WAY BACK HOME

PART 3.

Now we were "thrown out" of the AFSB at 8pm.

My flight was due at 9 pm the next evening from Bangalore. I went to the mysore bus station to enquire about the bus schedule.. They had buses all the time but then i wud had to search for a hotel in bangalore at 2am . i talked to my father , he said "learn to manage things on ur own, what if the air forces guys didnt let u stay for night .. u r big enough to take care of ur self".. He then asked me to take a hotel near the bus station only and stay in mysore for the night. I dont kno why papa spoke that way, but i felt a bit more confident then. I then talked to my major bhaiya.. He congratulated me for clearing the SSB and told me whats gonna be next. He told next was a 3 yrs training at NDA followed by an yr training at hyderabad at air force academy for "specialization". That ws the first time i heard about NDA :P . .So i got a room for some 400rs, locked all my laguage in the room , picked up my phone book and went down to a STD booth. I called 2-3 of my frnds .. told them i ws selected. they obviously congratulated me and felt happy about me :) .. Then i called home again. I told papa i had got a rum n i ws safe and sound.. papa adviced me that i cud have got a cheaper rum. then it ws mom next on the phone .. She blessed me for my results and ws really delighted. suddenly while talking to her my voice went weak.. when she obviuosly noted the change, asked me what ws it... I CRIED... n said "aapki yaad aa rhi hai" . she too went emotional but calmed me .. that time every1 of my five other family members were crying in diff corners overwhelmed with my success.. (which i got to kno when i returned back home) . my voice ws heavy now coz of crying and i cudnt see things properly coz of the recent tears.. (later at home , maa said that i got hopeless coz of papa's "advice" earlier .. and said to papa "ye bhi to baccha hi hai abi") .. i dont kno whether she ws right or not.. . probably yes... probably no..

Then I called a few more frnds.. one of them said in a sarcastic and friendly way" hw come u got selected" :P .. i said " bastard i worked hard for it... i kno im smthing .. and i have achieved something .. i have achieved success on my on capabilities .. " this encouraging speech of my mine latter became his inspiration to do more better in his JEE prep which he told me later when i returned.. i said probably it ws beacuse of the tear shedding 5 mins ago .Then i called the girl i liked. and had a chat for about 5 mins... I paid some 80rs that day for all the calls i had made :D .. Then i went back to my rum and slept.

The next morning i planned to reach bangalore around 12 and with approx 7hrs in hand i wud visit a few places there. I boarded the bus at 9 am after a good south indian breakfast and a lassi at a big restaurant at bus station. To my delight , a frnd from SSB ws on the same bus , but he wsnt shortlistd .. he congratulated me.. I then sat next to him for the trip in the volvo. i asked him where did he stayed the last night . he said in a nearby hotel rum with 200rs rent and a tv set too..and i thot why dads are always right. :P time went by fast in the bus looking at the roads of mysore and nice rows of trees. And i reached bangalre at 12 . His flight ws scheduled at 7 .so we planned to roam together.. When we were going frm the bus station to the railway station, my frnd pointed to a few sex workers standing in the subway. That ws first i saw "them" .. we moved on. We two kept our laguage in railway station cloak rum.. and hired an auto to get us to Isckon temple. The auto wala charged us some extra money so i ran into a mouth fight with him.. I abused him calling "sister fucker" :P , he got annoyed , i said i will call the police and complain about u.. Then i looked around and cudnt find a single police man but around 4-5 other auto walas. :P .. then obviously we paid the money he asked and moved on :P .. then we enterd the temple .there , they had an offer, we pay 150rs and get special quick line entry and a book worth rs 100 and prasad too.. we thot to cut costs n queued in the general line. the temple's architect ws heavenly. went we entered the main hall after spending some time in the queue , they had the 150rs scheme still valid. so now we got it :P ..( stupid isnt it).. after the 'darshan' we went to the book area where i got a "bhagwad gita" in hindi for my mom.. :) . we then took the prasad and saw a movie on lord krishna which they screen in there luxurious 20 ppl capacity wala movie hall.. then we saw the exhibition area .. everything ws just too "awesome n expensive" :P .. After clicking a few pics at the temple, we went in search of a good restaurant to eat. We found a restaurant which said good punjabi food. We got in n ordered food.. it ws awful.. , it ws around 4 so with not much idea about the city n unfriendly auto drivers :P we planned to reach the airport itself. So after the meal , we had to walk long to find an auto to the railway station to pick up our luggage.Then we reached the airport at 5pm.. so i had to wait now for almost 4 hrs for my flight.. my frnd's flight got delayed to 11pm , but mine on schedule.. :D

Kingfisher's air hostesses weren't that gud as talked about... ;) .. i watched the city from top and recorded a clip until a passenger behind me interrupted not to do so, till then i ws finished :P . i tuk my dinner n apple juice and watched 'dhol' movie for the rest of the trip. The flight landed at delhi domestic airport n all five of them; papa, mummy, badi behen, choti behen, n chota bhai were waiting for me with a bouquet in hand. :D . I ws wearing formals that time n it felt great. :) thats an inexpressible feeling of the moment.. i touched the feets of my parents, received a warm hug from each one of them turn by turn :) .. on the "way back home" i told them the stories of the past seven days and showed them some pics.

Things cud never get better now... I was on sky nine :D ..

With more respect amongst friends n teachers , I WAS HAVING TIME OF MY LIFE

P.S. Hope u didnt get bored this loonggg post, well only if u read it completely :P

BEST PART :D

PART 2.

At the railway station I reached well before time , 3 other guys were sitting n waiting there too.. So we four become frnds :) . And then more boys kept coming and then more and then the Air Force guys came with a truck n 2 buses to "capture" us *for the next se7en days* . Reaching the 2-AFSB (Air Force Selection Board) at some "1900 hrs" we were first required to fill  ** a few ** forms . And after that we were alloted our chest numbers according to our ages . Mine was 24 which meant i was the 24th youngest amongst the 90 who reported. And then we were alloted our dorms, I quickly took a bed near the window :D . And after the dinner in the mess named "तृप्ति " :P , the 27 day of January was over. 

Every1 woke up early the next morning ( early meant 4 am;  not 9 am; mind u Bitsians :P) and dressed . I was ready for breakfast at 6 am even before the sun came out, can u believe it guys.. :D And then the day began. An officer came to escort us everyday , making us walk in a file. We had ** a few ** :P more forms to fill and then some written psychological tests which included some more filling of course :P . After 2 days i.e on 29 they shredded off guys and the rest qualified for next rounds of testing! then i became chest no.19 .  . Examining there mainly consisted of psychological tests, so u can bet i got a +ve attitude :P .. Then there were some group tasks with tested our team spirit n blah blah.. I did fair enough in the physical tests and but ws satisfied coz i cud do the highest scoring (or toughest ;) ) tasks of test. Meanwhile PABT ( Pilot Aptitude Battery Test) was conducted. This is an exam in which u can appear once in a life time n if u fail then ur dream to became an Air Force Pilot is always a dream!! In this we were required to play a C programmed computer game.. I CLEARED IT :D :D .. So my chances were open to became a "Pilot" .. yeyeye :D

The major test ws up to come "THE INTERVIEW" :O . Dressed in formals with a tie on , i ws ready for it . And every1 ws dressed similar. We were kept to wait a lot for our turn and at times it ws too frustrating . So customarily, we were waiting for our interview turn too :P . I entered the rum.. a BIG rum. The officer shook hand with me n allowed me to sit down. Ya right, just 2 of us.. 1-1 encounter :( . He sat some 5m away from me . So I had to be load too.. And it started . He threw a *rapid fire* asking everything I cud kno about myself in categories i.e family, frnds, school etc.. One interesting q i remember "how many girlfrnds do you have? " :O.. i said "none " (sadly :P)  "but i wud definitely like to make one", he said"why?" me "thats the only thing i dont have".. It went well and i gave some answers which i can never imagine i cud say ( as in the perfect language and words used :D ).

The next day when we were done with all the tests for the day at 11am, we a grp of frnds, went for checking out Mysore :D .. we went to a temple,a zoo and a lake and clicked a lot of pics :) Next day it ws a planned trip by the Air Force guys to the city. I took my camera for this trip aswell... but..ummmmm . aaaaiiii .. forgot the batteries :( ( now plz dont laugh) So i ws carrying a camera which cud not take photos :P . That day we visited mysore palace, 1-2 temples , musical garden :D . It ws awesome.

The stay ws now coming to an end .

Long series of tests ws over and now it ws the final day. We all had packed our bags. Now we were sitting, n "waiting" .! We were to meet all the air force officials of the board individually, some 20 ppl. :O . So when my turn came to meet them, the officials asked me some questions n i ws done :) 

Now the results were being announced.. He called chest no.19  , Arpit Aggarwal. :)

P.S. Still no idea about NDA. And yes, after getting shortlisted amongst 11 of 90, we had to fill **a few** more forms :P which took around 4pm to 8pm of 2nd Feb. Hope now u realize what ** a few** everywhere meant :P :D

YEAR LONG MENIA ...! STARTS :D

PART 1.

If u didnt read the PROMO , then please read it first before reading this.. follow the link . thanks.

http://rodofwisdom.blogspot.com/2009/05/once-upon-time.html .. sorry but i find it necesarry :P .

It was sumtime in april 2007..i was in 12th .. Shwetabh calls me in the evening, "abe *Airforce* ke forms nikle hue hain, tu bhi bhar de". Me, "kaha se laun form, last deta kab hai".. shwet "abe saale kal hai last date, stationary se mil jaega form".

So i get a form for 20Rs. ,fill it, and land at shwet's place at 8 am the next day. coz his brother was going to submit his form , so i gave him mine aswell..

Then things became quite forgetable as we continued with our JEE preparation. One of my friend Jatin was really enthusiastic about the thing, so when we went to buy some books for JEE he adviced me to buy a book to practice for *Airforce* exam aswell. So we two got a book on NDA NA II (this we discovered the name of the exam was :P ) preparation and realised that the course was almost everything n all the subjects u studied till 12 :O !! i feared History , so read a bit of it from the book. And took some general idea of hw it ws gonna be.


And in August we receive our admit cards to sit for the written test. Since me and Shwet filled the forms together , so we had our centres in the same area. The exam was at 10 and the centre at some 1 hr distance from our home. It was raining that day.. So we left at 7:30 am from our home on my bike.... I didnt had the bike papers and no licence :P ..still . At 80 kmph.. we 2 driving on the cleanest of roads in Delhi enjoyed the trip to the fullest :D ..


Then came the Exam time.. First was general.. as in it covered every subject except maths. There were only few questions from history :D but preparation helped little :( .. Rest was good.. I "TRIED" english at the end which was at the starting of question paper :P .. But alas , my answer sheet went blank in the questions for english.. *it teased me*!!! so i made a random pattern on the answer booklet :D .. ( their was -ve marking ofcourse :D ) ..


Maths went pretty easy.. i couldnt do some questions coz i didnt knew the concepts. But later , when i was taught about them , i discovered the questions were really easy!!
And then again, we 2 were racing back home :D . .

Things became forgetable again.. Suddenly in december we heard that results for the exams were out on UPSC website .. We all four freinds cleared it.. Me, shwet, Jatin and Sahil.

Jatin received a letter to report at Dehradun 1-AFSB .. We all started preparing that we will go to dehradun for 7 days :D .. what all "books" to carry, what train, who carries what etc etc..

But then i received a letter that i needed to report at Mysore 2- AFSB in January end for my **SSB**!! So its decided we friends were not going together :( .. And then i shakily asked my dad for the permission to go and said that i just wanted to try.. He said , " Agar ye bhi clear ho gaya to?? pehle hi soch ke chal na! aage kya, agar ye bhi pass kia to? ! " But after it, my dad was planning the trip for me.. consulting his business fraternity for the contacts in Bangalore and Mysore.. I was made to talk to different ppl to take guidance on what to do for the seven day tests to follow :/ . a few guided to join some coaching..But i cudnt or rather avoided.. My "ristedaar MAJOR bhaiya"( from some sort :D ) asked me to get a book on SSB and get a feel of what SSB is all about..
I did the same...

The trip was planned .. I was gonna fly to Bangalore on Deccan Airways at 5 in the morning on 27 jan 08.. My Parents and my elder sister came to see off me at the Airport.. I checked in and boarded the flight.. Since i had to wake up early that morning , so the regular routine didnt follow and hence i discovered how awesome was the toilet tooo in an "aeroplane" :D :D .. Delhi looked beautiful from the top :) .. Some climate changes outside at 10000 ft. caused some restlesness in my stomach and i cursed the Deccan :P .. Thn i reached the Bangalore airport safely and with ample time and hunger , i opened the food packet prepared by maa and filled the belly. Then a cab to the railway station from where i boarded a BUS to Mysore :P ( railway and bus station at bangalore are adjoining :D )



And so i finally reached the destination for the day i.e. Mysore railway station.................... :)


P.S. The Interesting thing here to note is that i still dont have the slightest of ideas on what NDA is all about, not even the full form :P .. I just believed that after clearing the tests , i was gonna be in Air Force :D