The Grand Baton

 

My journey as a defence aspirant started way back in 2017. I got my first green flag for the SSB interview in May 2019 after clearing my written examination, which is the first screening test of intelligence. I was recuperating from Typhoid and had lost all my hopes despite having been preparing for it since February, because, my health had taken a complete U-turn and I was out of shape. My father sensed the reason for my disinclination, as he had seen me in full spirits just weeks before my reporting date. He requested one of his friends back from his school days to guide me and encourage me. He made a call from the office informing me that Sir had made some space to connect with me from his schedule. Anticipating some relief, I made a call to Col M P Dinesh Nair, who was already aware of the whole situation. After a call of about 20-25 minutes, I felt a bout of energy in me, keeping aside the fact that I was not still healthy enough to undergo a 5-day interview process of assessment involving all the physical, emotional, and intellectual calibre. In July 2021, I got an opportunity to move towards my goal under his mentorship. We fairly spent a journey of two years since then, where I met with failures and, at the same time, fragmented victories towards the goal. In August 2023, I made a call from my SSB centre early in the morning to my mentor. On a 2-minute call, I realized one thing that has not and will never change about him, which also sets him apart from all the other coaches, who train students for SSB, and that is, he never says, “Be an officer!"; he says, “Be yourself!”. Also, subtly referencing to the hidden capabilities and eligibility of being one by him. When my other competitors would ask, "What did your mentor say or guide?" I replied, “Nothing; he just said, you’ll be good.”.

 

As I today hold a book in my hand, with a lot of squiggles, smileys, and highlights penciled by me, on most of the pages I reiterate to myself, “If you know the book, you know the author, and if you know the author, you know the book," the latter of which suits this case. Even though it has been a while since I took last class from him, reading the book "The Nine Batons" was like attending just another webinar with Col M P Dinesh as the coach/guide/speaker/teacher and so on. There were plenty of reasons to give me an “Aha!” moment through this journey, be it “Oh! He has told us this on several occasions and how evidently, he has narrated with the real-life examples.", "Brilliant! How wonderfully has he described the landscapes and infrastructures, the positions and vicinity of material and non-material things?" “Bravo! He just vocally mentioned his inhibitions and self-doubts as an educator," so on and so forth. The book gave me tears, smiles, and most importantly, anecdotal proofs of failures and victories of the lessons learned from those failures. What truly enriched my sojourn reading the book was the fact that every individual sentence and word whooped the Retd Col’s philosophies developed in his career as an assessor and an instructor. By this, I would also be gladly mentioning that even though I have never personally met Menon sir, reading the book made me realize that I was not being mentored by one but apparently, two of them all this while, which were very rationally and in an unfiltered manner put forward by Dinesh sir in all the discourses. 

On 30^th October this year, Sir very proudly declared on our study group that he was retiring from the forces the next day. In our country, when defence personnel get retired from their services, it is considered one of the greatest achievements and is celebrated with all pomp and joy. Of course, everyone in our group was overjoyed and happy. Not me though! My dad and sir had joined their respective forces almost the same time, and the fact that one was retiring was enough to prove the inevitable about the other too. For a moment, I had held my heart with all the force I had, to convey that it was in the near future and not at present. At the same time, I had my own misconceptions and apprehensions that if the time was putting a full stop to his career, so was his legacy going to end. I was already gradually accepting the fact that very few human and learned people were thriving to change the world. Little did I know that reading the book would break my belief and give a new direction to my foundations too. His legacy, if assimilated correctly and with the exact motive he must’ve had before writing, will never cease to end.

Therefore, taking this very platform and opportunity, I would like to congratulate him for having successfully served the Indian armed forces and having left behind a trail of service, honesty, and dedication for the generations to follow.

Throughout this little journey of ups and downs and paving my way to my goal, whether I reached my desired destination or not, I found a Guru. We never plan to meet people or bond with them, but what we definitely seek is wisdom, in pursuit of which I met my own guiding light. After my first-hand experience of being a teacher, it was not hard to relate to the doubts and flaws a teacher finds in himself/herself and how they change their courses to make the appropriate amendments so they do justice to the responsibilities shouldered on them. Reading the book, I drew my own parallel of that as an educator, where I recollected my memories of failing, realizing and often acing my duties and challenges.  Also, it’s very likely to fail as a teacher but very less likely, to address the failure and hence, take the appropriate reconstructive steps to fix them even if it involves confession and acceptance.

Nevertheless, there is never an appropriate age to learn as well as to unlearn. Leaving you all, with a beautiful thought by Dan Ruther, “The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called, ‘truth’”.

By a “Shishya” to a “Guru”….