Yes, NDA cadets get holidays and same applies for OTA and IMA cadets. A Sunday, like in IMA or OTA, is nothing less than a holiday for a cadet.
Life of a cadet in National Defence Academy (Pune), Indian Military Academy (Dehradun) or Officers Training Academy (Chennai) is a busy schedule of events comprising of various training activities which literally drain out the energy of a cadet.
Irrespective of the various academy, the life of the cadet remains similar. Life in academy is an everlasting experience that every military officer cherish in his life, and Sunday is special day among those. The free Sunday is the only savior for a cadet who is desperately looking for a break from training schedules and need to revitalize for coming weeks.
In this blog, my endeavour is to bring few activities that take place during Sunday or any other holiday in NDA, IMA and OTA. This will help an aspiring cadet to sense and visualize the Sunday in academy.
As an OTA alumni, I may recall rigorous and tough training days, full of kiosk due to various scheduled activities that take place in a day to day life and most of the activities used to overlap with each other with no spare time at all.
We were so mentally and physically occupied that there was nothing else to think other than how to get some free time. So now, you can understand the importance of this GREAT SUNDAY in a cadet life.
Sunday is the only break from this busy schedule of academy, a much needed time to rest physically, mentally, logistically and emotionally. This helps to relieve the body from weeklong training and fatigue and prepare it for coming week.
Here comes the list of various activities that most of the cadets do on Sunday, these are:
1. Zero hair cut
Yes you can call it as the most important event of the day which a cadet looks forward to and make all the effort to complete it against all his will. Even a slight remnants of hair can bring unwanted punishment to a cadet in upcoming week.
2. Sleep, Sleep & Sleep
Yes you read it right, that's what most of the cadet's do. In fact the Sunday break is required for full time rest due to undergoing various weeklong tough training activities which further results in fatigue.
3. Liberty
Going out in local city market during daytime is commonly known as liberty. A time to satisfy your eyes by seeing young girls & taste buds by hogging everything available.
4. Letters
Yeah, yeah, bit old fashioned but we do write letters to our friends and family members. It helps to express your emotions and keep you energized for week ahead. I didn't realize it before academy, that letters are so good means of communication.
5. Canteen
Yes, it’s time to fill up your stocks of emergency ration (in its literal meaning) for upcoming days. Anything that can be eaten without cooking is being kept in room.
6. Phone
Most of time during weekdays one didn't get that much time to speak with your family members and friends. Therefore, THE GREAT Sunday comes for rescue.
7. Weapon Cleaning
Seldom cadets’ needs to clean his weapon that could had been left dirty due to weeklong training activity. This is particularly after the week in which some outdoor exercise was conducted in previous week.
I hope I've painted a clear picture of how Sunday is being spent in the academy. Feel free to ask any question about life of a cadet in a training academy.
