By Sanyukta Iyer:
“It’s actually really different from what you students think about our life here at the academy. It is tough no doubt, but we have our time of fun and glory and trust me there are unforgettable experiences.”
Cadet Manoj Pandey, 21, smart and fun to converse with didn’t mind answering any of our queries. In fact, his love for responding developed an interest in us to know more.
Passing the green lawns, fountains and huge buildings of the National Defence Academy, located amongst flora and fauna, we saw several bicycles without locks at many different places. An eager Mr. Pandey smiled and said, “These cycles here are kept for convenience, but they seem mounted on us more than we seem to be mounted on them. Any punishment involves us running with the cycle over our heads. Probably traveling would have been easier without the cycles; at least punishments would have been less painful for sure!”
He also described to us the importance of each of the building locations accompanied by the stories of how curious the cadets were during their beginning days and how now they are familiar with every nook and corner of the institution spread over 16,000 acres. He explained further, “Our lectures are held in separate halls named after the architects and founders. Our library is the biggest building and consists of our museum.”
We wondered in awe, how their personal lives in such a prestigious institution must be, their hostels, and their food. On questioning, we were told, “We are not allowed outside the campus on weekdays, but we sneak out. Like today, after we are done with you all we are going for the movie ‘wake up Sid’. We just climb up the wall and then get back after roaming about at e-square. Every time you see a cadet outside in a uniform, it’s not because he loves wearing his uniform, it’s because he did a lot of climbing and sneaking. But in case we get caught we have to suffer the consequences. But after a while you get smart, especially now that we’re seniors.”
The NDA mess was huge and spacious. A proud Cadet stated, “This mess is the 3rd largest in Asia. It’s really nice. All of us eat battalion wise every day, together. Even our seats are fixed.”
If life is so much fun, many of us wondered how academics felt like amongst all the wilderness and glory hours. Did they have a strict faculty? The video we were shown portrayed them like any of us, sleeping or talking away in lectures. But what did they actually study? The cadet responded, “Studying here is easy. Like for me, I took the simplest way like most of the other cadets. For getting into the air force wing, you need to take up science which becomes difficult eventually, likewise for the navy, but for the army, we study less and have more of practical, manual labour and training. It really is fun because we get to chose from a lot of subjects.”
He also spoke about all the extra-curricular activities they engaged in, “We have really long races, swimming competitions and many more activities like rifle shooting and horse riding. The scariest is when you have to perform the hurdle race while riding the horse. It’s the scariest, mandatory task for us. What all of us do is we mount the horse and just close our eyes for it to do all the riding. With our eyes open we would faint. It’s fast, dangerous and complicated.”
Being a media student and coming from a metropolitan as my hometown, visiting the NDA was a privilege and a golden opportunity. It was a completely different experience for someone like me who had never encountered any defence persons before. The entire visit left me amazed with a feeling of gratitude and awe.
I value every part of the field trip to the National Defence Academy, Pune. Every building, site and artifact there had a story to tell. But what will remain with me forever are the stories this young cadet shared, enthusiastically and honestly. The experience would probably have not been half as fun for me, had I not gained a bird’s eye view into the lives of these young and brave individuals persisting in this impressive and influential institution.
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