2.1 Background:
RIMC, or the Rashtriya Indian Military College, is a prestigious public school for boys studying between 8th and 12th grade located in Dehradun in India. Most of the students studying at the RIMC eventually join the National Defence Academy and subsequently the Indian Armed Forces. Alumni from the RIMC, Rimcollians as they are known, have gone on to frequently hold the highest ranks in the Army, Navy and Airforce of India (and Pakistan). General K.S. Thimayya, General GG Bewoor, General VN Sharma, Air Marshal Asghar Khan (Pakistan Air Force), Air Chief Marshal NC Suri, Air Marshal Nur Khan (Pakistan Air Force), General Padmanabhan are some of the highest ranking officers from RIMC. Various gallantry awards have been awarded to Rimcollians over the years including the Victoria Cross to Lt Gen PS Bhagat, Distinguished Service Order to Gen KS Thimayya, Param Vir Chakra to Major Som Nath Sharma.
I had the opportunity to be a cadet in RIMC. The focus in RIMC was (and is) on overall personality development of students. Therefore, in addition to emphasizing on academics; the school authorities concentrated on games and sports, adventure activities, and development of leadership skills.
Tours and excursions called hikes were an integral part of this process. Every class got to go twice every year on hikes in addition to shorter trips many times during the year. These hikes were held for a week’s duration right after mid-term exams. This unedited diary entry is my record of such a cycling hike to Chandigarh from Dehradun.
I have the best cycle in the class, I think. I rented the bike from Bhatia cycle shop in the city. It is an Atlas gold line.
We started for hikes in the morning. I started with Kshitij Solanki. We crossed Harbatpur by 9:00 am. We passed through one steep downhill slope of road. It was thrilling to ride on the cycle with cool wind rushing through my hair. We did not encounter any uphill stretch of road. All of us had lunch at an agriculture guesthouse in Dhaulakuan (a village on way to Chandigarh from Dehradun). Mr AJ Chopra, father of Manu Chopra, my classmate, arranged the lunch for us. Our first steep climb was near Kala-amb. The uphill climb was for three kilometers. After reaching the top we were rewarded with 14 kilometers downhill road. Excited we had crossed our rest stop, and we had to head back to Mr Virendra Sharma’s (our English teacher) village middle school. Tired but excited, after dinner we went to sleep in no time.
2.3 3rd October
I was woken up by latest English music tracks playing on a speaker attached to Walkman. Woken up like this I should have been annoyed, but I was excited about reaching Chandigarh latter during the day. For bathing, Anurag Kadian and I went to a local’s house in Hamidpur. I wanted to stick with Ritesh Singh and Kshitij Solanki as we were together in the last downhill climb yesterday. Our group was among the first to start. We were supposed to wait for the rest of groups after reaching Naraingarh but we crossed it without waiting for anyone. The countryside was very beautiful. It was as green as it was in Dehradun. We reached Panchkula by lunch. Some of my classmates took a smaller route. We stopped in Shiva hotel (located in Majra in Panchkula) for lunch and a short nap. We reached Chandigarh at four in the evening. We were a bit disappointed, as we didn’t get to see featherless birds (slang for girls) around. We were told that Chandigarh was best place for bird watching. In the evening, we went to see Dussehra in sector 22. After listening to some pappy music, I went to sleep early.
2.4 4th October
Napolean Nayak woke me up. After listening to some music we went to Sukhna Lake. The lake is very beautifully laid out in a well-planned city. The city looks very posh. Cops are always ready with wireless sets and bikes parked at roundabouts. Latter we went to see Rock Garden, planned by Mr Nek Chand, a PWD officer dismissed on corruption charges. We took some photos and returned to our resting place for lunch. In the evening we went to sector 17. Bowing to peer pressure, I watched Rangeela. I didn’t like the movie. After movie we roamed around in Sector 17 admiring some featherless birds. Neeraj Naithani, A Umesh and I reached late at the resting place.
2.4 5th October
It is my third day in this dream city of Chandigarh. I love everything here. The people, the well laid out houses and roads, smoothly moving traffic, the army cantonment, the weather, and the featherless birds. In the morning we went to Chhatbir zoo. It has a good collection of animals from the cat family. I saw jaguars, leopards, panthers, and lions. Latter we went for lion safari in a jeep. Our jeep stopped in midway. Jeep occupants consisted of four of my batch mates, two people I had become friends with and a family with a beautiful girl. Even after repeated tries, the jeep did not start. Some one had to go and push the jeep for it to start. Though all of my classmates wanted to impress the beautiful girl but we didn’t dare because a lion was sitting on a tree barely 50 meters away. Finally our driver (not of the jeep but of our 4-ton) gathered some courage. Though he returned unharmed, he was sweating profusely from fear.
After lunch, we went to Pinjore gardens visited by Pandavas, as most places in India supposedly are. Ibdai Khan, a Mughal governor, had built it. We saw a Sardar looking at girls in the garden with binoculars. We appreciated his ingenuity and requested him to give us a chance as well. Latter in the evening we visited Chandimandir. It is the place where Durga is supposed to have killed demon Bhismasur. After eating dinner, I went to sleep late.
2.5 6th October
It is my second last day in the city beautiful. In the morning we went to Air force station. We saw Mig-21, the numerical backbone of Indian air force. The instructor showed us the body parts and told us about flying. We were also taken to see Mirage and Mig-29. I wasn’t very impressed. However, when I saw Mig-21 taking off at speed close to the speed of sound, I was more than impressed. In evening we went to sector 17. We met students from class 1-A, which was returning from Patiala hike. I bought a book: ‘Three men in a boat’ by Jerome K Jerome. After listening to album ‘Happy Nation’ by ‘Ace of Base’ I went to sleep.
2.6 7th October
I was woken up at three in the morning because A Umesh and Sachin Mittal were fighting. We started for Dehradun on bikes at 8:00 in the morning. My group consisted of me, Mohit Mishra, and A Umesh. Later Sumit Bhat joined our group. We crossed Naraingarh, Raipur Rani, Kala-aam, Nahan bypass, and Dhaulakuan. For the 14 km uphill slope, we sat in the 4-ton. Manu Chopra joined our group in the evening.
2.7 8th October
It is the last day for hikes but all of us are in high spirits. My group consisted of Mohit Mishra, Manu Chopra and I. it was a tough route but we were in high spirits. It was especially tough after Pouta Sahib. From the turning towards Harbatpur, Gaurav Awasthi joined my group. We took a different route thinking it would be easier and shorter. We were sadly mistaken. We were only four of us in our group and we were badly tired. It seemed we would fall asleep on our bikes. There were no trees on the roadside. We stopped at a house for resting. We crossed Mohand and reached Dehradun around 4. We were 4.5 hours late. Mohit and Manu deposited their bikes, only to realize that they were a day late. Capt Meitei called our class for kit parade and at 9:00. Mr Brijesh, our physics teacher, called us for cupboard inspection. Mr Paul Swami, our biology teacher, has shown his true colors as he has falsely reported against Sukjeet and six other batchmates.
2.8 More information
In case you are wondering about other hiking trips, let me tell you one thing. Some of them were more interesting than even the cycling hike described above. One that stands out is river-rafting trip for 105 kms on Ganges. It was an absolute thrill. I remember and cherish every moment of that hike. Another time was when I went for a mountaineering camp for a month. To conclude life in RIMC was a blast. No school, even if they are a rich man’s club, can provide the environment and facilities that RIMC does. Hope some of you will get the opportunity to be one among the egalitarian elite at RIMC.
In case you are wondering about what are cadets of my class doing now, let me brief you. My class consisted of 21 cadets. Parvaej Alam had to leave RIMC because of a sports related injury. 14 of us joined Indian defense forces. Kshitij Solanki, Manu Chopra, Mohit Mishra, Gaurav Awasthi, Ashish Koijam, Ritesh Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Praveen Agrawal, Naploean Nayak, Sumit Bhat, Deepak Tiwari, Neeraj Naithani, A Umesh, and Thomson Zacharia are all officers in Indian Defense Forces. Gaurav Awasthi, Thomson Zacharia, and Praveen Agrawal joined Indian Airforce. Thomson is flying Sukhois. Manu Chopra a doctor in army. A Umesh joined Indian Navy. Rest all are officers in Indian Armed Forces. Three of us joined IITs. Sachin Mittal, Anurag Kadian, and I joined IIT. In addition to being an independent software consultant, Sachin Mittal is minting money in Mumbai stock exchange. Anurag Kadian worked with Tata’s and Schlumberger before going to Cambridge to pursue MBA. I worked with Infosys and Tavant before going to USA to pursue Masters in Transportation Engineering. Rochak Sethi, our Cadet Captain, is pursuing MBA from Kelley School of Business, Indiana University after working with Infosys. CPS Narang is a General Manager with an MNC and is working in Mumbai. Gaurav Verma is a software engineer in an MNC.
All of us keep in regular touch, by phone, e-mail, or physically meeting each other. Wherever we may be, we always keep motto of our alma mater in mind. RIMC is the cradle of excellence. We have to make sure that we exhibit excellence in everything we do. Numerical superiority is not RIMC’s strength: it is superior product quality. It is duty of each of us to keep it that way.
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