My SSB Experience
If you’re Indian, you’ll presumably be already aware of what SSB is. It’s a 5-day long exam cum interview process for getting accepted into NDA (National Defense Academy), which I both chauvinistically and in my normal sense regard the finest in its job: producing fine military men. I appeared for the written test and to my amazement I cleared it and was called in for the aforementioned 5-day test.
Unlike other happenings, which doesn’t have a backstory, mine has one.
Getting into military wasn’t in my life’s to-do; not even after watching LOC Kargil. But one fine day, one of the alumnus and to-be lieutenant visited the school. He ELI5d how he almost broke the hurdle race record, the adventures cadets got to do, concessions they got, the customs of various regiments (one of which comprised drinking alcoholic beverage using their army hat like a glass), how NDA was better than IIT and the last of all: couple ball (he had a lady-in-waiting).
It was enough for me to become motivated. So, I, dreading the no-man’s-land (British think of this as ‘Free Real Estate’) inquired if there was any technical position in the army, but he was oblivious of that.
As soon as I reached home, I checked if there was any technical post and to my luck there was a Technical Entry Scheme, but because of a complication I was not eligible for it.
Anyway, I signed up for the exam and was allotted Jaipur as the exam center. I traveled to Jaipur, appeared for the exam, and then came back to my place.
Except for the moving postboxes, loudspeakers and undergoing construction Jaipur was splendid. The roads were straight with shops on both sides of the road. I also encountered some canons kept as a showpiece by the roadside. Besides, all the stores looked identical: in color, design, architecture, size and lighting. Later I got to know it was the same road from which the Royal Procession passed.
I then went to the Hawa-Mahal (etymologically: Air Palace), it was made for the Queens to see the Royal Procession. And as usual, being a heritage site, foreigners nearly occupied it.
Since it took long for the result to get announced plus I was at home, I gained weight to the extent of being overweight. Realized that even if I clear written test I might not clear physical test. After much restraint on diet and some exercise, I lost a few kilos.
Finally, after a few months result got announced. But by then I had lost interest in getting into NDA. Next step was to pick and prioritize the wings of the armed forces. I casually did that.
A few days later, the call letter came. This time I had to report at Air Force Selection Base in Mysuru. I was attending my college induction programme during those days, and I didn’t want to go.
My parents advised me to give it a shot. So as per order I went there.
I reached there 1 day before the screening day unaware of the process of selection, though I had read various activities were to happen on different days but did not know how those will be carried out.
So, to prepare myself with frivolous things like high jump, long jump, filling a personal questionnaire and some other etiquettes, I started searching for them on the internet. I jumped to Quora and found some more interesting things from a few learned ones, most of them pointed on the questions asked during the interview. The questions were like:
Q. Do you have a girlfriend? (No sir. No sir, I’ve never had any female interaction.)
Q. Why do you want to join forces? (Because I want to serve my fatherland. I want to use war grade weapons.)
The good thing was that interview was the last of all processes, so I was much relieved.
The day came, I reached to the reporting center where all the other candidates were already waiting in a line. Most of them were in formals and I was in t-shirt and trouser. Anyway, this wasn’t as much of an issue as some other candidates too shared dress as mine. After ID checks, the guards let us in. We straight went to a shade where we sat for a few minutes, after which they assigned us chest numbers. We went back to the shade and were asked to take out documents mentioned in call letter. After that, they took everyone to a hall where the document check and submission was being done. Later, we positioned ourselves according to chest number in that hall where the first test was about to begin.
After some time, the chief of the selection center came to address us and briefed us about the process of selection. The first one was psychology test, they gave us a booklet and a response sheet. The booklet was prepared by DRDO during late 1970s and hasn’t changed since. Some answers were already marked by previous batches, which we were asked to ignore. I solved most of the questions (and didn’t overlook the already ticked ones).
When this test was over, we then went back to the shade where arrangements for breakfast were made. We took our time in finishing that while I spotted a hill nearby (it was Chamundi Hill, named after Chamundeshwari Temple).
They gave us a brief break, after which the next test: Picture Perception & Description Test was to be conducted. I thought it’d be a cakewalk for me as I’ve been doing it since class 8th, but this time it wasn’t easy. They showed a dull and blurry image and asked to figure out the number of persons, their gender and mood in that image. It was purely a game of guessing. We also had to write a short story based on that in under 5 minutes.
Now comes the part which made my way out of the selection center: I’m surpassingly pessimist. If ever you ask, “Don’t you think you’ll get embarrassed by all your suicide jokes when you get older?”, there’s a good chance I will reply, “Why worry about something that isn't going to happen.”.
Coming back to the test, I pictured three persons in that blurry image, 2 mid-aged male—both happy and 1 forlorn teenager girl. While everyone else wrote motivational stories, I wrote that how those two males kidnapped a girl and are going make a fortune out of her.
The time for writing the story was over. They asked us to fold the answer sheet and to not look at it again. Again, after some time, they took us to another hall in groups of 15 for discussing the stories we wrote. Now we were asked to sit in semicircular fashion on the stage, and there were two observers and an instructor already present in the hall. The instructor guided us about the procedure for the group discussion, language to use and that we had to present another story based on the good inputs of what we discuss.
The discussion started, everyone else presented their exaggerated piece whereas I spoke of a kidnapping. I was sure from that moment that I will not pass this round, and the same thing happened. The result came and along with many others I was screened out.
Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience knowing the hard process the aspirants go through to become an officer in the army. I now respect them even more.
ELI5 means: explain like I'm five years old.