Cover Story
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Boys to Men
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Making of a Gentleman Cadet |
GCs at the drill square
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Sanjay Kumar
Officers Training Academy, Gaya: It was an early December morning, our first day at Officers Training Academy, (OTA) when we met Gentleman Cadet Vikas Panicker, not his real name, of course. It was a cold foggy morning but the cadets were all lined for the 15km speed march. Fitted with a backpack and a rifle slung over his shoulders, Vikas cut a smart figure, like most GCs do.
“Look, I have to pass this speed march in excellent category otherwise there will be unofficial punishment later at night,” he said referring to front-rolling on muster ground, on a cold winter night. “I request you to keep your questions for after the march.”
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There was no option but to wait for two hours, the duration of the march. Just as well, as we (I and my photographer Sumit Verma) used the time to explore the surroundings. OTA Gaya, the third and latest pre-commission training academy of Indian Army, is situated near the historic ‘Bodhgaya’, where Prince Siddharth attained enlightenment and became Buddha. Symbolically at least, there couldn’t have been a better site to transform greenhorns into professional soldiers, with or without enlightenment. It commenced training earlier this year on 18 July 2011 and is currently home to 149 GCs. Over time, once the construction of all facilities and state-of-the-art infrastructure is complete, the number is likely to increase to 750 GCs. Right now, it is mostly making use of structures of its old avatar, which was the recruit training centre of Army Service Corps (ASC), North.
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