14 Nov
Is it really a century of blogs? I checked and rechecked. No - there was no doubt in the figure. It is the round figure of 100 blogs. It is a milestone for the ARMSASCI course and for me. It seems only yesterday that Profs Bagchi and Mahadik walked into the class and said that it would be a good idea to maintain a blog about the goings on in the class. For reasons not known to me I volunteered. Me volunteer? I was taken aback at my presumptuousness. And I will tell you why. In the Army we are taught right from the beginning , never to volunteer. Volunteering means hard work. It also means that - in case things go wrong then there is someone to blame. A Fall Guy. And hence never volunteer.
The only other time I volunteered was when I joined the Parachute Regiment. Of course I loved the Idea of belonging to an elite regiment. So much so that during the break time in Indian Military Academy - when all cadets went home for their holidays - I decided to go Paratrooping. The entire holiday was written off... When I did volunteer for the Paras my course mates looked at me pityingly and said that I was mad . They were of course comforted by the fact that since I was going to Agra , the 'Agra Pagalkhana' had a ready candidate in me. Things worked out well for me and I though I stayed on in Agra , it was not me who went to the mental asylum , but a lot of others who could not stomach the ways of this crazy world.
In a moment of candor Prof Mahadik , during the tea time at ASCI revealed to us that sweepstakes were on among the staff. Prof Mahadik was the Bookie and they were offering offering stakes of 2 to 1 in favour of the blog continuing through the course. There were not many takers - in fact people were betting 5 is to 1 against the blog continuing after the initial few days. The ARMSASCI course blog was odds on favorite on losing steam. As the days progressed the odds slowly but surely started favoring the blog continuing. In fact all those who bet against - I am happy to say lost out heavily. It was not long before we started seeing gloomy faces of those who bet against us. One thing I have to say for the teaching staff of ASCI - in spite of this financial setback it did not put a crimp on the excellent teaching capabilities . If anything, it in fact improved their method of instruction. Soon the entire staff was rooting for the blog to be a success. We thank everyone of the for their unstinted encouragement in making this blog a real success.
There was no dearth of topics to write about. The daily classes, the method of instruction, the subjects being taught. an unguarded remark by any of the instructors, the far and few visits, visiting faculty, guest lecturers. daily routine and many other things which kept happening in ASCI. For reasons of propriety , many things were also left unsaid like the time when... Or when... or I remember that time when...etc etc etc Also there was this time when the ..... and so on...
Not to talk about the time when we were part of other courses when there was need for joint instruction. We met some bright sparks from the civil stream like Kirti Shettigar and Mayur who were working for the same bank or another course which consisted of government secrataries of different designations. The visits to the meto and to the other companies are also documented among these blogs.
And then there were guest bloggers - notable among them were Prof Mahadik Prof Sachendra and others. Somehow We were not able to rope in Prof Bagchi to contribute to the blog . This here is a warning to Prof Bagchi to think up of something to write- there is yet one week of the course left and we are sure that with his experience he will contribute something soon - otherwise there are always the ghostwriters who can make this happen... Some other highlights were the interview of the foreign student from the Fiji Islands- that day the readership really shot up...
In the end I have to definitely thank my course mates Sandhya , Himanshu, Prasad , Perumal, GJ Rao who encouraged by his frequent comments and his being a subject of many a blog.Pv Sivaram who also helped with his comments while at the time achieving many a landmark in his passion for cycling, Jagpal for his witty one liners which helped in providing for the start of most of the blogs and Banerjee for his astute and to the point remarks which helped in improving the blogs.
Just because we have completed a 100 blogs it does not mean that this column will stop . There is still a week left in the course and why stop it even after the course is complete? The scope will widen and in a way it will be a means to keep in contact when we go our separate ways . Thank you all....
Is it really a century of blogs? I checked and rechecked. No - there was no doubt in the figure. It is the round figure of 100 blogs. It is a milestone for the ARMSASCI course and for me. It seems only yesterday that Profs Bagchi and Mahadik walked into the class and said that it would be a good idea to maintain a blog about the goings on in the class. For reasons not known to me I volunteered. Me volunteer? I was taken aback at my presumptuousness. And I will tell you why. In the Army we are taught right from the beginning , never to volunteer. Volunteering means hard work. It also means that - in case things go wrong then there is someone to blame. A Fall Guy. And hence never volunteer.
The only other time I volunteered was when I joined the Parachute Regiment. Of course I loved the Idea of belonging to an elite regiment. So much so that during the break time in Indian Military Academy - when all cadets went home for their holidays - I decided to go Paratrooping. The entire holiday was written off... When I did volunteer for the Paras my course mates looked at me pityingly and said that I was mad . They were of course comforted by the fact that since I was going to Agra , the 'Agra Pagalkhana' had a ready candidate in me. Things worked out well for me and I though I stayed on in Agra , it was not me who went to the mental asylum , but a lot of others who could not stomach the ways of this crazy world.
In a moment of candor Prof Mahadik , during the tea time at ASCI revealed to us that sweepstakes were on among the staff. Prof Mahadik was the Bookie and they were offering offering stakes of 2 to 1 in favour of the blog continuing through the course. There were not many takers - in fact people were betting 5 is to 1 against the blog continuing after the initial few days. The ARMSASCI course blog was odds on favorite on losing steam. As the days progressed the odds slowly but surely started favoring the blog continuing. In fact all those who bet against - I am happy to say lost out heavily. It was not long before we started seeing gloomy faces of those who bet against us. One thing I have to say for the teaching staff of ASCI - in spite of this financial setback it did not put a crimp on the excellent teaching capabilities . If anything, it in fact improved their method of instruction. Soon the entire staff was rooting for the blog to be a success. We thank everyone of the for their unstinted encouragement in making this blog a real success.
There was no dearth of topics to write about. The daily classes, the method of instruction, the subjects being taught. an unguarded remark by any of the instructors, the far and few visits, visiting faculty, guest lecturers. daily routine and many other things which kept happening in ASCI. For reasons of propriety , many things were also left unsaid like the time when... Or when... or I remember that time when...etc etc etc Also there was this time when the ..... and so on...
Not to talk about the time when we were part of other courses when there was need for joint instruction. We met some bright sparks from the civil stream like Kirti Shettigar and Mayur who were working for the same bank or another course which consisted of government secrataries of different designations. The visits to the meto and to the other companies are also documented among these blogs.
And then there were guest bloggers - notable among them were Prof Mahadik Prof Sachendra and others. Somehow We were not able to rope in Prof Bagchi to contribute to the blog . This here is a warning to Prof Bagchi to think up of something to write- there is yet one week of the course left and we are sure that with his experience he will contribute something soon - otherwise there are always the ghostwriters who can make this happen... Some other highlights were the interview of the foreign student from the Fiji Islands- that day the readership really shot up...
In the end I have to definitely thank my course mates Sandhya , Himanshu, Prasad , Perumal, GJ Rao who encouraged by his frequent comments and his being a subject of many a blog.Pv Sivaram who also helped with his comments while at the time achieving many a landmark in his passion for cycling, Jagpal for his witty one liners which helped in providing for the start of most of the blogs and Banerjee for his astute and to the point remarks which helped in improving the blogs.
Just because we have completed a 100 blogs it does not mean that this column will stop . There is still a week left in the course and why stop it even after the course is complete? The scope will widen and in a way it will be a means to keep in contact when we go our separate ways . Thank you all....
May the blog remain a chronicler of life and times ahead !
ReplyDeleteMay the blog remain a chronicler of life and times ahead !
ReplyDeleteCol Ravi sir. hats off to you for your perseverance in your efforts towards this blog for such a long duration. Your uncanny ways of blending class room teaching with real life situations in the blogs is superb. My sincere thanks to you for covering extensively my Project on suicide prevention produced under the aegis of ASCI with the kind knowledge,direction, guidance, supervision, acceptance, approval and help of many officials of ASCI including the DG, Prof Chandrashekar, Prof Laksmi, Prof Usha Ramachandra, Dr. Lalita Anand, Dr Ramu, Asst Prof Mahadik, Asst Prof Rajkiran from all of whom I had received the help in person as well as through mails. .From my batch mates, the help of Col Ravi is invaluable. While it is on record with complete evidence that my project is done under the aegis of ASCI, Prof Nirmalya feels other wise despite that evidence on record and despite my project enhancing the image of ASCI through acceptance of my model by Telangana, and under consideration by A.P. and other States of the country and through extensive coverage of my project on electronic and print media. ASCI should in fact, encourage and support such projects in future batches of AFP.. Thanks one and all of ASCI for providing me this platform and thanks Col Ravi for portraying the project and spreading the awareness among the masses about the suicide prevention measures.
ReplyDeleteAdjectives and words fall short to convey congratulations, in its truest sense, to Col Ravi on the stupendous achievement- the successful reaching of a huge milestone - a digest of the times, great as well as not so great, we have had over the last six months. May this continue for times to come- albeit about times in general. May his creativity flourish more, reach extend farther and bring joy (and enhance knowledge) to whoever comes across this blog site.
ReplyDelete