TRANSFORMATION FROM RAJASHEKAR TO GENTLEMAN
CADET RAJASHEKAR
Birth of Defence
Spark in me
Right from childhood, I was brought up by
my parents with the moral values and the characters that I inherited from my
mom and dad are selflessness, loyalty, integrity, discipline and
determination. I took up NSS during my
schooling because serving the society gave me enormous joy. I had this fascination towards uniform right
from my childhood but it never came out because I am unaware about the physical
requirements to join police or armed forces having no defence background. I passed out from school and entered into the
turning point of my life which is my college life at Kongu Engineering
College. During my 1st year I
saw the parade of the NCC cadets on the Independence day and was impressed by
the commander who led the platoon , his word of command, his dress turnout and
the way the cadets executed the salute and their uniformity in drill. That’s the moment I have decided that I
should join NCC. During my 2nd
year in college, I lost my focus in studies due to some personal problems and
lost interest in whatever task I do, and that’s the time the NCC selection was
announced in college. My friends motivated me to atleast join NCC so that it
will give a good diversion from whatever I suffer from. Having been impressed already by the drill ,
I took it up seriously , practiced running for a week before the selection and
cleared the NCC selection. According to
my college NCC rules, the cadets will be selected during 2nd year
and will be in a period of probation (which means we are temporary cadets ) for
an year and will be enrolled with government id during our 3rd
year. I did well during that one year
period but before enrolling with government id , one more running competition
will be held since the total number of seats given to junior boys was 21 and
unfortunately I twisted my ankles two days prior to the main running
competition and completed 23rd in the race (totally 24 ran). I was disheartened and totally disappointed
that I will be thrown out of NCC after working hard for an year. For one week I couldn’t concentrate on
anything else and was thinking about my failure. But I didn’t want to give up so I went along
with 2 more friends who didn’t clear the running test but were keen in joining
NCC , approached our NCC master who told us that “99 % you wont be taken in but
its up to you to attend parades if you wish, so that I may consider you if
vacancy arises”. I had belief in that 1%
chance and thought why not try that. Yes , if I would have given myself up ,
all these things that I have achieved now wouldn’t have happened. I attended the parades regularly without
getting absent for even a day. I faced
insults because we 3 cadets were called as reserved cadets(I considered it as
an insult) and the other 21 were called
as main cadets. I took up that insult
seriously as a challenge and started my action.
My attendance percentage was 100, dress turnout was perfect, I practiced
the drill taking extra time so that i could get a chance in the main team ,
accepted punishments if mistakes were done by me and emerged as a perfect cadet(actually
reserved perfect cadet :-P) . To my luck
or their indiscipline, 3 cadets in the main team were expelled due to indisciplinary
activities. Yes we 3 cadets were
enrolled in the main team. That is where
my journey started. Once I happened to
see my 15(TN) Bn Commanding Officer Col N S Shekhawat and was surprised since
he is of same height as mine and then I started my enquiry about the physical
requirements in defence.
My 1st
SSB
I got awareness
through various means about the physical requirements in armed forces and 10+2
navy was the only entry that I had in my hand during that period since my age
was not in the acceptable limit for NDA , 10+2 army and other entries. I purchased an ssb interview book and
prepared. I gave my first attempt in Naval Selection Board, INS Agrani,
Coimbatore and was conference out. The mistakes I have done are 1) No
participation in extracurriculars, sports and games in school except NSS 2) collapsed in the outdoor tasks 3) No
general awareness and many more
NCC career
After my 1st failure I took a pause and started
indulging in NCC , sports and games activities.
I found a perfect marksman in me during one of my Annual Training Camp
when I shot all the 5 bullets in the bull’s eye and won the best shooter award
from the erode district collector with 3 of my NCC buddies. Later on my perfection during parades,
obedience and support to seniors , volunteering myself to shoulder
responsibilities are all the things that earned me the rank of Cadet Under
Officer of my college NCC unit.
Meanwhile my consistency in rifle shooting during the camps earned me a
place in the Tamilnadu NCC rifle shooting team. I represented the team in All
India NCC Inter-Directorate rifle shooting
competition through which top 10 NCC cadets in the competition will be
representing the DG-NCC team in mavlankar shooting competition in which the
cadets will be competing against the best club and private shooters in
INDIA. I scored 528/600 in the 50m Rifle
shooting competition and got the 10th position out of 85 best NCC
shooters in INDIA who participated. After
getting in to the DG-NCC shooting team (it is the National NCC shooting team) I
got 2 days special training under the Army Markshmanship Unit Commanding Officer, Col Ajay Gupta. But unfortunately after that I was thrown out
of the national team telling that 3 more substitute shooters (from west Bengal)
scored more than me and they got into the team pushing me back to 14th
position. My entire team, my coaches
were disappointed because I was the only cadet from south india to have got
into the national team prior two days. I came back with disappointment but with
little happiness that we as a team brought the position of Tamilnadu NCC
shooting team’s rank from 18 (totally 18
NCC directorates are there) to 7 th position in the year 2012.Later on I
concentrated for my C certificate exam and cleared it with ‘B’ravo grade.
my 2nd
ssb interview
This is one more turning point in
my life because this is where my introspection started really. I gave this interview in the year 2012 and
again conference out in INS Agrani, coimbatore.
But before announcing the conference results, my interviewing officer
Captain Sujoynathan is the one who gave a small talk to us. His words were “Gentlemen , the personality
of a person is defined at the age of 7 or 8. Those who clear SSB interview in
their 1st attempt have Officer Like Qualities in them right from
childhood. Those who don’t clear it
falls under two categories: 1. They don’t have it , so that they have to go
back , acquire it and come back
2. They have it but they were not able to express it due to certain
reasons “ These are my lifechanging words, because I didn’t clear my 2nd
attempt and was wondering of which category do I fall under. There was an instinct inside me which told me
that I have the OLQ’s but were not able to express it properly. So I came back
again with disappointment. The mistakes
I have done are 1) My psychology was weak 2) I had been dominated by few
members in the group so that I was not able to express myself fully 3) Fear
arises before entering HGT, FGT and PGT tasks and am not good in solving those
tasks 4) Not able to answer few simple questions about me, family and
friends. Overall put more introspection
has to be done and more efforts had to be put in.
Role of Defence
Academy Coimbatore
My college NCC master arranged
for a short course from Defence Academy Coimbatore in our college with the help
of one of my friend siddharth who is also a defence aspirant. I got to know many mistakes that have been
done by me in my previous ssb interviews during this period. After the
assessment , the three officers Col jayavel (exarmy officer), Lt esan (exnaval
officer) and Ashok kumar (ex DRDO scientist and retired psychologist from
Bhopal ssb ) told me that I have it in me. The speciality of Defece Academy ,
coimbatore is that it offers coaching to
the cadets by giving real time actions like organizing events, commando camps
etc, selling products (it is 1 of the officer quality which is convincing
ability)., so that the cadets develop their qualities and go for SSB and not by
faking themselves up to show in SSB. One more important thing is that the
teachers can only show directions and cannot write exams on your behalf. It is
in our hands to take up the directions perfectly and put in our sincere efforts
to achieve victory. So Coaching + dedicated and determined efforts = success.
Mistakes of mine pointed out by
the 3 officers:
Col Jayavel (GTO):
1)Sometimes
found me dominating the group here (home ground in cbe), but actually when I go
for SSB (foreign ground) I couldn’t even
open my mouth in group tasks because great chaos was created for every ssb I
went.
2)
He pointed out that I should put some games in my PIQ and prepare rules of the
game, since only the rifle shooting was written in my sports column
3)
Washing chest numbers during SSB interviews
4)
Bonda technique to influence the team (but sometimes it never worked and those
fellows ate whatever I gave them and never allowed me to perform as well so
bonda + personality = influencing ability)
Lt Esan (IO):
1) When
I was interviewed in my college I was cleared by him but he told me to prepare
upon the shooters name, martyrs who laid the life (I was asked who was the
officer from TN laid the life for country in kargil war?? I didn’t knew)
2) Once
when I came to meet him in jan 2014 we were travelling in his vehicle during
which he pointed out that I have a soft voice & expression which is exactly the reason why I was not able to
contribute well in GTO in my ssb ( He advised me to develop my assertive
communication skill)
3) While
he interviewed me for the second time he pointed out that my confidence level
drops inbetween the interview. He advised me that if I couldn’t answer properly
for a question I should forget about that and start shooting with confidence on
the next question( Ofcourse determination is one of the OLQ)
Mr. Ashok kumar
(Psychologist):
1) 1st
time I was not recommended by him in the course that I underwent in my
college. He pointed out that I am timid.
Yes that came out whenever I went to the SSB. I took lot of efforts to overcome
that fear before clearing my SSB in 7th attempt
2) 2nd time i was cleared by him but
he pointed out few mistakes that I do in psych tests which I have corrected by
practice
Took up a job that
I didn’t like
When I came back after my 2nd
ssb failure, everyone in my college was preparing seriously for the campus
interview. But I was not interested in
entering a software profession. Anyways
for a backup , I have attended the interview of wipro. Without any preparation,
I have cleared the interview. After completing my college and before joining
wipro I went to the academy again and prepared myself for the 3rd
attempt for the course TGC-119 in Allahabad , that was my best performance I
have ever given, but to my shock and surprise I got conference out again. I was disappointed to the core because I
postponed my joining date in wipro to jan 2014 having a belief that I will
clear ssb in my 3rd attempt and join army rejecting the offer from
wipro. But destiny had someother plans
for me that time. After failing in Allahabad ssb interview in October 2013, I
joined wipro on jan13th, 2014 because that is the last batch and if I miss that
I cant join wipro later. With no other
choice I took it up and started enjoying the training. But after completing the training and
entering the project in wipro it was so horrible to work because that was not
my kind of job. Day in and out in wipro is too horrible for me. But I started
liking it , because the organization has spent money on me for my training and
during my wipro fluency training , I found few weaknesses of mine in my
speaking skills. I contributed my best
during my work but still my thought process in office will always be with
Passing Out Parade , sword of honour, olive green uniform , stars on shoulders,
etc…, To counter my hatred towards my monotonous job nature in wipro, I worked
out in gym everyday , participated in marathons, took up a part time job in
Bangalore Mountaineering Club(BMC) and did adventure activities during weekends
like trekking, rappelling , jumaring etc…, I worked as a junior instructor in
BMC and earned money for enjoying during weekends J
Finding out an
officer in me
The words of Captain Sujoynathan
was reverberating in my mind always – “Those who don’t clear SSB fall under two
categories: 1. They don’t have it , so that they have to go back , acquire it
and come back 2. They have it but they
were not able to express it due to certain reasons”. I wanted to find out which category I fall
under, So I started a self research. I read the life story of many Indian Army
officers and found that lot of things that I have done in my life matched with
few officers life story. And in
particular I found that, my character and Major Sandeep Unnikrishan, AC sir’s
character matched a lot, by now I have come to a conclusion that I have it in
me and started relating myself with many great indian army officers like FM
Maneckshaw and FM Cariappa. I read the
book called “Leadership in the Indian Army” which is a biography of 12 Indian
Army officers written by Gen VK Singh. I
wrote a personal diary of mine everyday to know about my strengths and weaknesses.
I visited Major Sandeep sir’s home and spent time with his parents whenever I
found time and motivated myself by seeing his medals and honours. Infact it
consoles them who stay alone. It is the
duty of every INDIAN citizen to respect their martyrs and to take care of the
family of the martyrs.
Dedicated and
Determined Efforts
After confirming that I have an
officer in me, I started my sincere preparation again from the scratch but this
time in an entirely different method. Herecomes my preparation methodologies
for the future defence officers:
Failures
After joining wipro , I prepared
for my ssb interview everyday but unfortunately I got screened out (hatrick) in
Bangalore which are my 4th , 5th
and 6th attempt and the entries are ssc tech -41 army, ssc navy
pilot, tgc – 119. I was very much disappointed because I have prepared 6 hours
everyday but didn’t get a fruitful result.
I told one thing to me that I will not worry about my failures , come
what may I will put my sincere efforts repeatedly and when my day comes I will
be screened in and reiterated to me that when I clear screening I will
definitely make it in that attempt. Yes,
in my 7th attempt, I got screened in and got recommended.
DESTINY BOWED TO MY EFFORTS – 7th
ATTEMPT (SSC TECH 43 ARMY)
1st day (Screening test):
This is actually the D- Day for me. Because I was hattrick
screened out in Bangalore SSB and again I was called on for my 7th
attempt to the same place.
///// I am
Rajashekar and I made my destiny to bow
me by my efforts. I was once reading the
posts from ssbcrack like you guys to motivate myself since I have tried 6 times
for the forces [thrice for navy and thrice for army ; tried for airforce too
but not a genius so couldn’t clear AFCAT :-P ] . Now the time has come to put my post here. I
have been conference out first three time and hat trick screened out for the
last 3 times that too in the Bangalore ssb.
When I got my call for 7th attempt and that too in Bangalore
, my Bangalore ssb phobia started of why Bangalore again…. Let me start from my
2nd attempt that is UES navy in which I was conference out, but
before the declaration of the result the few words given by the navy captain
opened my eyes . These are the words “
Those who clear ssb interview for the 1st time have the OLQs in
them. Those who don’t clear falls under
two categories that Either they don’t have OLQs so that they have to go back ,
attain and come back and the second category are those who have OLQs but unable
to express it…. I was confused of which category I fall under. But my instinct told me that I have the OLQs
but unable to express it, so to reconfirm it I started comparing myself with
many indian army officers and found that my qualities matched a lot with Major
Sandeep Unnikrishnan, AC and so started visiting his home in Bangalore - where
I am working right now in wipro . The parents of major are so caring and I
boost myself up by going there whenever I feel sad that I couldn’t make it to
the defence and motivate myself by
seeing Major Sandeep sir’s awards, medals and honors. I related myself even with FM SHFJ Maneckshaw
and FM cariappa. Now I came to a
conclusion that I have an officer in me….. Then started the preparation 1)
motivation – Motivation is just like bathing which has to be done everyday
because both doesn’t last long :-P … I motivated myself everyday by reading my
goal chart every morning when I wake up that is pasted infront of my bed .. I
have my goal chart even in my wallet so that I always think about my goal. Moreover I have war comics of major sandeep
unnikrishnan and captain vikram batra..
These are the comics that I read repeatedly when I don’t feel sleepy. I
wake up by seeing the faces of brave officers
Major sandeep unnikrishnan and captain vikram batra. When I start doing my daily chores I listen
to my favourite songs Bharat matha teri kasam and kadam kadam badaye ja. 2) Preparation – This is very much essential
to win. I prepared 6 hrs everyday for
SSB. It was really tough for me because
I work in wipro in which I have to maintain working hours of 9 and half . And
adding up the travel time and other activities I will be left barely with12 hours.
In this 13 hours I sleep for 6 hours and the remaining 6 hrs I dedicate to
prepare for ssb. My preparation included
psychology for 2 hrs, watching newshour debate at 9pm in timesnow and making
points for GD , lecturette for 2 hrs and the remaining two hours for my
personal interview. Since I have
different sports and games like 50m rifle shooting and silambam martial art in
my PIQ , I prepared deeply expecting tough questions in my Personal interview 3) Extra activities – If you keep on
preparing without relaxation then u will get psychologically affected :-P so I
took up a part time job in Bangalore mountaineering club since I always had a
thirst for adventure. During weekend I do activities like trekking, rappelling
and jumaring and earn money by enjoying ;-) I took up this job not only to
quench my adventure thirst but also due to my monotonous job nature in wipro
. I worked out in gym everyday that kept
my body physically tough and also gave me psychological strength. Sometimes I
participated in 10km marathon races not to win but to complete itJ4)
Introspection – This is very important for repeaters like me.. I write personal diary everyday that helped
me to identify my strengths and weaknesses .
I enhanced my strength and worked more on my weaknesses. 5) References - I took the help of the ssbcrack website, The
secret by Rhonda byrne book and My
interview with psychologist pdf.
Now comes the D-day.
My seventh attempt at Bangalore for SSC Tech 43. Right from the first day the world started
changing things to make me meet to my goal. Eventhough the screening was fish
market as usual , I gave my narration clearly and had put only one point in GD
and sat silently since I don’t like shouting in the chaos. But after screening
, I got a lovely group which is very much essential to score well in ssb. It was like meeting the like minded people altogether at the same
place. Yes everyone in my group was
self-sacrificing , kind and didn’t have
selfish motto to show themselves up to score and they never hurts others. My
psychology went awesome since I had put lot of efforts everyday to perfect it…
You cant fake urself in psychology by preparation , what I did was I tried to
express myself perfectly in psychology to show what I am to the assessors exactly
through my preparation, which I was not
able to show in my previous attempts. My
GTO had a half an hour interview with me before giving a task to me in command
task of how I have prepared and what are all the mistakes I have done in my
previous ssb. I told everything
frankly. I was quiet surprised of why he
spoke to me for a long time then I understood that my psychology tests comments
would have gone to him and they are all impressed by my qualitiesJ I got the toughest task in my command task that
the GTO asked me to reach the end line from start line through all the 3 ways
that is possible in a command task.. first two was easier to me but the last
one was tough since he changed the rules to make it tough. But I
maintained calm and composure through all hardships and got the solution
easily. Atlast GTO appreciated our group
saying that he has never seen such a group during his assessment period. J And the final is my personal interview in which I
was repeatedly distracted by my IO . I maintained focus and answered to my
best. He asked me some tough questions
like why snipers don’t aim exactly at the target while firing , what is the
difference between a sniper rifle and my rifle, what is the law that works
while firing a bullet from a sniper rifle, what is the speed of the bullet when
I fire my rifle, what are all the mistakes a shooter can make that makes the
bullet scatter in a target sheet . I
answered every question perfectly because I was well prepared for all these.
The IO was very impressed by listening to my answers which even he doesn’t know
:-P He asked lot of attitude questions like do you watch porn, do you drink, why
did you breakup with your girlfriend, what will you tell you exgirlfriend if
you meet her now etc.,, I answered them and justified every answer. Since I want to become a para commando , he
asked some questions regarding parachute regiment which I answered
perfectly. Atlast in conference I have
done little humour that made all the officers including the brigadier laugh J The results were announced, 5 got recommended
– 3 were from our group of repeaters batch including me and 2 were freshers
each one from other two groups. We
proved some sayings wrong that only freshers have good chance of getting
recommended. My ssb group’s team motto
is “LET US ALL BECOME OFFICERS” which I framed and tell every morning to my
team. I also instructed the team before
every group task that this is not a competition , lot of people think this as competition
and spoil theirs as well as others chances. Since I am the senior most , 6 time
failed :-P , I helped my team in giving valuable tips before every task for
which my team appreciated me for helping them selflessly. A leader is not the
one who always leads , but also the one who follows …..
DEDICATED AND DETERMINED EFFORTS
Is the secret of Success
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