Since the country was under Emergency due to war situation and Army being expanded to multi folds, my training was cut short to 6 months and programmed accordingly. The initial training was restless physical endurance and for village boys like me it was nothing new and I took it like fish thrown in water. Most of the practical lesson's instructors were either Junior Commissioned Officers or Non-Commissioned Officers and they took the classes in Hindi only. It was difficult for me to follow the language and I was at the mercy of my Hindi speaking friends. Nevertheless my outstanding physical fitness earned me "Corporal" appointment at the end of first three months training. The next three months training was mostly on real war like situation based on real operations of 1947, and 1962 etc. There was 14kms cross country run and obstacle competitions and I had won prizes in both events. This had earned me "Athletics -Blue" at the Officers Training School.
On 03rd May 1964 I was commissioned into "The Corps of Engineers" and was directed to college of Military Engineering for Young Officers Training. I went home as a Commissioned Officer on 14 days leave and returned to CME.
Officership in Army used to be beyond the imagination of the general public in southern part of India. This was because the people at remote south were agriculture workers and some of them did possess little land also. Most of the boys did not even bother to complete SSLC and got on to agriculture instead. On other side girls did not even go to school after their maturity. From such a background I came out as an Officer and started learning the tricks and trade of the elite crowd.
Even as a village boy I had such qualities to demonstrate and that was the reason I did not care to stick on to my kith and kin to earn my living at any cost. College of Military Engineering located at Pune, Maharashtra is the topmost Training Centre for the Corps of Engineers of the Army.
"The army training for officers used to be of two years in four terms of six months period each with a break of about 10 days after each term."
"But unfortunately education or high style living, do not guarantee the character of an Individual. Honesty, Integrity and Patriotism etc. are to be thought over by the individual and the same are to be developed on his own at the risk & cost of his growth."
"Many civilians including well educated one think that Army means staying at borders of the country and keep looking at the enemy side through a set of binoculars. As soon as you sight a person just shoot him. This is not so in reality. In fact Army is a multi-disciplinary organisation covering all aspects of Science and Technology with physical, mental and psychological aspects of human life"
