Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Candidate to Cadet: My Journey in SSB Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The Physical Tests


The first thing that comes in mind when anyone speaks of defence forces is their physical fitness and their ability to perform dare devil acts. We have heard, seen and witnessed the heroics of the defence personnel right from the childhood. The next task in line for us was the Physical test. However a whole night was remaining before the test. While returning from Sarnath we bought few tennis balls. On the base our rooms were shifted to first floor and I was allotted MIG-29, the one that falls regularly. These were bigger rooms with a capacity of 8 beds. Till this time we have become friends with almost all the 36 candidates with an exception of one or two. At night all of us decided to play ‘One Tip One Hand Cricket’ in Sukhoi, room adjacent to MIG 29. We cleared all the beds to a side and the room was now our Cricket pith or ground or whatever you want to name it. The bound magazines from Library became our bats. Ratanjyot Singh Bansal a Sikh from Delhi took command of commentary. You always need to have a Sardar in your gang; they make the atmosphere so light and enjoyable that you forget all your tensions. We played till 1 AM and were making considerable noise, when suddenly someone knocked at the door. I opened the door and it was an Airman, who came to look for the source of noise.

“What is this?” the same old question, “Why are lights on till now and why are you people making so much noise?”

“We have a group discussion tomorrow; we were just practicing our points.” I said. Everyone was standstill in their position and prayed that Airman should not see the condition of the room.

“Go to your rooms and next time I hear a single voice, I will throw you all out.” He said. We quietly went to our rooms and crashed in our bed. This was the second incidence which could lead to complete wash out of the batch.

Next day we got up early to be ready for the physical task. The dress code was a white t shirt, white shorts, white socks and canvas shoes. This is one other thing I never understand, why people wear white clothes when they are supposed to get dirty during physical activity.

We reached the ground for the task. The whole batch was divided in 4 groups, first two groups had 10 members each, and the next two had 9 members each. I was the member of the first group. The whole test was divided into two categories:-

1) Group task which was further divided into Physical Group Task, Half Group task and the Command Task. It also had a session of Group discussion and strategy making.
2) Individual task

The task ground looked like an arcade with small setups of painted wooden blocks. The officer guided our ten member team to our first task location.

He spoke “What you see here is your first task; there are total 5 stages in this task clearly demarcated by the white bricks engraved here.”

The stages actually looked like stages of Mario with a start and finish lines. There were wooden structure in between those lines, some were structures like a table top, and some were only logs of wood standing on the ground.

Officer continued “All the ten members will have to clear the end line together, and then only you will be allowed to next stage. You are not supposed to land on the ground and have to use these wooden structures only. If anyone steps down, all of you will have to start again. You cannot jump more than 4 ft. There are few tools provided to you for your help, a rope, a bamboo, a drum and a wooden plank. You can use it for your help, but you cannot place any of the aids on ground.”

All of us looked at each other’s face in amazement. The team had Gautam, Tenzong, Amit, Ratanjyot and a few Delhi lads who became our good friends after the last night’s cricket. In India cricket does bring people closer.

We started the task, the first stage was easily completed, Tenzong and Gautam were super athletic. It gave us a lot of confidence. The second stage however posed a challenge. We all reached till a wooden platform 4.5 ft tall, the next structure was a similar heighted bamboo standing alone about 6 ft away.

“We cannot jump more than 4 ft.” said Gautam. All the brains were thinking. The adrenaline was rushing.

“We can do one thing.” I said looking towards the team. “Ratanjyot put the plank on the platform and sit on it.” Plank was about 4 ft long; Ratanjyot was the heaviest of the lot. With Ratanjyot sitting over plank, it became a diving board kind of structure. The distance between the platform and bamboo was now less than 4 ft. “I can do it.” I said and looked towards my team, they all nodded in confirmation. I weighed 61 Kgs then and was one of the lightest kids on the block.

Ratanjyot said teasing all of us “Please do it quick, whatever you are planning to. Sitting on this plank is hurting me very badly.”

I started walking on the plank and took a leap of faith and landed on the bamboo on one foot. A slight misjudgment in the jump could have resulted in a vital injury. I looked towards the officer, he was smiling.

“Hold it.” He said “What is the plan next?”

“Sir, we will take the rope and make a bridge across and all the candidates might cross it doing monkey crawl.” I have learned all these terms a day before at Sarnath from Gautam.

He smiled and said “Ok! Move to next stage.”

The first task concluded and not a single person was feeling tired. Officer spoke again “In case you were not able to show your skills in this task, let us divide the group in 2. This will be your half group task. This task will have only one stage.” The group was divided into two and we performed another stage of the task.

“In case still you feel you have not been able to perform well, we will do a Command task. In these tasks you will be allowed to be commander of a group by chance and you can select a team of minimum 2 candidates and maximum whatever you like. This task also will have a single stage.”

The stage had four thick Bamboos planted at the corners of a rectangular boundary. The bamboos at the far end were longer than the one near to us, all the four bamboos were connected to adjacent bamboo. The bamboo section near to us had two bamboo connectors parallel to each other. On my turn, I took three team members Gautam, Amit and Tenzong.All the other team members were seated with their backs facing us a few distance away from us. Our task was to go to other side using a rope and bamboo while we have a soft article a drum that has to be transported to other side. The soft article was not supposed to be used as an aide.

“Gautam take the bamboo and push it in between the parallel bamboos” I said. It created a kind of bridge. “Tenzong, climb it and reach the other end.” Tenzong did the same. His athletic capabilities were beyond anybody’s belief. I threw the rope to him keeping one end in my hand’. “Pass the rope through the bamboo at your end and throw it back. Gautam hold the other end” It created a V like rope structure. “Roll the drum across Amit.” He did the same.

“It is ok!” said the officer and continued “What if I remove the bamboo from your aids?”

I thought for a while. I looked towards Gautam. He told me he was good at tying rope knots. I asked him to tie a knot. I swayed the rope towards the bamboo at the far end. After two or three attempts it fell in place secured. “Now what?” the officer asked.

“I will ask any of the candidates to hold the rope at this end and will walk myself across to other end.”

“Why will you go?” He asked.

“It is a bit more risky than the previous one, that’s why!”
He smiled again.
Individual task ground was waiting for us.

To be continued…………………

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