Self belief, existent ?.....ITC 2025.

January 26, 2025.

As a drop of sweat rolled down my skull, I felt my heart beat. The suspense slowed time down significantly. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes to hours. As the drop dripped past my jaw we watched the judges roll their eyes as they stared their way through the contestants. We knew ...we knew it was a matter of mere seconds. As that drop succumbed to the floor accelerating to 9.8m/s and before it touched the floor, it was over…..

……. Or was it ??

Months earlier. 

I was promoted from a Lance Corporal to a Corporal in NCC. A Corporal is the second-in-command of Troop Karna, one among four troops that make up 1 Kar Armd Sqn NCC. The promotion came with it's own challenges. The fear of leading without applicable knowledge, in simple terms self doubt was at all time high. Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War rightfully said that "The troops are strong and the officers weak. this is called 'dragged down' ". The feeling of dragging someone down is associated with the thought of helplessness, and helpless I was. Before addressing the troop for the very first time, statements sprung out in my mind. 'Leaders live what they teach',' Leaders should not give what they cannot take' etc. The level of self-doubt gradually increased by the minute and paranoia hit.

Once a year, the four troops compete with each other in the Inter Troop Competition (ITC) to win the ITC CUP. The ITC consists of various competitions designed to enhance team bonding and experience leading. Competitions vary from drill that showcases discipline to sports and cultural events and Quiz for the intellectuals. Apart from these events which give each team marks for winning, throughout the year points are deducted for not being disciplined enough. Here, points are negated and we call them as negative marking(NM). NM is what makes the ITC little toxic. It is a tool which the appointments/ unit administrators have at their disposal. It has been misused. Reasons for receiving an NM can vary. Absence in parades, backlogs in academics to not trimming your hair. What classifies as a trimmed haircut? Well, that depends if the appointment likes you or not (Portrays the character of examining magistrate in The Trial - Franz Kafka ).

T-2 Months.

A month prior to the finale, the flag was waved and the competition started. There we were on the basketball court after that the volleyball court and even the cricket pitch. Our total points gain from the sports was a mega zero. But, we did gather some good NM. Even though I did not believe in myself, I did believe in the team because it actually made me smile as they put efforts. 

As the sports competitions concluded, the college closed for  Christmas vacations. 

The vacation gave me time to introspect, not only regarding my self doubt but regarding my capabilities as well. One fine evening after a focused run, as i stared at the sun set and it's radiant reflection on Sankey's still water, i made the decision to give it my best and ignore the prejudgment i had given the troop. Personally this was a turning point in my final year in college as well. I felt like a bird that escaped it's cage; a free bird. A bird thrusting itself towards the sky reaching for it with dear happiness. Immune from the opponent's intimidating victories, participating not for victories and certainly not to prove capability but for the sheer joy in the journey. Hence the metamorphosis in self caused the team to metamorphise into just finding joy. With this attitude we launched into the last 3 weeks of ITC.

Sunset at Sankey tank.

T-3 weeks. 

The competition got intense when we were just 3 weeks away from the finale. Teams scrambled to practice their cultural performances. The first among the last few events was the flag area. Flag area is a presentation in NCC where instead of using a software application to design a presentation slide, we are tasked to design it and draw it on the floor. The presenter uses the sketch as a reference to talk on the given theme. This is where Karna tank sprung to action. 

Planning and design of the flag area in advance gave us an upper hand in the competition. We finished the sketch in no time. Our presenter was prepared to the nail. 

Flag area prep.

"Military ops never go according to plan" a famous line in the 1987 hit Predator described our fate. 

Our plan did not go as expected and due to a few glitches, we bagged our highest position yet which was second. The team was thrilled. 

This victory was short lived as we went on to lose to the dust in Quiz and a 'talent search' competition called  'ARMD got talent'. 

T-1 day - Reality check. 

25th of January was the day every team was finishing their practice, we were too. In terms of cultural performances, we had an ingenious plan of  creativity. The group song and dance is themed for 1.5 minutes off the total 5 mins. We did not web search our songs, my junior in troop literary wrote 5 minutes worth of lyrics over a cup of tea. It was a parody of classical Hindi with a twist of our 3 years in NCC. Song was sorted. 

Dance and Drill was where every troop was underprepared, So were we. At exactly 4 PM in the evening we started to choreograph the dance moves. This went on till 7 until when we were kicked out off campus. During the 3 hours we spent in college, we had only finished 1 min of dance and took aside half an hour for drill. 

kicked out of college, we went to the Richmond park to finish the song. Spending almost 2 hours in the park, we were still  not done. We were critically in trouble. We decided to free style the remaining minutes and left the park with a beautiful smile. A bright smile accepting the disaster which will soon be caused. A mere Chernobyl scale blast of embarrassment on stage was expected. Regardless, we smiled and bid adieu. 

Going into 26th January, Troop Karna had decided, We will either win or will show them hell ! 

  Outside Richmond park.

                                                                 

As we slept that night, all we could think of was how ITC would turn out. But, deep down the biggest fear was coming last. It haunted us, sent shivers down our spine. Would Murphy's law continue to haunt as we went on to the finale of the Inter Troop Competition 2025? 
As Schrodinger's cat is thought of both dead and alive and can be decided only as one opens the box, the box opening (Part 2 ) is going to reveal the cat's situation or in ITC, Karna's situation. 

Stay tuned for part 2.