I am proud of the Indian Army. As a Force, it is second to none in the world, and has proven its mettle at times of war. It had some of the best Generals - General Cariappa, who later became a Field Marshal, General Thimmaya, General Manekshaw and my friend, Lt Gen K. Balram, of the Corps of Signals. The success of the Indian Army is largely due to the rigorous training its Officers and Men get in general training centres and specialised training centres maintained by the respective Corpses like the Army Service Corps (ASC), Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Corps of Signals, Army Medical Corps and Army Post Office (APO), which organisation is responsible for sending mails and postal articles to our Officers and Men in Command Areas, the details of which are not disclosed to the public.
Selection and Recruitment
The Indian Army selects its Officers and Men very carefully, no matter whether the selection is for Regular Commission or Short-Service Commission or it is for selecting the Commissioned Officers (COs). Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) or Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs). The qualities they look for are in the Army jargon, the Officer Like Qualities (OLQs). My former teacher, Dr. B. Patnaik, who joined the Defence Physical Laboratory as a Physicist says that the OLQs are evolved and standardised in the Defence Psychological Research Wing. The Army does not like to have Officers and Men who are of questioning type. The Indian Army has Selection Centres at Meerut, Bangalore and I think at Nagpur. After obtaining my M.Sc (Radiophysics and Electronics) Degree, from the Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics, Calcutta University, I got an invitation to be interviewed at the Selection Centre North at Meerut for the Corps of Signals/ Corps of EME. The Selection Procedure is spread over four days comprising Individual Tests, Group Tests, Planning Tests, Communication Tests and the like. The Recruitment Officers move around in the civil dress, and freely mix with the candidates. After all the tests are over, on the final day, the Candidate meets the Full Board having smartly dressed Officers. I was asked whether I had anything personal to say or ask for. Promptly came the reply from me ’’ Yes Sir, I would love to marry your daughter.’’ He and all others had a hearty laugh. I left Meerut by the evening train with the Railway Warrant in the Second Class ( of those days ) and on arriving home, I wrote a long letter, longer than this Review, to a close friend of mine, a Girl from Cuttack, who was studying with me at the Institute of Radiophysics & Electronics. She must have been amused by my letter, and replied that the Army was not the career for me. How Prophetic She Was !