NCC WILL RESPOND TO NATION'S MANDATE: DG NCC

Director General of the National Cadet Corps, Lt. Gen. Vinod Vashisht on Tuesday said, cadets from the NCC “would rise to the call of the Nation” if their services are required.

Interacting with the media, during his visit here at Shillong in India's northeast, Lt. Gen.  Vashisht said, the objective of the NCC is to mould the youngsters, so that they can be better citizens of the country, however, if need be they can be called in to assist the Nation.

“NCC cadets can rise for any mandate of the Nation. Not just in a war-like situation, but for any situation. The cadets are disciplined and they can take orders,” the NCC Director General said.

He was reacting to queries about the NCC cadets’ role in the event of any full-fledged conflict with China. One of the aims of the NCC is to create a human resource of organized, trained and motivated youth... and be always available for the service of the Nation.

The NCC was raised through an Act of the Parliament, 1948. After the 1962 war with China, NCC training was made compulsory in schools and colleges in 1963, but in 1968 it was again made voluntary. NCC is for students of schools and colleges and there are over 13 lakh active NCC cadets in the country.

Lt. Gen. Vashisht also informed that Youth Exchange Programmes of the NCC with foreign Nations have now been confined to 11 countries. All these exchange programmes are with regional countries and other countries where “India’s National interests lie.”

For example, he said, there is an exchange programme with Russia and one with Kazakhstan. Other exchange programmes are with neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and others.

“The exchange programme with Canada is no longer available. We don’t have a youth exchange programme with China. Perhaps in the future we would have one,” he stated.

Lt. Gen. Vashisht said that efforts are on to broaden the reach of the NCC in the remote corners of the northeastern region. Out of the 108 districts of the region, six still do not have any NCC activity.

In this regard, a unit of the NCC has been opened recently at a remote area bordering Tibet. “We are trying to open more such NCC units in the northeast so that the youths of the region can take benefit,” he informed.

He further informed that the air wing of the NCC in the region would be getting micro-light aircrafts and other new aircrafts for their training. Moreover, the naval units in Sibsagar, Assam would also be getting the necessary assistance for their trainings.

Farrago(ed) narrative of a Rocket Scientist

One of the most abused words in the English language is...? You don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to know that. Personally, I am exasperated with this abuse. A college punk with flared nostrils admonishes the nerd with a randomly hurled “Rocket Scientist” into the sentence in the college canteen debate.

Then there is the NGO leader with his impeccable trimmed beard to a length where time and space ceases, closing his eyes into a trance, takes a deep breath and drops the Rocket Science bomb to demolish his opponent’s arguments into ruins. Utopia!

Anyone who wants to project himself as intellectual uses it. Anyone who wants to identify himself as smart, cool or chic uses it. Anyone who doesn’t want to be anyone of these afore-mentioned categories uses it.

Even our Aunties use it with a blush and an elbow nudge to the coy adjacent aunty: “You don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to know how to please him with just Sarsoo de Saaag.”

Or “it’s not Rocket Science Betaaaa...” She rubs in the humiliation-masala with scrunched eyes and nodding her head sideways: “Areehh....NoRocketScience.” In moments like these you almost see a halo, which also sways with the head. 

But, of late another word that has given me cold sweats during unending nights – and you don’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to know that - is “NARRATIVE.” Uhhhh...eeeee...

You switch on the Indian News channels and you will find some TV anchor, a panellist, a WhatsApp Warrior, a Facebook fighter, a columnist all milking the word. Most with a smirk and garlanded with certificates from self-certified intellectuals!

Narrative is yours...Narrative is theirs...Narrative is ours... Narrative is different... “What is the narrative?”...  

I am upset that this narrative would soon enter into the bedrooms and kitchen where one of the aunties, with hands on her hips, ask a trembling Uncle: “SO WHAT IS THE NARRATIVE IN THE KITCHEN TONIGHT, HA!?

Later in the night, the Uncle begging to the aunty in the bedroom: “will the narrative change tonight Pumpkin....eh... pie?”

There is a herd mentality into these usages where my waterhole is being muddied. These are “exasperating farrago of bleats.” Oops! I said it; hope farrago is not the proverbial sacrificial lamb next in line. We have to pray for now.

But no matter what, I will never tire in this life of a narrative of a person who comes close to my understanding of a rocket scientist when he said: “ARE YOU SERIOUS? If you know what I mean you must have also noted the modulation. 

It goes from a high pitched modulation to a soft echoing whisper that caresses your cheek with a Zarda Pan-induced warm breath of a chronic-seducer: Are you S e r i o u s? Are you S e r i o u s? Are you S e r i o u s..........?

Damn it of course I am not stay away... neither are a 100 million Mango-men!