A unique experience
I must admit that I have always secretly wanted something different to happen to me.
We all have had or will have some experience which are just unique and which are hard to explain.
I want to share such an experience with you all. Even today, I don’t completely understand why and how those things happened.
So here it is my story:-
It was one bright, sunny morning in July. I remember waking up early and getting ready in my sportswear. It was the selection day for being a part of the NCC( National Cadet Corps). I was looking forward to it because, out of all the clubs in my college, I found this club to imbibe confidence in me.
People had already gathered on the ground where selection was going to happen as soon as I reached there. Looking at the crowd, I quickly began to question my decision of enrolling in the first place.
Process of selection was made clear to us. It consisted of a physical test, group discussion, and an interview. The selection commitee gave the procedure an unexpected turn when they announced that we would be supervised by a Major from the Indian Army and the final interview would be a face-to-face with a higher-ranked officer from the Indian Army.
All these things and some highly competitive people in the crowd, ruthlessly trying to leave an impression on the officers from the Indian Army made me think of my chances of getting selected.
Physical Test- Phase 1
It was more of a filtering round. I am not sure of the exact distance but I think we were supposed to run for 5 Km within some time. The details are escaping me because nothing was unique here😂. Somehow, I came in 5th position in my group. This was possible because a lot of the people in my group changed course and headed back to their hostel rooms🤣. It was announced that only the top five from all the groups would be going through to the next round. I had barely made it.
Group Discussion-Phase 2
This part made me the most nervous. This was where confidence played a differentiating role. Again, there were groups of people and the moderator was the Major. I felt as if, people had prepared their whole lives for that day as if their lives were dependent on it. The decibel levels saw an exponential increase for each group. People were fighting to leave an impression and I didn’t blame them because I was also trying the same thing. I tried but I couldn’t do it.
The Major decided to change the format of that stage. I didn’t know why and I didn’t ask. I saw an opportunity to still crack this stage and so I decided to go with the flow.
We were asked to stand in an alert position in 2 lines. We were facing the Major. For a brief second, I felt that I was already a part of the Indian Army and undergoing training but that daydream was cut short by the Major’s voice.
Questions were being hurled at us and these were no easy questions. All of the questions required out-of-the-box thinking. It was more a test of giving some unique answers instantaneously. I was preparing my mouth by this time, and did some self-talk addressed to my brain and mouth specifically😂. Unintentionally, I was in a perfectly attentive position and trying to make eye contact.
I noticed the Major noticing me for the first time and I thought to myself…..” he might have looked by mistake”. He began asking questions randomly and students were quick to respond. He again looked at me. This made me think if I was doing anything wrong. I kept a count of the number of times we had eye contact … it was 6 times. After the 3rd, I was convinced that somehow I have left an impression without even opening my mouth.
There were 15 of us left. Questions were still coming and suddenly, the Major pointed toward me and said…” You are selected”. I don’t know how it happened and why was I selected even though I hadn’t uttered a single word from my mouth. Now, looking back the thing about me I distinctly remember was my body language and the effort I was putting in to maintain eye contact with the Major.
I couldn’t digest what had happened there. This moment was certainly unique for me. If you are curious as to what happened after that, the final interview was really quick and smooth. I was not worried about my selection because on that day I got something different to add to my experiences list.
