Marching past March and Silence explained

First the silence explained: It's not that I don't have anything to write; I have too much to write! Mostly good stuff, some sad stuff, and some really good things that has happened to me. So, I couldn't decide what to write, and honestly, didn't get much time to think about the blog.

Now the Marching past March part:

This morning, as I was walking past a school near my house, the beats of a marching band reached my ears. Even without realizing, I started walking to the beats: left... left... left, right, left! As I soon realized it, it brought a smile to my face, and instantly took me back to my school days. When in class 9, I auditioned for the March Past team, which was a seriously prestigious team in our school, and got selected because of my height (they needed everyone with the same height). Then came the grueling practice schedule, with an Army Jawan coming to train us each day for about a month. We were training to participate in the 26th January Republic day parade, held each year at Red Road in Kolkata. The winning teams, one boy's team and one girl's team, gets to participate in the next year's Republic day parade in Delhi! I would never forget walking with a rod across the back held under the arms to get a straight torso. Or, the practice to raise the feet and arms exactly as high as others in the line are raising. Even the turning of head to the right and salute were practiced for hours. On 23rd January, we participated in a smaller competition just to get our groove going. Then, on the D-day, we marched past the Governor of West Bengal, heads held high, torso straight, legs rising in unison, uniform smartly pressed - a proud bunch. We didn't win the competition, I think National High School stole it from us by putting steel plates under their soles to get a smart clicking sound; but it didn't matter at the end of the day. We did our best.

So, there you go... a post! See you soon!

8 comments:

~ ॐ ~ said...

hmm...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

its odd but i liked left, left , left ryt left.... i was in NCC for two years when i was in mum .. ur blog reminds me ov my tuf days at NCC doing march past and kadam taal... it was fun as well annoying ,specially when i had to tie my hairs and oil them and pin them ,so that not a single hair could be seen flying!!! grrrr.. and more annoying when i had to shout on top ov my voice and attain skool even on holidays and weekends[:(]

I am said...

Welcome back... you seem to have been lost after Ghatshila but it seems you are not lost for real, achaa hai :)

nice to see you back

Keep marching... :)

Subhadip said...

@Om
Err...kya hua bhai? Soch mein par gaya?

@Arpita
Oh yeah... I know what you mean (except the hair oil part). But I remember it as fun, not as annoying.

@Tanu
Yeah, got lost for a while :) But now, I am back! For sure.

Anonymous said...

arree in N.C.C , they taught us to be disciplined . and it thier rule books its strictly mentioned no hair should be seen flying in air.. so we gurls had to oil our hairs and tie it tight.. :(

Butterfly said...

Its great that you participated in march past. :-)I have never participated in march past but I've seen the students practising at our school,going on and on for an entire day and even staying back after school ,at times.

Btw, the title of the post is superb.:-)

Subhadip said...

@Arpita
I meant, I would not really know what that hair-raising problem is dealt with... we were all made to sport a crew-cut.

@Butterfly
My friends used to tease me that the only reason I participated is to avoid normal classes :) Of course that's not true... but I am sure you would not miss your classes for anything!

Big, big congratulations on being first across all sections in your class.