I joined med school and had a professor in Ent who was a major on civilian grounds.... I admired him... For his punctuality, his vocabulary, his cleanness if that's a word. I never saw him joke trivially with female students the way another fair bespectacled man would from the same office....
Maybe the minute I heard his name Major.P. I sort of just biased him more toward the pedestal I had for men in uniforms.
I applied to the short service commission of the Indian Army, I was told women were not allowed at that point of time and I let life take me it's way...
I met a young Lt from the army, he as seeing a friends friend but he happened to be a boy from my neighbourhood. Incidentally I used to play with my siblings in the park of his apartment while my religious grandmother used to wear the floor thin at the temple in the complex....
So many years later did I meet his man, other friends I had his age were boys. Rode his bullet. Short crop hair. Even a drive to the local roadsideshop warranted crisply ironed shirt tucked neatly into his khaakhis and shoes.... Oh God those shoes!
The time he was topped by a cop while running a signal but the minute the cop approached this man didn't say a word and we were just let off, with not a single exchange... No id proof. The cop apologised and saluted him. And he wasn't even riding an army bike or showing his badge. Nothing. It was just he aura around him I think....
We had our birthdays just one day apart, spent time sitting at the beach talking about his then girlfriend and how the long distance was strengthening their bond while I quizzed him n all things military, his posting his training, life at the campus...
I slowly gave up on the military dream that I had for myself....
And then while I was working mindlessly, three shifts a day and just running from me place to another, I met a man... Crisp ironed shirt, always white. Trousers also white. White and white. For quite sometime I used to just walk with him during his rounds not knowing his name. Just BBK.... White haired man with the army man's bearing, gentle reprimands, subtle humor, ironic gaze, methodical reasoning and a brilliant mind. Over the year people called him professor BBK, but I was so taken up with him.... Eventually my bearded friend who's not bearded anymore showed me his letter head... It read Professor. Captain. Dr. BBK.... And the army came back into my life.... I guess it never did go away in a sense....
A couple of months back I rode the elevator with the wise and punctual captain. I felt so in awe that I bumbled about the Illuminati and free masons as a conversation.... I always smile more and watch more and try harder when he is there to learn and imbibe from him when he does grace with his presence.... It is just that... His presence is grace....
I always thought if I had kids I would send them to the army. Be it a girl or a boy. Serve. Learn. Fight. To be Brilliant people. Like he ones I have had the honor of watching and learning from.... Someday... One-day.....
The uniform will be a part of my life... I know it in my heart....
The universe will give me this.... If not anything else... It will give me this.... Of this I am sure..
