bombay , I almost forgot about it just a year later. Forgot not the incident; as a matter of history, but the anger I had felt. This morning I received the latest ‘India Today’ with the Bombay Terror attacks as the cover story. It spoke about the renovations at the ‘Taj’, the new equipment provided to the police force, the coordination between our security forces, as also the yet up-paid dues to the victims. I felt both ashamed and angry at myself. Ashamed, because I have gotten so used to people across the country being killed, that I can’t sustain the anger over any one incident, and angry because I really want to now. I wish there was a way to not get complete immune to the anger and pain that one feels when something like this happe
Read more