Corona Lockdown: Take It From a Fauji, Here’s How You Can Survive

A retired Air Vice Marshall’s advice to all those feeling miserable under coronavirus lockdown!

Image of NDA symbol used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Erum Gour / The Quint)

Ah! The coronavirus lockdown has its plusses and minuses – on the negative side there are many, starting with the unfortunate large scale casualties, and for the others, the fear factor and the continuous washing of hands due the lurking fear of the deadly fat-encompassed protein stuff. The positive is that menfolk have possibly realised that the daily chores of the lady of the house are many – they take time, are painstaking and have been done all these years of conjugal life without any ask for recognition.

And then there are the memes and jokes going around, the most poignant one being the take on the so-very-romantic Lata Mangeshkar song, ad-libbed on screen by Priya Rajvansh for Dharmendra playing an Army Major in the 1962 war film Haqeeqat – zara si khansi hoti hai to dil sochta hai, kaheen yeh woh to nahin!

What ‘Days Left To Go Home’ Means

Fauji humour has its own simplistic side to it – get two ex-National Defence Academy officers together, and they can talk for hours on topics that are always the same – the drill ustad’s eccentricities, the punishment hikes to Singhad fort that towers over Khadakvasla valley, the ganna-raids to sugarcane fields that surrounded the Academy once upon a time and of course, the unbeatable Tipsy pudding that only NDA chefs can churn out! And there are many more, along with quirky traditions to reminisce about.

There is one, however, that has transcended all courses in the feelings attached to it – from the beginnings of NDA to now – the counting of DLTGH – Days Left To Go Home!

DLTGH is calculated on landing up on the first day of each term and, in our time, was annotated on every page of the NDA diary that each cadet had – now that there are thin clients in every cadet’s room linked to the Academy network, maybe this is done somewhere there. And in every classroom, along with the annotation of the parade state of the class, was the DLTGH count!

Counting the Days

The day of the graduation parade was not included, since that day DLTGH was ZERO, and we went home! What a thrill it gave us – that figure zero. On graduating from NDA, one thought that the time for counting days to special occasions with such fervour was long gone till one got engaged. My fiancé and I got into writing DLTGM – Days Left To Get Married – in our letters!

I remember it was 153 when we started; and one thought that was the last of the counting till this coronavirus lockdown.

Well folks, DLTGO – Days Left To Go Out – of the house stands at 12, as I write this. Hope the number keeps decreasing, the way it did in NDA, and India wins its toughest battle to date. But, if it has to restart, so be it, for it would be for the larger good – one is sure there would be a DLTGO Zero sometime soon.

(The author, a retired Air Vice Marshal, graduated from the NDA in June 1975. This is a personal blog and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)