This is a reply, rather comment on the article written by Ambika Bhan “speaking the truth” for why she left the officers Training Academy.
Nothing against her or her freedom of speech. This more than being a reply to her is for those who have read her article and would, may be, have made a perception about the army or its training for the Lady Cadets. I would be brief about it.
1. First and the most important thing, there is nothing known as a “Lady Officer”, it’s only Officer. We have categorized everything so it is kind of sad.
2. Ambika yes, your fauji friend was right, army doesn’t need women. But he did not complete, army doesn’t need women and with it, it doesn’t need a hindu, a muslim, a sikh, a marathi, or anything which divides. Army needs an Officer.
3. The Indian state might be pretending to show that they believe in equality but do they invite or force anyone to join the OTA. We all have a choice.
4. I am a feminist, and trust me I believe women are better that men a lot of times. Yes, there are physical issues faced by ladies but there is no ‘Fauji’ who does not have an injury. I during my training had 3 stress fractures, both shoulders dislocated, tissue rupture in lower back, ankle ligament tear in the right ankle and a few more here and there, and yes in the same academy.
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5. I do agree the training might get a bit rash at times, but i loved each moment of it, and there are others, i am sure who do too.
6. I knew I was physically not up for the training, so before I joined, I did work on my physical weakness, which later did help me. The academy sends ‘Joining instructions’ to all cadets joining and does mention what preparation one needs to go through before joining, which includes basic physical exercise also. If one does not adhere to it, is not the fault of the army or the academy.
7. Ambika this one is straight for you. Whatever you were taught by your parents teachers about learning, questioning and liberating yourself was right, but whatever army asks you to do has a reason for it. It is not wrong. I am a bigger rebel that anyone can think of. But I do understand and believe what army does and say has a reason. You cannot blame the organization for your lack of understanding about its ways.
8. I guess everyone does not understand, but i must make it clear, in the academy they do not make men out of boys of whatever you want to believe. One does not join the academy to become an officer. There they train you to be a soldier, a simple ground soldier. One becomes an officer after he/she passes out of the academy.
9. For whatever reason you were told not to converse with a GC you just couldn’t understand it. But trust me, for a GC there is no difference between you and any other GC there. No one has so much time there to appreciate the curves. The only eye candy to any cadet there is his bed.
10. I have been born and brought up in this environment, and trust me have worked hard to be here. But there are, and will remain issues in the organization. There is always a negative to a positive, and that has nothing to do with the organization, it’s always the people. You cannot brand the organization.
11. The training at the Academy, explicitly wants, not you specifically, but everyone to shut off their minds and follow orders. And there is a reason behind it and a real one. Trust me the country has seen and won wars because of that reason. I would not like to explain you the reason as you are not part of the organization anymore.
12. Like I said the Army does not want anyone from a particular state or region. It needs an Indian. And the SSB was just checking your awareness and looking for ‘your’ point of view about your state and its issues. It selecting you clearly shows that the organization has no interest in your being a Kashmiri.
13. Yes I agree with you, it takes more than two stars and the uniform to justify our purpose and meaning in this world. But no one stops us from doing so.
14. I am sorry if anyone called you DOPE and you took it personally. Clearly army wasn’t your place to be in.
15. And like all you believed is a showbiz, has a reason. A reason I would like to clear. We are made to do all that cleaning and showbiz because we as officers will expect that out of the men we command tomorrow. If we don’t know how to do it, if we never did it ourselves, how and why can we expect it from the men. Lead by example, you see.
Last a few more words for my “Friend, no more in Arms”
My apologies, that there was no one to guide you during the training in the academy, no one who told and explained things to you. But what I could derive out from your words, (I am not judging you, believe me) is that you are a free bird, with free thought process. Your thoughts cannot be held captive, so, clearly Army was not the right place for you to be. I don’t know about others but I completely respect your decision. It’s yours and you have an individuality. But I would also like you to know that Army is not what you think it is, or described in your article. Your article is more about what’s wrong with the organization than why you left it. I wrote all this because I wanted to and another reason, there are lots of women who want to join the organization. I hope they do not get demoralized after reading your article.
We all understood that you wanted to leave, you left. So why write and even explain.
Friend no judgments and no perception about you. You are a strong woman with a strong will. Army is not your place and I believe that you, one day will do really well for yourself, and I shall be really proud of you.
Thank you,
Regards
Harmandeep
Very well said dear. Infact you have told the truth, i am serving in navy and i know this, you have only experience this in training but there is more after that also. Es line par dil aa gya ki women are not gudge by doing 100 push up.I hope you do very well from all this and i am damn sure. I wish I could have the power that you should have it in you,the freedom of speech………
Here m not going to support anyone…coz everyone is different and the experiences for everyone is too different…either we can think like as the ambika mam told was ri8 coz she is not opposed by any lady officer here or may b harmandeep sir was ri8…some can accept all situation but some can’t…no organization is perfect…even NDA too we all kw the case abt an NDA cadet who committed suicide in his NDA cabin itself…so if one want to kw the truth one want to join there…thank you
Here m not going to support anyone…coz everyone is different and the experiences for everyone is too different…either we can think like as the ambika mam told was ri8 coz she is not opposed by any lady officer here or may b harmandeep sir was ri8…some can accept all situation but some can’t…no organization is perfect…even NDA too we all kw the case abt an NDA cadet who committed suicide in his NDA cabin itself…so if one want to kw the truth one want to join there…thank you
Thank you.
I also dreamt of OTA, after reading her article I was somehow began to worried, but after reading ur replies I feels so good , it’s a right reply and I guess no one will be demoralise. Thank you
Madame, why you write such thing, are you educating, publicity or Martyrdom.? You went in, you could not cooperate and you come out. Rest is your false pride or guilt. ?India do not conscript it’s army. We have plenty of volunteers and tradition for being in the force. It is tough and sacrificial. It goes for organisational ethos and not for individual whims because Army is service ,oath bounded. One is also rewarded handsomely. I am a Vetren who joined the force as a teen and left as senior citizen. It may not have added to your expectations . Be quite and no soft blabbering, please. Army accept equality of sexes that is our culture.
You still did not say about how she has to ‘behave’ infront of an officers wife of her age. I mean the way she described it looks like she is working under british rule and had to behave like a servent infront of british officers wife who is just a wife. you just ignored this point.
So, after reading the whole article the most important issue that you could recognize was the use of terminology? She said Lady officer instead of just officer and that’s the most important thing to point out in her whole writing?
But does army give equal and enough opportunity to let women be ‘officers’? I’m not trying to say that women are physically on par with men but cerebrally, they most definitely are. Women are not given equal opportunities for non-combat roles as well. Even in combat I think, men or women are not needed by a country but the right ability is. If rather than looking at the sex of the person only if we could only look at his/her potential, I’m pretty sure there are many women who are mentally and physically more strong and capable than men who are actually playing combat roles right now. So, putting so many obstacles in the way of a woman becoming an officer in India does in sort of a way, imply that army believes it doesn’t need women as much as it wants men.
Is it really about choice and invitation? The constitution provides that there shouldn’t be discrimination based upon sex by the state. Army isn’t a privately run organization. It is under the management of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. It is part of the state. So, if it is *pretending* to be gender-neutral, it is wrong on every level and goes straight against the constitution of India.
Leading by example? Seriously? Did you even read what she said? Even though I somewhat found her logic trivial but you want to lead by an example of harpic and collin being issued to you but you won’t be able to use them and buy your own? Showbiz is what you will expect from your future subordinates? Does army demand that?
And what about the fact that cadets have to greet/wish/ respect the families of officers the same way they have to behave in front of the officers? It is completely illogical that the wives of officers who are not actually officers have to be compulsorily greeted by everybody subordinate to their husbands. Why didn’t you comment on that? Do you think that it’s a fair practice? Or that ‘army has its reasons for allowing such a problematic culture’?
I’m from military background and army (even with all its flaws) I believe is an organisation that has numerous strong values but that doesn’t mean that I’ll turn a shut eye towards its flaws and say that everything is perfect about it. That the second largest army in the world is free of some very serious and some very backward flaws.
Why write and even explain? WHY NOT? Ohmygod, I could personally lecture you on this for so long.
Even though I agree with some points that you’ve written and I think the same way about them, I’ve only pointed out what I thought was wrong in what you’ve written.
fuddhu ladki u r right at 1 aspect not at all…. accept that academy seniors tend to behave like that they are owner of the academy…beside that regular instructors and officers are good
I wish her all the best and hope that she reads all the comments under this article and her letter. I wish that instead of dwelling on negatives in those comments, she extracts the positives and useful advice and utilises it in her life. She came 2nd all over India. She certainly has admirable qualities. This is only one setback in life or I would say a bad decision. Life doesn’t end at a bad decision, only takes a new turn.
Yes she didn’t have anyone to sit her down and guide or counsel her. Hope the army arranges some counselling program for cadets coz given how our generation is, in coming years this counseling will be needed a lot. Discipline is becoming rare coz of social media & advertisment industry’s notions of ‘freedom’ and ‘independence’.
Her article reeks of immaturity.
Thumb rule of adult life is – nobody is attending on us to provide us with answers. We have to seek them out through different means, most commonly our own logical deductions and search for facts.
She required more patience. My generation seems to equate ‘freedom’ with ‘easy availability’ of different things, even reasons behind army procedures. An independent person first and foremost tries to reach his/her aim themselves. Posing verbal/written questions and expecting answers is not equal to being independent.
Obeying seniors is very important in an emergency situation bcoz only seniors are provided with facts, reaources, graphs, maps etc. owing to their post. Imagine junior officers each insisting on going their own ways.
Replace junior officer with junior lawyer/junior doctor in an OT/nurse etc. The buck stops with the senior. Juniors assist him/her.
The army has made it a system so that officers and jawans stay prepared to behave this way. Same in medical line, police force and some others. In civil life and private sector companies/firms same thing happens, only a system/rule for such is not in place
About showbiz, well kept image makes the first impression and forces one to pay attention to overall image, instilling discipline as you will have to follow routine to keep your clothing/dwelling/office/personal grooming ready and well maintained. Corporate India insists on same. Only that army has been doing it for years already. Ask any retired officer working in private sector now.
The toilet cleaner (and many food items given to officers) may be a rule army hasn’t bothered to review yet. 7th pay commission recommend removal of practice of giving food items to officers. Very silly thing to be peeved at.
Friends, the food habits, physical activities, thoughts and life style of educated middle class Indians (for that matter, of any country) are not at all perfect. The demands of army life is totally different from the “Rambo” style seen in movies. A military action is a pure, planned, purposeful act (similar to a surgical operation) to achieve an objective. Individuals are not important there, but the objective, and the team are.
During the selection process, the GTO (Group Testing Officer) and the Selection Board struggle to find the right candidates suitable for the purpose. It is a naked fact that hardly 150 right candidates are found to qualify for undergoing training in Training Academies of officers, where as the vacancies exist from 300 to 600. This is after screening lacs of aspirants. Defence is the only organisation that does not fill in vacancies with personnel of low standard even if vacancies are left unfilled.
Many boys and girls come to the academy with a dream of a stylish life from day one. Crew cut for hair, removal of moustache during training in the first term, removal of ornaments, nail polish/lipsticks (for ladies), civilian dresses etc etc are enforced from day one.
High determination and perseverance is required for surviving for even a single day of training. During training, in all the activities, one has to move in groups. For example, if a cadet has to go to cadet mess for food, the movement must be in squads with proper marching. The lonely and egotist individuals without team spirit and the right mental attitude are left out and get separated here.
From every course there are two to three who opt out. (Of course, they will perform well outside because they have almost every quality except those required for the last mile) in them.
The syllabus of academics, physical activities, hobbies, entertainment, tactics, arms-training etc etc is too tight. This is to be completed within a specific time, with military precision, and a normal soul will die in the process. That is the reason why vacancies of cadets are not filled in with any one lacking even in one percent of any mental or physical faculties required by a candidate.
Many of us, during training had dis-locations, stress fractures, broken radius/ulna, broken tibia/fibula boils on leg etc etc … How ever, immediate treatment with rest is provided for genuine cases, after which the cadet re-joins training with extra vigour. He or she is over enthusiastic to re-join training because the feeling of camaraderie is so high that spending time to take rest in barracks all alone gives a terrible sense of loneliness to the cadet. Spending time in a military hospital during training takes away a lot from the cadet and he/she returns back to training at the earliest. Long stay away means loosing vital parts of training. The unlucky ones who do not get well soon are relegated to the next course, where they have a choice to opt out without compensation. (Compensation for injuries is permissible only to those who joined for duties after completion of successful training. That way, life during training is harsher.)
Those who arrive from big public schools in metros some times, are not aware of the toughness of the training. Most of the youngsters expect corporate facilities during training including car with drivers! And the fact is that even a bicycle (which is authorised to a cadet) may remain a dream. The purpose is to train the cadet from day one to be tougher. A few may not have had the opportunities to be physically tough, because in many public schools in places like Delhi, boys and girls do not even play games (as they focus only on academics) and may not be having enough vitamin D that is needed for absorption of calcium and vitamin C in to the body!
Defence forces do not air lift you to Australia/USA for such treatments that are given to Sachin, Priyanka etc. But I can say authentically that the facilities are too good and our defence personnel are the best in the world. (I am writing this sitting in a European country, after talking to officers and men of forces of USA and Europe. They all look up at our nation and forces with awe and respect.) We Indians must start to search and recognise the treasure of a phenomenon called India. Jai Hind.
PS: I was a C certificate holder in NCC who wanted to see how the army trains its personnel and how it runs. Went only to join short service through OTS (now OTA) so that I could go through the regimen once, get out after five years, and start my original dream of doing business.
In 1982, I was admitted in hospital with jaundice when I was called for SSB interview after passing UPSC exam. Though the doctor told me that I must not go out of the hospital, I went out, travelled from Kochi to Itarsi Junction by train without reservation and reached SSB Centre Bhopal by bus just on time to attend the selection procedure that lasted more than a week. Cleared all the psychological, physical, mental and other tests. Qualified in individual/group tasks and individual obstacle tests followed by group obstacle tests. Selection used to be 1 out of 100 or some times 1 out of 200. Was very happy to get selected and proceeded for medical tests. The doctor checked my eyes those were yellowish red and muttered: “JAUNDICED” My heart sank to the bottom of earth. He said seeing my face. “Don’t worry. It is only a temporary issue. You won’t be rejected medically because you have jaundice.” My medical tests also went of fine and I served for 5 years in army on completion of successful training at OTS Chennai, (now it is OTA, Chennai) after which, opted out of army, as per original plan, though my Commanding Officer and very senior officials forced me to continue.
In 1989 September I came out to pursue my dream of doing business. Even today, I miss that life. The quality and friendships in life in Indian Army and the satisfaction I got from serving the nation is incomparable. My wife also is ex army officer and our daughter finds extra happiness in being with the siblings of defence personnel because, as says, “They are different Papa. I love being with them as they have travelled more, and are more exposed.” Yeah, the faujis can face any situation better as they are of different qualities and show their true mettle while called on assignments. Jai Hind …
I support Ambika Bhan.
First, there is really no point in subjecting women soldiers to extreme (or even moderate) physical activity if you do not plan to employ them in combat. Regular gym three days a week is good enough to employ soldiers for only relief services wherever disaster strikes.Perhaps it’s a strategy devised by higher-ups in the male soldiers’ staff rooms to make the women soldiers undergo useless physical training so that they eventually are forced to quit as no soldier would want to join its country’s army, not be allowed to join combat team, and to add insult to the injury, be made to undergo the same rigorous training (without the motivation of combat which male soldiers get). Indian govt is merely ashamed and have decided to put females in the army only to save its face in front of the world, which btw employs women in the army with equal combat rights. Second, why should a female soldier not talk to fellow male soldiers if there is supposedly only “officers/soldiers” in the army and nothing like “male” and “female”. Why should a female have to guide her life based on what a male will or won’t do. Why should a female be responsible for the “good character/behaviour” of a male when she has stepped into this world with no extra obligation than a that of a male? Third, why should toilet cleaning products be supplied to the soldiers but they not be allowed to use it to clean their bathrooms?
Ma’am. The ‘useless training’ in the academies is meant to meet the basic parameter for the armed forces. Yes, the basic. Like the hundreds of Lady cadets who have passed out of the Ota since its inception have went on to become successful officers and, more importantly for you, successful mothers as well. The physical and mental robustness of an officer in the Army are the aspects that the training seeks to inculcate in a cadet and believe me, had they not been trained like that they wouldn’t have been what they are today. Each profession has typical requirements and the academies impart such training that is vital. If I agree with your notion of forced labour, reading books and journals 18 hours a day to crack the civil services is also being unfair to oneself.
To conclude, there are way many examples of women who have brought immense glory to the nation and the Army and have stood as glaring examples of women empowerment. The Army is still good enough without people like you. JAI HIND!
The training provides minimum physical fitness to everyone irrespective of which arm or service they join. Please don’t join if not ready to undergo that. In addition to that there is no place for such critics in the first place. No one has right to criticise an organisation from outside.
I don’t understand the exact point of arguing wid such silly comments.one the one hand grls wants to be treated equally and on the other hand they wnt tht an advantage shld be given to them for the sake of them being girls…Everyone who is preparing to join defence knws tht it is not a piece of cake u get their then if u thnk u can’t tolerate tht kind of discipline why ?? Wat is the point to thnk tht go nd join defence forces…
Correct me if I m mistaken but when the bullet comes from d enemy lime it doesn’t ask u if u r a GC or a LC…
And also u can’t ask the forces to indulge u in combat fields as until ths kind of attitude is there u can’t perform in combat zones.u can’t say there tht I m a LC plzz dnt be so harsh to me dnt put a bullet thrgh my head look at me I m a LC.
And one mre imprtnt fact when a guy says to u tht it’s not the thng u can do then grls feel offensive to tht comment nd would say hw can u say tht but then when it comes to training why r u askng fr some mercy on u???
i think every one has a different point of view towards this as myself i m do hearted to join defence the thing if i got the chance i wil for my nation… i respect ur boths of view thinking…thts it
truley said bro……i want to give an example of Lt. col sofia who became 1st commanding officer to command Indian contigent in the Field Training Exercise..if she could give up like you the how can she became 1st lady commding officer,…………..another example is that Captain Ruchi Sharma became the 1st para Commando….if she could give up by the apprehension of fracture then how can she get Maroon BEret…..so misss they both are Alumni of Ota Chennai…
not joining the Elite forces is ur decission…but you cannot blame the Indian forces for dicrimination…n 11 month training Period………when i was read out ur arcticle i was so happy to you recommeded in 1st attempt…bt left THE HEAVEN dicission disappoint me n like me defence aspiration…..in last i want say that ma ONly INdian DEFnce FORCEs get u chance to write ur name on INdia GAte permanently…………….
I doubt that there is a lady “paracommando”. She may have qualified parajumps like several AMC lady doctors have done during the past 50 years, but no paracommando. Dont be misinformationed.