Life Lesson - From Being Arjuna to being Dronarchya

From being Arjun to being Dronacharya

“Do you have it in you” These 6 words made an instant impact on me. I always looked upon the Defence Forces as a place to be. Polished boots, crisp and ironed uniform, glittering stars on shoulders and an awesome attitude for life and off course your duty to your land and people. Wow! I was literally dumb struck.

I enrolled into the Army Unit of NCC (National Cadet Corps) to lead me towards my goal one step at a time. My aim was to reach the “AntimPag” (The last steps) as it is proudly inscribed on the steps of the Chetwode building at IMA (Indian Military Academy).

The journey began with NCC which gives a fraction of how life is in the defence forces. I was a loyal, disciplined and a jovial cadet who took task and responsibility as duty. I enjoyed NCC camps where I got an opportunity to be away from the family and be with buddies going through the regular Army likewise routine and enjoying punishments of push-ups and front rolls with ease. Finally I graduated from college. J

After graduation I started working in a BPO,but continued my pursuit for Armed Forces. I cleared the defence forces exams 7 times with flying colours. J As next steps I had to attend and clear the Service Selection Board interviews at various locations like Allahabad, Bhopal and Bangalore and get recommended to join the Armed Forces after a small medical exam.

For all my interviews I cleared till the last stage. I would always be in the last lot of 20’s and 30’s who would eagerly await the results from the board as to who among us are recommended to join the Armed forces. Can you imagine being there all the time? Lakhs of students across India give exams, only thousands clear the written and only a few 20’s and 30’s remain to be recommended. Hush! It is a long and eventful journey. This was my last stand, the 7^th interview, the 7^th time I am in the last lot. The Gods must be crazy. As the Commanding officer announced the names, I was eagerly waiting for mine to be called out. To my disappointment, the call never came!!!  I was heartbroken instantly. This was my last attempt. IT’S ALL OVER NOW. My ATIM PAG dream was broken into a thousand pieces. I was angry, frustrated and didn’t know how to take this on the chin.

During the years of my preparation and trying times, my cousin Aayush was continuously observing me, he always asked me about my NCC activities, the Army life and how I was preparing for the exams, how I got through the interviews and what happened at the last stages. I always found myself uncomfortable at some of the questions as they would always dig out the scar of not making it through. 

Knowingly or Unknowingly I had inspired someone. Life moves on and life changes your roles instantly. Aayush too wished to join the Armed Forces. He enlisted and joined the Sea Cadet course (a preliminary course) in Mumbai like me joining NCC. I realised that my role in his life is going to very important.  My role had now changed from Arjun who seeked education from the Gurukul to that of the Dronacharya, the one who taught students to be superior. Today my cousin has inspired me to guide him at every stage to join the defence academies and complete a dream which remained unfulfilled.

Lessons to learn

1) Ability to mold ourselves to new roles

2) Your actions can inspire others

3) Any experience never goes waste

Abhijit More

Pune

Travel - Trek to Sandhan Valley - Ek Tharatmak Bhatkanti

Trek to Sandhan Valley🚩🚩⛰⛰🌑🌑

Post the successful trek of Fantastic Four couple of trek leads wanted to explore Nashik Range further and then one of the lead mentioned about exploring Sandhan Valley. Even I had not heard of this and I too researched about the same. At the time this looked like an unexplored region and we had to plan the travel properly. It was going to be just 3 of us, the 3 Musketeers who were going to visit the place. One of our friends had a Wagon R car which were going to use for this travel. This was going to be a overnight journey. So we decided that we leave directly after office and meet at one point. I was to be picked at Nashik Phata.

We understood that we were going to reach the base village in the extreme early hours, hence it was going to be cold outside, we were going to put up ourselves at Amruteshwar Temple at Ratanwadi and then move towards the base village at the sunrises and breakfast. Hence we had carried our sleeping bags in case we dont get a safe location to put up. I had packed with me some parathas for 3 of us, some groundnut chutney, some dry chikkis, and sabzi which would last till the lunch of the next day. Similarly the other 2 folks had carried similar food.

Reaching Ratanwadi🚩🚩

We reached Ratanwadi at 3am IST, we slept beside the Amruteshwar temple by putting up our sleeping bags and slept till 6am IST for the reason that we had to do our morning duties. Post that we had very few stalls in the area which had some breakfast to offer as well as since being in the Bhandhara Sanctuary, the mobile network was negligible. The villagers told us that if we were to make any phone calls we had to walk till the entrance of the Ratanwadi village were there was very feeble range and either drop SMS or make calls.

 I took some pics of all 3 of us having morning team and breakfast. Once breakfast was done, we started our journey from Ratanwadi to Samrad which was about 10 kms ahead.

We reached the base village of "Sandhan Valley" which is Samrad and after parking our car, we started moving towards the opening of the Sandhan Valley. The walk towards the opening of the valley is about 10-15mins walk, but the opening showcases why the valley is so mesmerizing.

The pathway captured may look narrow and small, but the size of the boulders is huge.

The valley had a few surprises for us and the 1st surprise was a water pass 

Post the water pass the valley starts increasing its depth and height and the boulders also start getting even more enormous. The size is evident in the pics from here on.

Then comes the 2nd surprise which is the second water pass, this water pass is deeper, at least till the chest and one has to be very careful while passing. We had to carry out belongings on out head and be careful that we dont fall as we will get drenched and there was no place to hide or even change.

Further surprise was there were forest insects in the water and we had to be careful and at this stage we recalled Bear Grylls.

Crossing the water was fun, captured once I had cleared the stage.

After crossing the water patches, there is a 1kms walk into the valley and one has to walk till the valley opens up again. The sunlight, hardly reaches the base of where you are walking.

While we were walking till the valley opened again in an enormous way, I was able to click one of the best clicks I consider I have captured in my photography ability.

Finally after walking through enormous, boulders, water zones and endless walks, we finally reached the spot where the valley fully opens up. I am sure in rainy season, this has enormous rapids with a waterfall at the end of this.

This view showcases the enormity of the size of boulder as well as nature.

We all were looking like small ants which was crossing the Valley.

Post exploration of the Valley, we took our lunch break, we opened all our dabbas and started to have what we had, it was a very long and tiring journey for us.

Post lunch, we started our return journey, we had decided, that while we go back and open this trek to other members we will limit our journey till a certain point and not go beyond as we had to do the same passes again which we had taken while descending first.

With this we completed the Recce Trek, it was fun for 3 of us and we mentioned to each other that this would be one of the blockbuster trek within the org. With this we took some time out and rest and then started our return journey towards Pune. Until next read, enjoy reading.

Abhijit More

Pune