“Trrrr…..rataratarat…..kat khali,1,2,3,4,,,,,start doing pushups, you jerk..”
It was a horrible nightmare, more a memory actually, of being punished by a senior at the National Defence Academy. He woke up all sweaty in his hostel room, a civilian one again, missing the good and the bad times he had spent in the army.
Would he get the life he always wanted, ever again?
Would he ever be happy again?
Would he ever fit in this culture?
He closed his eyes, and tried to get some sleep before his first engineering lecture the next day.
“This too shall pass,” he repeated to himself, his usual bed time mantra.
Waking up in the morning, he saw three strange people in his room, people who were still sleeping when he was ready to leave the room. Most unusual, he thought as he got dressed in his army like attire, with his jeans almost touching his man nipples. No comb was needed of course, as there was not a single hair on his head. He went to have his meal and then rushed to the classroom.
“So you are from the army huh? What has army taught you so far?” asked Miss Ankita, his teacher, when he got to his first class. She was an extremely attractive young lady, almost his age. Feeling like Sharukh Khan from ‘Mai Hoon Na’, he replied with all the mature confidence of an army man, surrounded by mere kids, “Ma’am, the army has taught me to be at the right place, at the right time, in the right uniform.”
“I am sorry to tell you this Dhruva, but probably the army didn’t teach you enough. You are sitting in the wrong class,” her reply had him flustered. Silently he got up, well aware he had made himself the laughing stock for at least this lot of ‘kids’.
Walking out of the class, he mused to himself, “Phew, civilian life ain’t easy..”
TO BE CONTUNUED..
