Forty five years ago - Nostalgia
NCC camp
Foggy morning walk image this morning made me recall an event forty five years ago - our NCC Air Wing 10 day camp held in 1974-75 second term break at Air Force station Tambaram
We were twenty four cadets from our school occupying three tents
Night dew used to render our beds damp and mist of us used to be up by 3 am and used to chat.
The night sentry cadets used to knock on the tent pegs and asked us to keep quiet.
Our school was lucky. We were not assigned night sentry assignment in the camp.
We dug small moats running around our tents - to prevent snakes from entering the tents. There was hip high grass where we pitched our tents - we cut them and levelled the ground.
We had carried all our stuff in the longish black camp bags which were like giant versions of mridangam cover which we laid out neatly before we went for morning march. There were prizes for well laid out tents. Our neigbour Wessley school bagged the prize.
On the first evening roll call we were told smoking was prohibited in junior wing tents. Senior Wing cadets were on 15 day camp and they were there a couple of days before us.
Next day we woke up to see a junior wing tent which had gone up in flames in the night.
A school from Katpadi had guys from 8th and 9th standard in the camp. Rest of the schools had cadets from class 9 and 10. The Katpadi boys used to run naked in the morning to open areas for morning ablutions. The instructors chased them and put an end to this practice in the first two days.
The "toilets" were far away from camping site. It was a long trench on which planks with holes at uniform distance were spread. The users' modesty was protected in the front by tall tarpaulin sheets held in place by poles. The users were separated from one another by a two foot high partition. The back side of the facility was totally open to whims of nature.
The toilets helped us to keep to strict diet. We never went for second helping. John Chelladurai vowed not to use the camp toilet for the entire duration but ended up using once. My tally was three.
We had erected urinals provided close to out tents. To our consternation, we found they had been used for a higher purpose the morning after urinals were erected. We abandoned them.
Polly's ( he was in our tent with Nithy ) parents brought sweets for New Year a couple of days to go in December. We received the packets on Polly's behalf. Nithy turned them to grass after we felt old year itself called for celebration. Polly did not utter a word on New Year's Day after opening "the gift".
Bathing was a luxury. I bathed once. A tanker used to be there in the afternoon and some took a chance and bathed. The tanker used to run dry leaving some still covered in soap froth. Some of us used to go to kitchen and fetch water to help those stranded wash themselves clean.
We were taken on a long march to see old fighter aircrafts in hangers. Those enthusiastic guys who ran and clambered on the aircraft were on the floor in a bundle in a jiffy with their pride bruised -, the floor panels in the cockpit were not there !
Madan Lal made his debut in India vs West Indies Test Match during our camp period. With no news papers and transistors, we used to crave for cricket news.
S Ramesh, one batch senior at school and our flight sergeant, was judged the best cadet of the camp.
Our master Kattar Singh used to strum his guitar and sing -" Once upon a summer morningggggggg, a girl went for a walku, her mundu went phat phat.. I will tell you how..."
Oh ! Those were the days...
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