Reading your views, I was taken back several decades, to the day when as a youngster in School I met a senior who was about to pass out of Military Academy. He showed me photos of him with an SLR (didn’t know it was DP then), in starched dungarees on a hill top (akin to the Kargil ones on billboards now). I got hooked. This was what I wanted to be!

I had an option then – I had seats in several prestigious Engg Colleges on offer and IIT / Civil Services was something I had not tried then but was confident of cracking later. I had made it to the Mil Academy too though it was something never on the radar screen till this life changing moment.

As happens with young men, adrenalin overruled logic, and there I was frontrolling and crawling my way to future dreams. I admit that I have learnt a lot in this organisation and life has been reasonably fulfilling up until now, but increasingly stagnant. Those old dreams faded long back as I matured and reality dawned.

Points I wish to make:-

1. The Services try to catch them young from an age of 17 years (NDA etc) or so when options have not really crystallised. These young lads are likely to be swayed by adrenalin rather then by the cold logic which we fuzzy oldies are now so adept at. Would you not call the glitzy media campaigns (Do You Have it in You etc etc) as a GOVT APPROVED propaganda to lure unsuspecting adolescents? Did you have it in you at age 17 to read the fine print and try to figure out the terms of service and paybands? The only sense I had then was to stop eating dinner till my mom succumbed and said “Go if you want to”.

2. Once the illusions are over – there is no way out. You are trapped. All the points you make are logical and valid and all we need is a credible exit ploicy. Most of us wouldn’t really want pay commission doles or charity – just the option to quit. Allow us the liberty to fight our battles on our own merit. Is that not one of the basic tenets of a democratic nation?

3. If people are not allowed to quit (beacuse of deficiency in manpower and perception), then you put the person between a rock and a hard place – you get acrimony. Its like bonded labour struggling to escape. Its then their undeniable right to protest and demand compensation.

4. Are we so grossly incorrect if we try to equate ourselves to the Civil Services?

5. Were we fools to have fallen to a rare urge? Is that urge also foolish?

Well said.
Goody two shoes.
Doesnt work that way.
SF – Good.
But guess what – you are wrong on two counts. mak it three.

I am sure you are a service officer, which I can make out easily from your comments. Before you ask me who I am, I am an SF offr and have seen it all, certainly more than you. This is my first comment here.

I have been a regular reader of Prag’s blog <6 months or so now> and even though I disagree with many of his views, I find it appalling that service officers like you have completely lost it here. There is a certain decorum and decency of being a service officer, which I am extremely sorry to say, you do not seem to possess. Maybe, you perceive immunity because you comment under a pseudonym and thus do not mind going over the top or hitting below the belt.

May I request you to refrain from commenting here, as many other visitors will form an extremely poor opinion of the service community as a whole because of your indiscretions. It is the reputation of the larger community that is being tarnished by your reckless comments. This is only a humble request from a comrade-in-arms and you may or may not agree to it.

Regards.
JM

GOOD LOST AND FOUND SITE.
THIS IS A MUCH BETTER USE OF THIS BLOG.
CONVERT NOW AND REAP THE BENEFITS OF MORE HITS.
EARN SOME MORE BY SPREADING HAPPINESS.

You seem to have read my post through a tainted prism. Its quite obvious that you would never be able to read my post without prejudice.

You admit to seeting in rage to a point of incoherence as you wrote your response. Why rage? Cant you accept differing views? mmm.. I wonder if that is really an appropriate trait of an ‘Officer and Gentleman’!!!

@S Mukerji

Yes, I am the same person you knew in Antarctica.Its great to hear from you!

P.S: Fortunately I have the background to do well outside.

Fact : All cadet academies do promote a feeling of superiority over the “civilians”.

Unstated fact : Go to the IIT, the first thing the students get is a taste of the Brand IIT, the feeling of being special. Ditto IAS. Ditto any place that seeks to inculcate bonding. Go to any squadron in NDA and see, the major push is about being the best squadron, different from others. This kind of talk is merely to create a bonding and is common the world over. To say that it skews the later perceptionsand make us rude/condescending towards civilians is YOUR opinion: where is the FACT in it ? Every regt in the Army has its own special “traditions” etc … does it make the Army a divided house ? Being proud of what you are is no way offensive.

Fact : It is far tougher to get in the IAS etc than the NDA.

Unstated Fact : Let us be clear – the equivalence of structure was based on a certain norm. To change the norm AFTER people have joined is unethical. I have a counter q : why didn’t the IAS et al join NDA after 11th if they felt the Services were being placed at a unnecessarily high eqv rank ? To trash people saying that they joined the NDA cos they were not good enough is IMMENSELY insulting. Today, 20 years after I joined, you are removing the structure PROMISED while joining.

Fact : You’re ignoring the job security.

Unstated fact : Every other Govt servant has SECURITY while he WANTS it, and FREEDOM to resign when he feels he can earn better outside. It is the SERVICES that do NOT let officers leave, despite grovelling and demeaningly submissive applications begging to be let off AFTER 20 YEARS of service.

Fact : You are ignoring market realities: that outside people are in demand by the companies and therefore they get paid.

Unstated fact: The GOVT is ignoring simple economic reality : that it is not paying enough and that is why people want to leave, not in bits and spurts, but in their HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS.

Fact : The Services want more pay.

Unstated fact : Nobody ever joined the Services thinking they’d grow rich. A certain way of life, a certain dignity, a certain status : these were what were promised. And still are. Today, please, please walk into any Service accomodation in Delhi. The walls with cracks and seepage in them, the dingy houses, people with 20 years of service staying in 2 rooms + kitchen houses with 2 kids. And I am NOT talking of 2 bedrooms : I am sayin 2 ROOMS and trunks piled up. AFTER waiting for more than 9 months for this. By the time you get a A type house in Delhi as a Commander in the Navy (Rusted and dingy, no garage if you have a balcony, and such joys) for example, it is transfer time.The standing joke is that the PCT list (trg list) is drawn from the accommodation roster; the moment you get a house you are out. Back to a chawl in Mumbai, likely.
Today, unless your wife works, you are unable to lead even a middle class life on a Service officer’s pay. This pinches. Hurts. Badly. Because we were MISLED while joining. And are not being allowed to make good our loss by being allowed to leave either.

There are a lot of problems in the Services: incompetence at the mid level, lack of vision at the top, an antiquated HR policy, a lack of committment at all levels … and not all of them have outside causes. I would say, in fact, that a lot of them don’t have anything to do with pay either. The Services have a lot to do to put their house in order.

But to say that we’re living in a “koi hai” attitude with sahayaks fawning over us is gross, gross injustice. The worst is your “get out if you don’t like it” statement when you KNOW, and going by this blog, even most of the civilian readers know, that it is a FALSE statement. I seethe as I write this, and wish it were otherwise, but I cannot write any more coherently out of sheer rage and frustration. I am thankfully sure of one thing : no serving naval officer would be fooled. For you to be able to leave at 20 when people are still banging their heads against a wall in the navy begging to be let out shows that you would have been the soft spoken mealymouther who always had the assuring pat of a senior officer to have your way, whether in the Navy or in leaving it.

hi. gopal.. glad you are doing your bit for the org on tv..but the irony still stands out. The time when ‘mistreating the military” was being telecast, harbajan was handed a 11 match ban,.The channel quickly wound up the pgme and switched on to the cricket coverage., truely it was mistreating the military..We know what makes news in india. cheers..

Winston Churchill said Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

What you can reform is when you are 20-30 … old people can’t change a thing … except their clothes …. even that is not a pretty sight.

I cant change a thing, at 48 , not in any case after seeing south block … i have no delusions …. I have done my bit … every rank in the valley incl comd . no feeling of guilt either … there are better men out there … no feeling of superiority either

Its a personal challenge to move on … touch lives through education before I pass on …nothing more. thanx for the question too.Gopal

What is all about this comparisons between IAS OFFICERS and ARMY OFFICERS?

Can you compare a Driver’s job with a cook’s job?Both have got their different values,and both need diff.expertise.

IAS OFFICER’S job demand an expanded knowledge on current affairs and general awareness.At the otherhand a army officer’s responsibility is diff.Can an IAS officer solve technical and applicational queries of the guns and tanks?Does he know how to hold an AK-47?

‘Being a frog in the well’ is a personal choice.Nobody is going to agree that all the new-generation army officers are frogs in the small well.Can’t say much about the older generation(less interaction).Now when the media of television is with us,I think knowledge is spreading everywhere in the same proportion.You ask a kid about current affairs and he can give you a complex by telling more than expected.

Thanks for visiting and the comment. Remember seeing a story about you on NDTV a few days ago.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080044436
You were part of a core team handling crucial promotions and postings in the Army headquarters. A bright future lay ahead for him as a Brigadier and then possibly as a General.
I am quite intrigued by your comment– just quietly quit … if I think I can do better with my life …. in which ever way .. its better to move on
Not even a thought of trying to make a difference or seek reform… Simply move on!

But then why is a similar option “to quietly quit” and “simply move on” not available to many others, especially younger officers, in the army and the IAF. They might be also wanting to “do better” with their lives. They would not “demean the wonderful system” with acerbic comments on this blog and other public forums.
I am certain you can certainly throw more light on the subject with your first hand experiences in Delhi.