Passing Out and the Parting Shot
(This is my last post on the NDA series)

Completely unaware of Indira Gandhi’s grand design to put the Armed Forces in their place through the Third Pay Commission, we NDA cadets were drilling away to glory for the ultimate event – our passing out in June 1974. So (presumably, as none of us had heard the term Pay Commission, let alone the Third Pay Commission in those naïve days of our lives) due to the belt-tightening affected on NDA too by the Pay Commission Award, only one NDA Special was now available to take us to our leave destinations that too in the Junta Class and not the elite First Class of Indian Railways. So both – the Western as well as the Central Railway types were put in a common train till Dadar. After dislodging the Central Railway types there, the single NDA Special continued its journey on the Western Railway route to Delhi. The wait for us underprivileged guys at Dadar was for about six hours before some insignificant train of the Central Railway route carried us to unglamorous places such as Bhusawal, Khandwa, Itarsi, Bhopal, Jhansi etc.

The rather hot night of 8th of June 1974 found a restless horde of cadets loitering about on the platform of Dadar station in their ridiculous lungis and vests – some donning their unbuttoned walking outs over the vest as an after thought. So this bunch of freshly passed out cadets – me included – found itself leaning inadvertently on an ice cream chest and instinctively started fiddling with a ‘Click’ lock dangling from the latch. Soon, the group developed an unstoppable urge to open the lock and have a ‘dekho’ inside. Some enterprising chap collected a few key bunches from others and passed them surreptitiously to the chap ‘fiddling’ with the lock while others effectively covered him and his act from public view. Soon the axiom – ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’ was proved right and the ‘fiddler’ was able to set his eyes upon the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ of the ice cream chest majestically stocked with about four hundred cups of vanilla ice cream.

Within minutes, the contents of the chest were stealthily transferred to the rail coaches where all the rest less as well as sleeping cadets were provided with the treat of their lives. The used cups were carelessly thrown on the track side of the coaches and clearly visible to anyone who wanted to look for the ‘proof of the pudding’. The cadets’ merry making must have alerted some watch man who in turn informed the owner of the chest who dutifully complained to the railway police. The lone ‘taant’ policeman on duty came and inspected the empty chest and then the coaches full of by now ‘peacefully asleep’ cadets and appeared not to be convinced of the culpability of the cadets. He asked the victim if he can identify one who did the job which the victim obviously could not. So he assured the victim that the matter would be reported to the military authorities the next day. Later in the night our coaches duly attached to the insignificant train, proceeded for our onward journey to our leave destinations.

We, the passed out cadets almost forgot about the incident till two months later while undergoing our Army training at the IMA, when one of us received an ‘inland letter’ from one of our juniors at the NDA informing us about the NDA Comdt’s opening address and admonishing to the Academy for the Ice Cream mis-adventure at Dadar station and award of three Sinhgarh hikes to the entire Academy. This is what is called – “Khaye koi aur, bhare koi aur.”