NIM basic course

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Members of my rope and how I got a scar

We were a rope of 7 members. Besides me there were:

1. Bishal Thapa, employed in Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), hailing from Darjeeling.

2. Amol, a student, from Akola who was sponsored by a club carrying out adventure activities in his home town.

3. Pratik Agrawal, an undergraduate student from Mumbai.

4. I. James, an undergraduate student from Tamilnadu, sponsored by National Cadet Core(NCC).

5. Krishan Pal Singh, a student of 12th std, from Uttarkashi.

6. Satpal Singh Makhloga, a local from Uttarkashi, aspiring to get employment with some adventure sports company.

Bishal and Satpal were in their early 20s and all others were 18-19 yrs old.
Despite the age difference with me, we had a good time together and we bonded really fast and well together as a group. We were allotted a room with capacity to house 6 people and Bishal went to another room. We were allocated an instructor, Mr. Anil Saklani, who was on contract for the period of the course, with NIM. The training at NIM started off at a frenetic pace and soon we were allotted equipment etc. also to enable us to get familiar with it and also to take up rock climbing at Tekhla.
Tekhla was about 8.6 km from the institute and we trekked one way daily for 5 days with a full load to the training area. As we learned the rock craft as the training was called, we went through some thrilling moments as we went up the steep rock faces and also rappelled down many a time.

The first small accident occurred on day one when we were trying to master some boulders by free climbing. As each one of us went up the big boulders, one person stood at the foot of the boulder, to steady the climber in case he slipped and came scrambling down. It was important to soften the landing as otherwise, landing on the stones could hurt.

I was standing ready to help Pratik when he climbed. He suddenly fell from about a height of 8-10 ft but made the mistake of jumping off the rock instead of scrambling down along the face as we were coached. He came down in a bundle of thrashing arms and legs and as I caught him, his elbow hammered down the bridge of my nose, driving the titanium bridge of my specs down into the flesh. It opened a gash and blood started flowing. We were all consoling Pratik who was in tears! I held the hanging flesh back to my nose and pinched it tight. Soon the blood stopped and I got a band aid on it. It's going to be a scar, but I am really not bothered about that.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Falling in all the time!

The institute is controlled by faujis (military men) and they do not let you forget that ever! There was an elaborate 4 page minute by minute program pasted on the notice board, detailing the activities and classes we were to take part while we were stationed at the institute before moving to the mountains. Being a railwayman who has the importance of punctuality drilled into his consciousness, I was pretty cool with the timetable. However, I soon discovered to my horror that even if I reached the prescribed venue 5 minutes before the given time, I was late! All sort of comments were flying from the instructors, whistles were blowing and people were screaming at you in the hostel corridor-all asking you to 'fall in' immediately. I soon reconciled to the fact that right time to 'fall in' was 15 minutes before the published time. There were head counts all through the day to identify the missing trainees.
Soon we got divided into 'ropes' of 7-8 trainees each and were allocated a rope instructor to each rope. I got to become the leader of rope 11. For initial 3 days, trainees, mostly Ministry of Defence nominees, kept on reporting for the course and there were few changes in the ropes to accommodate all these men arriving late.
We were issued a whole lot of stuff ranging from snow boots, crampons, slings, ropes, helmet, carabiners, seat harness, gaiters, windproof suits, down feather jackets and sleeping bag, mess tin, mug, spoon and carrymat etc., along with a rucksack (around 55-60 ltr). I got some extra stuff for the rope, like rapelling jacket and mittens etc. We were taught how to pack a rucksack and soon we discovered that there was hardly any space for our personal stuff in that sack!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Diary: First Impressions on landing up at NIM

23.4.2008

As we reached Uttarkashi in a shared ambassador, we initially lost our way to the institute but a we took fresh directions, stopping at a shop and soon we could see the elaborate road signs and the well kept approach to NIM. The taxi dropped us at the gate where the sentry box was empty. We walked into the premises and got us directed to the hostel. A quick check of the list at the reception and Rs.1000 later (hike in fees) we got ourselves directed to a room which had three double bunk beds. This was to be our accommodation for the night before we got divided into 'ropes' i.e., groups of 6-7 each, for the entire training period. We were to be given separate rooms, rope-wise, thereafter.
Ground floor of the hostel housed a mess, with a seating capacity of around 100. There were pay phones and an out of order 'cyber cafe' too.
An orientation lecture soon took place at a lecture hall in the hostel, where the Course Instructor told us briefly about what to expect during the course. We were to take training at Tekhla, a rock face about 8 kms away, for 5-6 days, walking the stretch with loaded rucksacks to condition ourselves for the mountains. After completing the rock climbing training, we were to move to Dokriani glacier, which was about 25 kms off road from Bukki road head. We were to travel the 43 kms to Bukki by bus and the entire glacier trip was 15-17 days long. In this period, we could communicate by a satellite phone only.
As we settled for the night in our bunk beds under the 2 blankets, I could not help thinking that a cotton sheet could have been much more comfortable below those rough woolen blankets. Little was I to realize that comfort was one word that would go out of the window pretty soon!