Life in N.C.C. Camp : Author : Dr. K S. Kang

Life in the N.C.C Camp

Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

            As a student or rather as a cadet of Sainik School it was mandatory to join National Cadet Corps, which was brain child of First Government of Independent India to start an organization to create a second line of defence and to develop leadership traits in the young school, college and university students. It was compulsory for me to join N.C.C for the eight years of my stay in my school; and then as a member of N.C.C it was mandatory for me to attend atleast one camp so as to acquire eligibility to appear in A Certificate Exams. So I enrolled myself for Annual Training Camp for Sainik Schools to be held at some place in Jammu & Kashmir in 1978 which was a perfectly normal state at that time. Our school group lead by a JCO ( Junior Commissioned Office or popularly known as Subedar) and two ANO’s ( who were our teacher too) accompanied us for this camp. We started by train, after school left us at the railway station couple of hours Railway Station to board the buses of state roadways that took us to some remote place near Srinagar, named Khrew after a long journey of ten hours on winding mountain roads of the State. As it was my first experience of hill journey. So we did not know the troubles of journey in the mountains. We started the journey after taking heavy breakfast and soon it was out from our mouths within the first hour of the travel. However it was realized by us not to take anything heavy while on a hilly journey. It was quite dark the time we reached the camp site and our school was given a square tent to spend the night in. after a hurried dinner of lentils and rice we rushed to spread our beddings in the tent. The last boy, who got late in opening his bedding had legs out of the tent. As it was quite cold in the before the scheduled departure of the train, from our place of residence and reached Delhi after an overnight journey. From Delhi another train took us to Jammu Tawi after crossing the plain states of Haryana and Punjab, in the morning. Our troop as we were called, which was a group of about 70 Cadets, got down at Jammu Tawi night so even in the month of May we were shivering even after taking two blankets over and two blankets under us. Next day in the camp was spent in pitching our tents at the allotted place to us and we came to know that troops from five Sainik Schools, from various states of the country like Kunjpura in Haryana, Ghorakhal from Uttar Pradesh( now in Uttrakhand), Kazakottam from Kerala and Nagrota from J&K, were participating in it. In the morning we came to know about the lay out of the camp and it was on the slope of the valley with mountains surrounding on three sides and a rivulet, whose water was used by us in morning ablutions.

            Next day camp started in the right earnest with P.T roll call at 6.00 a.m in the morning. Some of the cadets were getting late for this event so an N.C.O entered our tent with a cane in his hand to drive us to the P.T. ground and some of the cadets with shorts came out of the tent putting down buttons of their shirts and shorts. Mostly we were taken for jogging of about 3 kms and some exercises in this activity. After P.T we were given some time to wash and change and take our breakfast at the camp mess, which had become one of the most haunted spot for cadets as they used to display menu on the black board that cadets will be given that day. After the hurried breakfast, including cleaning of utensils, and change of clothing we were again required to assemble at Parade Ground for Drill. After the roll call and drill the cadets used to disperse for various activities till lunch. One day we were given fire-fighting training, another day we were taken for firing, another day for route march to some place we were given demonstration of modern weapons, including signal bombs, by army personnel of the unit stationed there. Interestingly here also we found one officer of that unit the then Capt. Hari Ram Poonia who was the alumnus of our school. These activities continued till lunch. One day to escape the tiring walk of route march I took the duty in Quarter Guard which was in a large square tent with a flag in front of it. Normally there were eight cadets who were to watch the treasure of the camp stationed in the Quarter Guard Tent for 24 hours every cadet giving four hours of duty twice. One day selected cadets from different troops took part in treasure hunt exercise too. After lunch some cadets used to go to listen to music as hobby and then in the evening they had to report again for games. Mostly the games in the camp were football, volleyball, hockey and Kabbadi. After the games cadets used to rehearse for the cultural events to be staged on the final day of the camp that is camp fire.

            The icing on the cake of this camp was that we were taken to visit Srinagar one day when I got opportunity to visit not only famous gardens of Srinagar- Chashme Shahi, Nishat Bagh and Shalimar Gardens, but we also visited the historic mosque of Hazratbal which has pure hair of founder of Islam Hazrat Mohammad Sahib. During this visit we a;lso came across the then Chief Minister of J & K Mr. Sheikh Abdullah who had coincidentally also came to pray at this mosque at the same time. On the last day of the camp after an impressive march past different troops there was a cultural variety show in the evening by different troops that was known as The Camp Fire that continued till midnight. Next day in the morning we again boarded the buses of State Roadways to reach Jammu Tawi where were to get trains for our respective destinations. I will not conclude this piece without sharing with you these two experiences. On e was that due to stringent routine of the camp we used to get so much tired that while on a duty during Firing I had nearly gone asleep and a goat was nearly killed as it strayed into that area where firing was being done while I was snoring with red flag of warning in my hand. And the second experience that I will never forget was that by the time we reached our homes we were nearly unrecognizable even by our parents as our faces had turned dark and had scratches on our noses.         

My Cyber Training Author : Dr. K. S.Kang

My Cyber-Training

                                                                                            Author: Dr. K.S. Kang

With the dawn of twentieth first century government felt the need of training their personnel particularly teachers of higher education in cyber knowledge so that they can keep abreast with the latest that is happening in the world. As for our department government of the state entered into MOU with American Embassy in which it was agreed that they would give their English Language Fellow working in the Embassy to the State government for the period of two years in which he will train the staff in the latest cyber teaching techniques. The person selected for this job was Mr. George Chinnery, who was working as Senior English Language Fellow in the embassy. He adopted the modus operandi to train some master trainers and then those master trainers would train other teachers of English Language in the state. First of all he invited English teacher from various colleges across the state and interviewed us to know our willingness and consent for the programme. After selecting teachers form different regions two week two master trainer programs were held at a private college in the capital of the state and the other one was at Dungar P.G.College Bikaner. I was selected for the course that was held at Bikaner. After this training programme all the master trainers were called for a couple of Orientation and Refresher Courses in different private colleges of Jaipur. Atleast three colleges I could remember still- ICG Mansarovar Jaipur, SS Jain Subodh College Jaipur and Agarwal  College Jaipur. After selecting Master trainers the process of training rest of the English teachers of the state began, of course under the supervision of Mr. George Chinnery, Senior English Language Fellow. During the training sessions we were apprised of the latest teaching techniques with the help of computer and other cyber aided tools. It was during this period that e-mail accounts not only of all the master trainers but of all English teachers in the state were created and even blogs were also created. One of my blog is the creation of that period. A team of three to four master trainer along with the English Language Fellow trained rest of the language teacher of the state in two weeks programme held at different divisions of the state. One interesting incident that took place during the training programme was Mr.George Chinnery married his fiancée and the happy couple was blessed with a daughter named Melody. I think that was the best return that he would have expected from this country for the services provided by him to the teachers of this state.