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Civil - Military encounters

The Indian Military Academy (IMA) is adjacent to the FRI, within whose campus the erstwhile Indian Forest College (IFC) was located. The IMA cadets (formally addressed as Gentleman Cadets or GCs) used to be taken on route marches and morning runs through the FRI, while we IFS Probationers underwent Weapon Training , Swimming and Equitation, all of which were compulsary, at the IMA.

I had a friend from school undergoing Army training in the IMA ... he and I would often meet up for lunch or dinner, mostly on Sundays, when we were allowed to go to the city. Once I did not see him for a month. Worried that he might be ill, or otherwise indisposed, I cycled over to his squadron in the IMA one Sunday morning. It turned out that he, along with his entire squadron, had been relegated to his room for four weeks for indiscipline.

It turned out that his batch of GCs were doing drill on the IMA grounds, while our senior batch IFS probationers were being led on horseback through the tea estates bordering the IMA. One particularly healthy probationer, SK, could not keep control of his horse, and the animal took off for the stables with SK hanging on for dear life. As the horse galloped past the drilling GCs, with SK hanging on to its neck, and the Havildar Instructor chasing the runaway, shouting "Sahib, kya karta hai. Lagaam kheencho, lagaam kheencho. Roko ghodhe ko ...", the cadets could not stop themselves and burst out laughing. That was enough to earn them punishment. Not only were they ordered to run ten times round the parade ground with full backpacks and rifles raised over their heads, but were also confined to barracks for a month. My friend thereafter lost no opportunity to curse me as long as he was in the IMA. Now we laugh about it ....

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