How would you describe something which is priceless - No words. But the story needs to be told. Even if it doesn't do justice to the emotions, it's important that the effort behind the show gets the attention it deserves. Simply for the reason, please soldier on.
Who would volunteer to plan and execute a course get together for a course so big - you gotta be mad to put your hands up, unless u have an itch at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Well that's what I thought, when the proposal was floated in the course WhatsApp group. The inital response it got, confirmed that I had many like minded friends. It wasn't like there weren't any takers, but that population who were interested, could have met at a couch in a coffee shop. When you talk of a course whose strength is close to Virat Kolhi's batting average, that's more of an insult I would say .
But that's the beauty of this NEC thing you know, you just don't give up. NEVER. PERIOD. Especially on your coursemates . More so when they are stupid. So the brave guys continued to soldier on with the plan. It kept getting repeated in the group. And finally there was some serious discussions.
The proposal, floated in July, kept seeing hope every weekend. It was early August now and could say, guys got a little interested. The response grew. The buzz was now real.
A few more hands went up. There was some speculation as to whether it's gonna be stags only or with families (well that's another equally interesting story for another day), but it was soon put to rest (in the hindsight it was such an awesome decision to take the families along).
Finally the numbers got finalized, numbers including the families quite nearly matched to Virat Kohli's numbers. The show was getting the attention it deserved.
The first hint of 'This-is-NOT-a- routine- course- get- together' came through when the so called itinerary came by. ITINERARY... really, an itinerary.. well that's something new. A minute to minute programme (yes you heard that right, not a wasted minute over 24 hrs) got lot of eyeballs. Now they were talking.
What's the difficult thing to do - to get attention of a dozen ladies. CHECK. The itinerary had done it's job.
What's even more difficult - to sustain that attention.
And near impossible - keep the kids interested as well.
The reason this blog is because the next two boxes two were ticked emphatically. AND HOW.
Finally the D-Weekend arrived. And so did we in the salubrious climes of Shivaji. Even before we reached, our WhatsApp message indicated the rooms ear marked for us. And as we reached,those buggers were standing to receive us.. in the Alpha Hard. Talk of hospitality.
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A quick freshening up and we headed to the-then-dreaded-now-nostalgic hard patch. After re-living a few 'Maharaja' moments, we headed to the NCC. We all got on top of the 'plane' - this time out of choice and few even held the legs on top of the wing (despite the stiff resistance offered by the buoyancy tank above the hips).
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While the ladies did get a glimpse of our - mildly put, 'group activities', the kids had a good measure of their father's 'fun running between the OCC and NCC and even stepping up to explore what's 'behind the pump house'. It was 6 PM now and if you are in Shivaji it ain't rocket science to know where you should be heading.
There the ever resplendent sunset point awaited us. Even as we reached on top of the sunset point, we were welcomed by the cheeky drizzle and the hide and seek of the Duke's nose.
We all have been to the sunset point at some time or the other, but the whole experience of having the biggest family gathering for one BIG AND AWESOME 'groupie' was a priceless experience.
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So far so good. With the hard patch-OCC-NCC-Sunset point you can always bank on the 'nostalgia factor'. But the proof of pudding was the 'get together'. The mood was set for the evening, and needless to say the 'bar' for expectation was set 'high'.
Even as we walked into the OI for the evening party, we were pleasantly stunned to see a recreation of the cadet times memorablia (including the Brass plate of the 63215 NEC) greeting us. To think of the effort it would have taken to just put this stuff in place - given NEC was disbanded close to a decade ago, wouldn't have been possible without that die hard passion. You can take NEC out of Shivaji, but put an NEC officer in Shivaji, the passion quotient is beyond words. A big salute to the organisers.
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The evening started and so did a little ice. And jump over our course free electron AG .. he showed glimpses of his 'talent' (which got him fan clubs in Pune) .. enough to break free the shackles.
Shackles were broken and HOW. DJ Susi took over. Anthems like kala kauwa on a rainy evening in Shivaji after a few old monks can be dangerous for faint hearted audience . And we did prove that theory right only that this time the 'audience' too joined in. Shivaji does that to you you see. Take no prisoners.
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While we couldn't have enough of AG on the dance floor, another hand went up. It was meant to be his day and he wouldn't have any other way. Enter Dhanesh Hinge Suryakant. Ably supported by the omnipresent Romit.
They challenged Susi, well.. sort of. While the rest lesser mortals danced, Hinge and Romit rocked it. But if there was one who owned the dance floor, it was Hingis.
A difficult task is to end the party. Especially when someone is in flow. But a Football match in the morning meant we had to call it a night even though technically it was wee early morning.
There's a small little bug which bites people at wrong places at wrong time. There were three such bug bitten souls who were also planning to retrace the cross country route (albiet with due respect to the age). Will say, I never thought in my wildest of dreams that I would say, I had a great run till Tata Dam and back. But the three of us Bhagwat, Hinge (yes you read it right, after that rockstar performance he was up for a run. RESPECT.) and I, had a great run.
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That was followed by a football match. The Messi (susi) and slick Ronaldo (Madhu) combined to drown the opposition despite the best efforts of Modric (Bajpai). and the rest of us we were all pretentious Neymars (in a sense, just pretending to play).
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When a day kick starts with such intensity, you better be assured that it is going to be a memorable one. And it was indeed. A visit to the motivation hall and remembrance hut was followed by the Grand Finale.
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The organisers sure saved their best for the last. The PIT STOP just knocked the wind out of our sails. Tasteful, subtle and elegant. To call it a Bar would actually be insulting. So I would prefer to say it was a 'Remembrance Hut - Part II, where we reminisced a lot of stories. The Beer and Biryani were just catalysts.
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All good times do end someway or the other. But what it does is makes you yearn for more. That way, the ball has been set for the era of course togethers. Someone aptly named it 'Flashback #1'. Ya that's more like it..
Many more to come. But whosoever putting their hands up got a hell of a task to best this one. But then that's the essence of NEC. Grit Grind and Glory.
Three cheers to the three musketeers again who made this possible - Sachin, Shailesh and Susi - Hip Hip Hooray..
Very nicely written doc
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