A very happy birthday to National Defence Academy #NDA , that made men out of all us boys and taught us some valuable lessons like:

1. Being hungry is state of mind. If you missed your meal and end up mentioning it, you’ll be made to do more exercise to forget about it.

2. Everything is mental. Only academics , academics are physical. If you don’t remember what is the answer to a question in exam, just shout your squadron name, it’ll come galloping to your mind. Like shouting “Limaaaaa” in my case ensured I passed all my exams. Such battle cries
in otherwise Peaceful and quaint exam halls are not considered weird.

3. Sports like hockey, football, basketball etc have a component called ‘ball’ in them just to distract you from main aim of the game. Bring the other players down !!! Focus on that, always!
4. 10 meter jump is not a test of your swimming skill. It’s not even of diving. And definitely not of courage. It’s just to check how much you want to pass out with your batch.

5. Drill instructors are messengers of Gods. You’re allowed to forget Diwali, Id, Holi etc but if
he’s said “ be there at 10” and you’re not, you’ll see a preview of hell and will start believing in God pretty soon.

6. The likelihood of a senior to call you for some extra ‘care’ in mud and slush is directly proportional to cleanliness of your uniform or ‘just your face’ !
7. “ I’m not feeling well” is a sentence that generates in a certain frequency that is inaudible to any and every senior. Don’t bother even uttering it.

8. The same senior who smilingly took your cycle for morning parade and made you run for miles to reach your class will also
be smiling when he returns it. Nothing personal. It’s just business !

9. In 6th term, cadets of three different Services are generally found in three states. Air Force guys are like Gas, light and happy and floating around candidly in their flying suits . Naval guys are like
water, just moving smoothly from one class to another with maps and night sky charts in their satchels. And Army, solid, dirty, muddy, always hungry and someone always ready to plough them down !!

10. Last but not the least. Mutual insult and abuses are a way to show love to
each other. If someone meets you after years and shakes hands and says “hello”, just know that he doesn’t like you anymore ! Everyone is Taant, Jat, Thambi, mallu, Khalsa etc etc. It’s an internal code. Civilians are advised not to try this stunt without Ex NDA’s supervision.
Long live the traditions and again, a very happy birthday to the cradle of leadership 🎂👏👍🥂

PS : i wrote this long time back. So if you’re reading again..well tough luck. I repeat it every year !😊

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