Thank you all for your diverse feedback. I might have been feeling a bit down when I wrote this but now I am going to go head on for the most important test of my life. Thank you all, your advises were very helpful.
you are a very good writer, first of all I should congratulate you for writing this.
And secondly, you will realize soon (or probably have already realized), you are much better off not joining the fauj. May be you are too free spirited.
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Trust me man, their were about 10-15 guys that I definitely knew were army brats, who saw everything and they were also rooted to the spot. Our mentality was that we couldn't be stepping on anybody's toes right in the beginning of examinations like these that can be so much biased if the examiner has the wrong perception of you.
As salaamu 'alaikum.
Although I might be a bit late with this but here goes nothing.
2 or 3 years back, if anyone asked me what I wanted to be, I would answer without any hesitation that I wanted to be in the armed forces. And so to make my dream a reality. I went for the initial test at AS&RC RWP. I completed my written tests, no problem (par form bharnay ki bari khawaari thi). There I met 3 of my school fellows. Now you have to understand although my father wasn't that rich but he paid every price necessary to get me good education. So he sent me to the best school in town. And almost all my friends had some backing. So I won't name these friends but let's call them X, Y and Z. Now this X person I really didn't know in school but you know when people from your school show in these kinds of situations you have to stick together. Now this guy had some kind of railways running from his family's area which was really big. And the army used that area.
Well this guy was bragging all about how he doesn't need to do anything in this test and how his paternal uncle was very close with a lot of Brigadiers and Colonels. Obviously I was naive and didn't believe him. I believed in the sanctity of the army physical test and how every person had to do them as a stepping stone. So we all gathered in front of the Race Course Park. We were around 200 guys I think. We were taken out in groups for the physical tests. I and my friend were in the last group. The moment we stood in front of the Major, the Major called out X's id number and X moved forward of the group, a big grin on his face. The Major and he talked for a few seconds and then X stood behind the Major, while the Major made all the necessary announcements, X stood back grinning and giving us the thumbs up. So when we started doing our physical tests, X was nowhere to be seen.
Naturally, all of us remaining were frustrated at this injustice. But as the physical tests went like a breeze we forgot about all that. Now Mr. Y was the son of a retired Brigadier in the technical branch. I liked him. He was just like me and him on the other hand I had been friends with for a while. We even had our ISSB center Kohat together at the same time but our residence houses were different. He and I were very much alike in our passion for Pakistan Army and other kids stuff like watching cartoon (Japanese anime to be specific). Now he and I were very very worried about the GTO task as we had no ******** idea what to do. And thus our worst fears were recognized after the initial tasks. Well we both had that one guy in our group that was hell bent on making our groups fail in every respective field. So as you can guess we didn't finish even one GTO task, except my single command task test. I was the only one to complete any kind of task. Mr. Y and me, both could manage to do only 6 of the individual obstacles.
The group discussion I ended up rounding up the debate and everyone was happy. In the case scenario the a**hole again did a blunderous job and we failed that too. Same was the case with Mr. Y too. He also had that kind of a vermin in his group. But his group didn't even finish a single task.
Now the Deputy Presidents interview and the psychologist's interview were on consecutive days. So my group had the Psychologists interview first and Mr. Y had the Deputy's first. After the first day of interviews he and I spent an hour at most discussing the answers that we gave and admiring each other's wit. We both thought that we should do the same kind of answers as they were good and applicable. I might have misled the psychologist when she asked "Kiya aap koi aisa kaam kartay hain jis sey aap bohat sharminda hain? Obviously she was talking about masturbation but I answered (like I had answered in my form) "Mam main namaz regularly nahi parhta. She was all smiling and stuff through the whole interview and didnt ask any explicit questions. Confidence was never a problem. So the Deputy's interview came the next day after much wait I was called in. The interview went very good by my standards. I knew all the general knowledge and science questions. What I was told I lacked in was the questions relating to Islam. I did lie to him that I had represented my school at college level for volleyball, in reality I was the best guy for volleyball but we didnt have any tournaments in our A-level years. But he was very happy. He asked me "Agar Pak fauj main tumhain accept kar lein toh bhaag toh nai jao gey? I answered "Never, sir". And the he shook my hand and said good luck. When I came out and told the others what the Deputy had asked they were all impressed because he hadnt asked any of them this question.
The wait on the last day was the most hurtful moment in my entire life. There I was standing in my best suit in the blazing sun as the committee decided who to be called for on the last day for reinterview. I waited for 5 hours and then when a person was called and my roll number was skipped I felt like dying. My dream had been "skipped" by the committee. But then Mr. Y's roll number was announced. The first moment I felt very jealous. But then I understood. I never stood a chance. Not alone.
How could I compete with someone who had a military background like Mr. Y? Although their might not have been any "sifarish" but I have found out having a father in the forces is like you passing half of the ISSB. Today Mr. Y is "enjoying" life at the PMA in his first semester (I hope they rag the hell out of that A hole) I am literally happy for my friend I dont know where X is.
Now Mr. Z was my friend from the 5th class. His passion had been to become a mechanical engineer and work for Ferrari while mine was to work as a commissioned officer and work for my country. Now Mr. Z and I had been very close from the beginning. After I came back from ISSB he contacted me to help him out with his ISSB which was due next week. So I hauled myself to Skype and we discussed how best he could tackle the different obstacles and interviews. He too like me had no military background like me. But he had a trick up his sleeve. He had been going to a coaching academy, I don't know for how long but he had quite a practice because he wasn't interested in the GTO tasks only the different scenarios so he can work accordingly. He was mainly interested in the interviews. And surely as he predicted he got a recommendation letter and then he went for joining on 15th May. He is together with Mr. Y.
The weird thing is that today I am studying to become an aerospace engineer (almost same as mechanical engineer) and work for Ferrari if I get my grades up, while my friend is a Gentleman Cadet in PMA, who is going to work for Pakistan.
Our dreams have been exchanged?
I find that hard to believe because I will be again appearing for my second chance in the ISSB in 133rd PMA L/C. I will never give up my dream no matter what.
P.S The overall experience was memorable and worth going for.
Allah Hafiz.
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open a new thread in members introduction..
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open a new thread in members introduction..
there would be something r may be ur bad luck .but again i will say i knw people who r average in their physical and mental abilities but they r selected at their first attempt.we dnt knw our mistakes but it highlights our failures....:'-(
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Realy??
