'Yes! Today we had our first firing parade on the rifle...'

17 September 1997 | NCC Firing Parade

#memoriesfromdiaries 💕

Today was an exciting day for all of us – NCC Cadets! 😍

Yes! Today we had our first firing parade on the rifle, in the huge NCC grounds.

On an aside, I should also confess that, we junior cadets were a wee bit scared of our seniors [called Under Officers in NCC] more than we feared our NCC Officer Dr. Manali, even!

Wes & myself, we started much much earlier to the NCC Grounds, not to face the ire of our Under Officers.

my personal diary entry, 17 September 1997

However, a few late comers had to face their ire!

Each of us was given five bullets each, and we were given our target, which was exactly 200 metres away.

We were asked to lie down on gunny sacks, with the kinda heavy .22 rifle held firmly in position, on accurate elevation, to counter the pull and the jerk it had on our bodies.

The sound of the shots could really scare you out of your wits! 

But still, it was such great adventure you see!

If you couldn’t hit anywhere near the mark, you faced a wash-out, in NCC parlance!

Luckily I had escaped a wash-out! 😍

Coming back, 

today, I returned a book on Chaucer that I had borrowed from our Library, and borrowed Ben Jonson and HEL!

HEL? 😍

For our dear non-literature souls, yes, it’s History of English Literature!