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MY JOURNEY FROM LECTURER TO ANO

Jai hind. Myself Lt. Sushant Laxman Ankolekar, lecturer in government polytechnic Karwar. Our NCC group is Belgaum and unit is 29 Karnataka battalion NCC Karwar and our company name 2/29, ‘A’ coy. I am sharing my experience how I became lecturer to ANO. On July 2017 I joined as a NCC care taker for our company. In the beginning I don’t have much knowledge or experience about NCC AS I AM NOT NCC ex-cadet. I purchased some NCC books and gone through the NCC website to know more about NCC and its syllabus. The main motto of NCC is unity and discipline. One of the main aim of NCC is to prepare the cadets as a leaders in every walks of their life. Second aim is to do social service. During my first year as care taker I taught NCC common syllabus to the cadets. In that syllabus I taught about origine of NCC, national integration, disaster management, health and hygine etc. this helps me to learn more about NCC and general knowledge. During this period I engaged in some social activities like blood donation camp, tree plantation, dengue awareness, swatch Bharat Abhiyan etc.

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During this period our company platoon participated in Republic day parade, Independence day parade and Karnataka Rajyotsava parade every year that was held on district police ground Karwar and won many trophy in the marchpast.

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On 2018 Dec I have attended the first interview in group for PRCN course. Later my second personal interview is held at directorate level, that is in Bangalore. In the month of May 2019, I have got the news that you will be going PRCN-166 course which starts from 3 Jun 2019. I am very exited to join the course as I heard from some of our ANO’S about the training. They told its bit hard but you can get a chance to live army life for 3 months. Our PRCN-166 course date is fixed that is from 3 Jun 2019, to 31st Aug 2019. I started my journey on 31st May 2019 with my friend and now he is ANO, Lt Zulfikar Ahamed. We reached Kamptee, Nagpur on June 2, 2019. When we entered OTA Kamptee I felt very happy because there everywhere army personals are present and there plenty check posts. There have some gates and big big compounds. We produce our certificates in the gates and there after we screenouts and allotted one barrack. Barrack name is barrack no 1.

Barrack 1 is a very big hall type building where there plenty of beds, fans, coolers available. In our barrack there are 90 beds. For each of us allotted one bed with pillow and one locker for keeping our personal things. On that day we met many friends from same and different states. We have been told that we should trim our hair and clened shave. There is only one saloon parlor inside OTA. So very big que is for trimming the hair. Later we walked through OTA to see what are all present. We saw one Kallu shop( where all NCC material, clothes, buckets available), two T Shops, two tailors shops and two shoes repair shops are present.

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In that evening 5pm we called for fall in and ustads informed about rules and regulations of OTA and about the daily routine etc. they keep on saying one thing plz keep your degrees outside the gate and while leaving OTA you can take back, here we are sirs and you were just cadets. They also told that training will starts from tomorrow morning and fallin is sharp 5am. Schedule of training is displayed in barrack notice board. Total there are 465 trainess and these trainees are divided into 3 companies namely Shivaji, Arjun and Rana Pratap. Our company is Shivaji company it has total 178 trainees and all are SD. Other two company trainees are JD. The training schedule is Monday, Wednesday, Friday PT( physical training) and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday drill. When we have PT the other two companies having drill and vice-versa. Next day Jun 3, I got up at 3:30am and get ready and fall in at 5am outside the barrack. Our company ustad 1 and 2 came and took role call and took everyones introduction. After that they selected some cadets as course senior, company qauter master and training officer.

PT (PHYSICAL TRAINING) For PT days we have to wear white t-shirt, white short, white shoes and white socks. After roll call all trainees gathered to PT ground, later they divided it into 20 trainees a group. For each group one ustad take the charge and tooks us for running. Beginning 2.5km slow running followed by hevy pushups, situps, 5 mtr squad run and 100mtr fast running. After finishing all these activities they handover all trainees to PT ustad. They again doing some exercise and yoga. While doing this if we tired also they will not let us to go. These activities will end at 7:30am. Soon completion of these activities I felt that I got some current shocks and don’t know whats happening. 7:30 to 8:30 we have breakfast and time for bathing. After the bath again there is fall in for theory class. For theory class we have to wear khaki shirt, khaki trouser, black cut shoes and identity card which they have given to us. Class starts at 8:45am. Our company commander Lt. Col. PK Pandey sir took first class and asked about wellness and problems etc. later there are continuous theory classes one after the other taken by all officers. After doing the PT our body gets tired and many of our friends start sleeping during the class. In the theory class we got wast knowledge about the NCC common syllabus subjects concepts like origin of NCC, national integration, disaster management, health and hygiene etc. our company commander Lt. Col. PK Pandey sir explained the concept very nicely by taking the case studies. Theory classes ends at 12:45pm. After that lunch hour. After the lunch there is break for some time. And told us that next fall in will be at 3:30pm.

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At 3:30pm again there is a fall in. Company ustad will come and gives the knowledge about firing and firing position. There are giving firing practice in the ground with sand bag and .22 rifle. During the firing practice session, we should follow the sequence if any body did a very small mistake also he will be punished badly. At 5pm there is sports hour. We to practice for sports activities which will be a competition with other companies. There are four games namely volleyball, throwball, basketball and badminton. I selected in badminton team. We are totally 10 members in our team. Every day 5pm we used to do badminton practice.

Those who are not a part of any sports game they should do physical training in the evening also. Next 7pm again fall in for study hour with white shirt, black paint and tie. In this time we study the syllabus what morning officers have been taught.

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DRILL DAY This was the horrible days of training. On drill day we have to wear NCC uniform. Well-polished Lakkhad shoes, belt, properly placed cap and identity card. First all trainees gathered in kala ground (parade ground). All drill instructor carefully observes each one with proper uniform, cleanly shaved or not, shoes proper polished or not, barrate cap properly placed or not. If any small mistake found they separate them and make one group and for them no drill only punishments. Frog jump, bend portion, touch and go etc etc punishments. Other trainees they start basics of drill. In the beginning I felt drill is ok compared to PT but later I realized PT is far better then drill.

In drill main things to observe is discipline and there is no compromise in it. If any one of trainee did mistake then full platoon has to face the punishment. This taught us unity. Many times I got punishment not because of my misteke, because one of my friend in platoon did misteke. In the beginning we get irritation form this but later I realized it also a part of training. These schedule keeps on continued, in between there plenty of competition like, firing competition, yuva shakti competition, drill competition, PT competition, cultural competition, line area flag area competition, sports competition, quiz competition, test competition etc. these competition makes us strong and be ready to comfit anytime and never give up. In this course we Shivaji company won the general champion trophy.

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Form this PRCN course I not only became ANO but it changed me to looks the things in different way. Definitely this training create more patience and more positive thinking and never give up qualities. During these training I met many friends from other states and proudly say I have network all over India.

JAI HIND