I remember the first week after coming back from memorable
Bharat Darshan and joyful stay at home when I was counting the number of days
to spend in Phase-1. Classes after two month long travel looked not so exciting
and I kept telling myself that I need to pass this phase of career as well.
But, I never counted days after the first week as the momentum picked up with
PT, games, movies etc. In fact, now in the last week of Phase-1, I am again
counting days with a loaded heart so that they do not pass on quickly. Perhaps,
this is the irony as well as beauty of life.
Phase-1 made me experience many unexplored aspects of my
personality. To begin with, I am thankful to Mussoorie’s balmy weather, Rawat
sir for making me reach unprecedented levels of fitness. I have never been
physically fit than how physically fit I feel today at the end of Phase-1.
After my ligament tear during Foundation Course (FC), I was wondering whether I
would be able to run again or not. Today, my joy finds no bounds when I am able
to run 4-5 kms daily.
I am really thankful to my running partner Vilas for making
me discover this joy in life. Every day, when I complete the targeted distance,
I get an assuring feeling that I am alive and kicking. When it looks almost
impossible to run the next meter distance, it all boils down to the mind game.
But, when we complete the next rounds as well, I thank God on one hand for
giving the strength & tenacity and on the other hand reaffirm my conviction
that solution to the most improbable problem is only in the mind.
Apart from running, that teaches us the attitude towards
life, I enjoyed Happy Valley Sports Complex to the fullest in Phase-I. Playing
badminton and representing the batch in internal tournaments with the faculty
and Phase-IV is memorable. I am thankful to my roommate Anirudh for pulling me
to play tennis everyday and I got a good flavor of it as well. The technique in
any game is so fascinating that we can keep experimenting and improving every
day. But the most cherishable sporting event is the LBSNAA Premier League (LPL)
which the Officers’ Club organized with great fervor. I want to relive those moments when I was made the captain of ‘Hyderabad Heroes’
team, picked players in auction with Vachhani sir and then played with
wonderful players in my team like Deepak and Thyagu. I eagerly look forward to
LPL-3 in when all of us come back for Phase-II next year.
Cultural programmes on the zonal days and Plays of the Fine
Arts Society made discover another facet of life. I started enjoying this in
IRS at NADT, Nagpur and Mussorie made me come over this stage fear completely. Though
I realize that I am a clumsy & hopeless dancer and never get the right
expression on the stage, I offered myself in all cultural programmes and did
many small roles. Though I had few minutes’ roles in the English play ‘The
Importance of Being the Earnest’ and the Hindi play ‘Mahabhoj’, I enjoyed the
process of rehearsals, helping on the backstage in the production team.
Finally, it is such a nice feeling to see gifted actors in our batch perform
flawlessly in the final show that all the previous effort looks insignificant.
Screening movies on behalf of Film Society is another
experience of its own. We are all thankful to Mir for screening some wonderful
movies in FC. As Mir told in FC, great movie is one which makes us feel bad
that we cannot experience the same exciting feeling which we got first time. I
continued this journey of exciting feelings with Vijaykarthikeyan when we
screened more movies. However, it is unfortunate that we could not pull large
audience for most of the movies. May be many have already seen the movies
before or time is short for many other personal commitments.
Personally, I would have liked far more academic rigor in a
Professional Training like Phase-1. Somehow, academics were never demanding and
I also spent most of my free time in extracurricular pursuits. Law is the only
substantial academic input in the academy in my view. But, what I would have
liked more are rigorous discussions among my batchmates about development
issues confronting the society. ‘LBSNAA Lab’ was one good idea as a discussion
forum, but it could not take off (I am equally to be blamed). I sincerely wish that
the zeal and idealism with which most of us join the service never dies down.
Games, physical activity, movies, cultural programmes are
also required. They make us view things from a different angle and think out of
the box. But, the core of our training and our work must be about contribution
to the society and the zeal to find solutions to persistent problems. It is
already four years since I left PRADAN & our poultry cooperatives in M.P.
Whenever I speak to my ex-colleagues about the fascinating progress made, I get
uncomfortable to get back to work again and tell myself that passion for rural
livelihoods should never reduce even a bit. As this phase of life – ‘Phase-I’
comes to an end, it makes me realize that life moves on with new friends, new
experiences and lessons to take forward.
