Introduction
"Five minutes," an officer announced as a group of men stood tensely in a hangar, observing a man fixing something in a cockpit of a MiG-29.
There was a long three seconds in which my fingers stopped moving. I was trying to fix something in 10 minutes that took my instructor half an hour to ruin.
"Dude, what if you don't make it," thoughts were fleeting through my mind, "What will you do,what next?"
"Cut the crap and pay attention [ ]," I scolded my mind, and focused on the control panel.
"Two minutes," he announced again. "Why is time flying so quickly" I told myself. Then I realized almost half of the wiring was done. My heart started thumping loudly, as if it was beating according to the time left.
Power on, the cockpit came to life in a low wheezing hum as the MiG-29's jet engines went in a growl, then a steady roar. I exited the cockpit with a humble smile, to the mellifluent sound of applause well earned.
Well, it turned out that the clapping was coming from the TV, I woke up with a smile on that Sunday morning.
"What are you smiling at?" [ ], my better half asked looking straight at me, as beautiful as ever.
"Nothing much," I said, opening my eyes wide, "just woke up with a pleasant memory from my AFA days."
"That's nice," she said smiling and pointed towards the clock, "church is starting soon. You should get ready."
"Your wish is my command ma'am," I chuckled, and looked at her, now hurrying towards the dressing room to get changed. I thanked God for giving me what he has, and kick-started the day.
Almost thirteen years had gone by since my Academy days. I had gone through the traumatizing time in IIT, through the arduous training in AFA, lived the life of an IAF officer, survived two deadly attacks, fell in love and married the most amazing girl and left the Indian Air Force. I wanted to achieve more in life; I attempted and cracked the Civil Exams on my third try and chose IAS as my option. I then became an IAS officer.
I am now a SDM in Kerala. My first cadre preference was Kerala and my second was my home-state, Nagaland.
Few months later, I was sipping coffee in a conference room, narrating my story to college students, it was their College Fest.
It had indeed been an exciting rollercoaster ride on this Sine curve of Life.
