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
