Like Beetle Bailey, I was in such a situation, but with neither a Pass nor Miss Buxley. I had gone overboard with the Units Basic Karate training on the first day itself. The instructor was a soldier, who went all-out with his privilege to order about a young officer. Rapid repetitions were easy, as Japanese counting served as the word of command. Variations of exercises, like bend-stretches in reverse, i.e. stretch-bends (start with bent elbows, stretch and get back to bend); dips with the arms spread far apart, etc were very effective. I barely kept pace with desperate effort and ended with cooling, stretching and meditation. Next morning my arms were jammed (lactic acid accumulates in muscles after anaerobic exercise). While walking in the unit-area that day, a lot of soldiers seemed very happy and saluted with a cheerful “Jai Hind Sahab”. Being in uniform, a cursory nod was unthinkable and I returned every salute. My arms did not reach up completely and I involuntarily dipped my head to compensate. In hindsight, I realised that I had not granted leave or presented rum to anyone; nor had they won a lottery or got relief from chronic constipation. They were simply amused at my predicament, which may have been the hot topic of that day’s langar-gupp.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 09:30:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015