July 22, that was the day fifty years ago when the 14th course was born at the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla. More than 300 of us joined and for us it was a day when our lives would be given a totally new direction. Many of us were stepping outside our homes for the first time with little idea of what military life would be like. To say that we passed the first six-month term in a kind of daze, what with the ragging and the strict discipline, would be an understatement! However, barring a handful, we survived all that and the training of three long years to pass out of the academy and join our respective services.The course has done quite well for itself. We produced two chiefs, General V.P. Malik and Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat who changed his name from the original M.V.K. Sharma, perhaps for luck! Ten others rose to three-star rank including one each in the Navy and the Air force, apart from a large number of one and two star ranks — a record any course would be proud of. Gallantry-wise, Brigadier V.K. Berry is the highest award winner of the course with a Maha Vir Chakra for chasing the Pakistani forces out of the Rajasthan sector in 1965. All of us have, of course, retired now and keep ourselves busy in different ways. Many have made quite a name for themselves in the outside world. For example, Ashok Sinha owns a shipping agency while Ramesh Chhiba, besides being a successful businessman, happens to be Shah Rukh Khan’s father-in-law.Obviously, it is time for nostalgia and a whole host of memories flood one’s mind. There was the British Regimental Sergeant Major Ailing of the famous Coldstream Guards whose stentorian admonishment from one end of the huge Drill Square was enough to make you shiver at the other end. Incidentally, off-duty the Sergeant Major was an officially qualified cricket umpire. Then the genial Commandant, General Habibullah, very fond of ‘sher-shayari’ who used to organise a lot of them and never failed to end with his own, “ikhattar bahattar tihattar chohattar, pichhattar chhahattar satthhettar atthhettar”, followed by loud guffaws.Those memories and many more are revived each time we meet. For now, we look forward to celebrating the golden jubilee of our passing out three years later.
