The Commando chronicles!!

It was all over….finished!!After a long ordeal of 44 days(not to mention the excruciatingly longer nights).Days which were filled with grime,dust,sweat(no dearth of that in commando school) and third degree torture. A detailed account of what goes on inside the “school”(also popularly known as Hell in Army parlance) may not be feasible due to the extreme nature of the training and the incapability of the comman man to come to terms with it.But here’s an effort to pen down a li’l of what goes on inside the “Hell”…….

Sunlight drifted through the half open window of the train window as I saw Belgaum station nearing. Involuntarily my heartbeat quickened(yeah…u can call me chicken hearted…but I’m being honest about it). We were frisked away like sum hardcore prisoners from the station itself. Our ranks,pips and medals were the first to go, followed closely by our hair. Wat followed next can best be left to the imagination of the reader. Our rooms were just meant for keeping of the luggage and not for us. The bed in the room was the least utilized amongst the other furniture. Sleep was unheard of in “Hell” and walking was a rare privilege. Food & water were rare commodities and we had to “earn” them(all the commandos will best understand this term of ‘earning’).

Another thing which has long made its impact on us is the “Khooni Nala”.For the uninitiated and the ignorant, it is a sewage tank. I’ll again leave the reader to do the imagining. We were frequent visitors to this not-so-hygienic place, so much so that, we forgot the count after the first 20 times. By the 15th day of our course we had all turned into sleep deprived blood sucking zombies. Our brain’s had long ceased to think rationally and commands were obeyed without an inkling of doubt(even if that meant breaking a few ribs in the process).

But amidst all this gut wrenching training and mind numbing punishments our only solace were the memories of our loved ones back home and the pride of our Battalions who had nominated us to do this course. A lucky few amongst us who had girlfriends took out time to call them up whenever they could and returned afresh for the next session of training. For the rest of us….we just conjured up images of bikini clad babes in Goa(which all of us had planned on visiting on termination of the course). They say, the character of a man is best determined during the worst of conditions. I experienced that in “Hell”….

But I’m happy that we completed the course with some minor bruises and some amount of brain damage(a la Gajini style).Now I’m a proud commando ready to take on the bad guys.I have no fear,no remorse or pity ‘coz as rightly said….

“PAIN IS TEMPORARY BUT PRIDE FOREVER!”