Fifty years ago, 252 young men stepped out of the Nizam Pavillion of the Military College (now the Indian Military Academy), Dehradun, as officers. On Saturday, the 23 Course officers met again, to share memories and remember those who died during the long journey.

These batchmates bid farewell to the olive green uniform several years ago, but their spirit of brotherhood and camaraderie lives on.

“If we get our youth back, we will rejoin the Army and serve the nation,” said one of them, as they celebrated their 50 years after IMA.

Laughing, cracking jokes and discussing their training days brought back the good old memories for these retired personnel living in the tricity.

Sharing an anecdote, former Army chief General V P Malik, who led the celebrations, said: “Once my wife and I had gone to a beach to have snacks. I found a hawker giving 25 per cent discount to defence personnel. The chatwala impressed us with his patriotism. My wife asked me to invite him to the parade scheduled for two days later.”

The instructors of their batch — Maj Gen Rajindra Nath (Retd), Col Baldev Inder Singh Cheema (Retd), Col Amalok Singh Grewal (Retd) and Col Ranjit Singh (Retd) — were honoured by Gen V P Malik.

Maj Gen Rajindra Nath said it was a matter of pride to “see your cadets reach great heights”.

“I was a Captain when we trained them. I can’t forget this batch because after their training, I went to Canada for my course in nuclear warfare. I feel proud they went on to become the most efficient officers.”

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