The Proud scouts and the Para-Gliding episode

When you are part of a school that is known for its strict and disciplined conduct, you do tend to follow what you are expected of. Yes, in St. Mary’s School, we were meek. Any sort of rebellion on our part, which included writing love letters, using the most common assamese expletive, the usual fights between two factions over trivial matters and so on was crushed with the whip of a cane, which used to lie in the corner of a wooden shelf in the principals room. One fellow even leaked in front of our eyes, when we were summoned for some minor mischief.

But in K.V. Baragolai, life was easy and different. You don’t want to be in the classes, then bunk it. One particular teacher would even ask my mates to leave the class, if they were not interested. They would leave the class after the roll call.  But that’s irrelevant in context of the topic that I am mentioning.

The adventure of a lifetime

I always wanted to be a part of the scouts and in my new school, right after my admission, I went to meet Sonowal sir, who was our scout master. After getting my uniform and the other knick–knacks, I did get to experience some of the best moments of my life.  The real high came when we were asked to join a paragliding session, an initiative being undertaken by Indian Army at the Ledo air base. However, the condition was that only those students who weighed more than 40 kgs were supposed to qualify. This was notified to us on the assembly by none other than Noopur Talwar, who was our senior at school was equally good at sports and academics.

As I was slightly obese and least athletic, I was selected. And so was Ricky and his brother Digvijoyda along with Appa Rao, Ajay, Badri, Chandu , Showbhik, Debajit Singpho, Gautam and some more guys.  We were briefed that we had to be at the school gate by 6:00 in the morning. Since we were taking part in an event that was sponsored by the government of India, we were told that we would be marked as present for the day. Well, for a change, you do get to experience something out of the ordinary and that too without having to attend school, what more do you need. 

 Early next morning, near the school gate, we found a Shaktimaan truck belonging to the army waiting for us. Upon reaching the venue, we were provided with refreshments. After warming up with some P.T, the officer in charge demonstrated us how to go about, with regards to the Para gliding.

A lot of my mates got injured and bruised their ankles in the exercise. What can you expect, when you are carrying a huge load of a parachute in your back and you are being pulled by a Maruti Gypsy, so that the parachute can get the necessary drag to pull you up! Once the parachute pulls up, the guys would stop running and with insufficient air, they would fall down on the hard tarmac and I will tell you there is nothing more painful than that.

When it was my turn, after putting on the safety harness and when the due signal was given, I started running as if my  a&% was on fire. I had made up my mind and no matter what, I would continue to run. After a few seconds or so, I saw the ground beneath me vanishing and my friends appeared more like lily-puts J

Overall, I did have a nice flight and when you are up on the air and you do look below with the adrenaline pumping, you certainly feel like being on the top of the world. I shouted and smiled and once when you are descending and caught by few army soldiers, the reality dawns upon you. That you had done what appeared impossible and the “Shabasshi” from the army guys do make you feel proud.

A little red certificate in my home from the army still bears a testimony of a wonderful day that we had, when we were on the verge of manhood and as proud scouts, we had accomplished an adventure of a lifetime.

Was Wise Imran there too??