Fall In! Fall In!

I hadn’t thought of writing this before but constant remainder from some friends made me pen this down. A few days ago I was travelling towards Phuentsholing when my phone buzzed (it was in vibration mode). On responding to the buzz, the caller at the other end shouted “Fall in! Fall in!” and I couldn’t help bursting out into a huge laughter getting a quizzical look from my friend who was travelling with me. And later on I had to explain to her in details what it meant and it was then that I thought I would write something about those many fall ins that we had during our two weeks training at Tencholing.

The teachers who had volunteered to undergo the two weeks Integrated DeSuung Program were greeted by the first snowfall in Thimphu (the day we were scheduled to leave for Tencholing) and it was dusk when we reached our destination where we were received formally with bands playing the Bhutanese music as we entered the gate.

After the entrance through the gate, the series of fall ins and other military commands started which we found difficult to understand initially but got used to as the time went by.  When someone blew the whistle and shouted Fall in we had to be there no matter what. There was no excuse for any delay or else every member of the platoon would have to bear with the consequences and no one wanted to be in any such situation. All in all, it was physically challenging since my old body had been idle for eternity (haha) and the muscles took a longer time to get attuned to the physical drill and exercise yet it was enriching and adventurous except for some bruises due to the shoes (Ghorajuta).

I had the opportunity to try my hand on Rappelling, Rafting, weapon handling, River crossing etc. besides series of lectures by some prominent Bhutanese. Amid all these experience and lectures, fall ins played a prominent role.  The fall ins started at 6 am in the morning and went on till after 10 at night.

The last fall in before the departure from the Military Training Centre brought a ripple of laughter from the volunteers because it indicated that we would not have to follow those command any longer yet in our hearts we knew that we were going to miss those moments.

The serious of Fall ins have made me a DeSuup and I thank all those involved to train the novice like me to become a better human.