Most of my memories of Republic Day are from School. I did my schooling from Kendriyas Vidyalaya (Central School).
My dad was serving in Indian Air Force and he would get transferred from one place to other every 3 to 4 years. I did my preschooling at Ghaziabad. 1 to 3rd standard in Hyderabad, 4 to 5 at Bagdogra (Siliguri), 5 to 8th at Barielly, 9 to 12th at Jodhpur. In fact, Jodhpur happens be the place where I have spent most part of my life (4 years!)
As a kid, Republic day was fun at school. No Padhai-Likhai and just few hours of cultural program and then sweet distribution (I really used to savor that boondi).
Then in college, I joined NCC, and was egged by my friend Anurag Misra to go for the Republic Day Parade selection camp. It meant lot of hardwork. The basic requirement was a good ranking in the 6 km cross-country race and decent marks at the drill parade. I was from Naval side and without much difficulty I cleared the college selection, city selection and found myself at Lucknow for a pre-Republic Day camp. My drill was average and my cross-country bordered towards poor. I would, with great difficulty(and with lot's of will power)would finish those 6 Kms.
Every night in the camp, I used to suffer from the sick feeling of churnings in the gut, a feeling quite close to terror, as I would think of getting-up next day morning, to run for 6 long and never-ending Kms. In the morning, as I would begin, my resources would exhaust within a Km or so. Then it used to be only me and my sheer will power. I would drag and drag till I'd reach the finish.
All this hard-work however was ok as I visited my relatives at Lucknow during the pre-RD camp(I had so much to boast!) and they too were excited at the perospect of seeing me march on the Republic Day Parade.
We were in the middle of the camp when we came to know that they had to eliminate one last person. Again the drill tests were called and cross country race. Again the lists were made. My heart really broke that day as they announced my name. I didn't want to go back. I badly wanted to go to Delhi. But there I was - eliminated.
There is this famous line in "Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)", something like (not verbatim) - 'if you desire something with all your heart into it, the whole world conspires for you to achieve it'. (This also became a famous dialogue in SRK's "Om Shanti Om' something with words like "shiddat" and "kaaynaat"). So, something similar must have happened to my Lucknow relatives as after the Republic Day, they called up and informed they actually saw me at the RD parade!!
(ofcourse, I hadn't inform them that I was eliminated).
Later though, I told them the truth - for a clear conscience :)
A Happy Republic Day to you.
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