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When I left the Indian Army in 1999, all I had earned, after a near-death fall, was a serious breathing problem. Nothing else. At least that is what the world told me. I had no higher qualification like an MBA, no prospects, no knowledge of the outside world and no idea what I was doing out on the road. I had no family member in the corporate sector. I found out the hard way.

I was a newly minted veteran. Apparently, all I was good for was a security job, and if I was good, really good, somewhere along the way, I could hope to become an Administration Manager. So, I decided that this was what I wanted to become in my civilian life, an Admin Manager.

There were many like me who didn’t know any better. They too struggled. The civilian environment was scary. My Unit 17 Kumaon is what faujis would call a “Dastoori Paltan”. We are an OG unit in the most traditional translation possible. And we are 100% pure Kumaoni, which means that while officers can be from any part of the country, the troops must be from Kumaon.

Apart from the hard grind of military training and tactics, how to eat, dress and converse was an important part of my upbringing in the Paltan. We were taught to open doors, pull chairs and be extremely courteous when in the presence of ladies. To use foul language within a mile of a lady was unthinkable. My first Commanding Officer Col. K Pathak laid a lot of emphasis on what the army calls “An officer and a gentleman”. My immediate seniors, Lt. RK Anuj (now Colonel) and Capt. Vijay Singh Yadav (now Brigadier) drilled this into me. They burned it into my heart, soul and subconscious. That’s what 17 Kumaon was. That was what I became.

Apparently, I was a bit of a ‘curiosity’ in the earlier companies that I worked in. Slowly, as time passed, I learned to say 5 pm in place of 1700 hrs. “Straight ahead” was far more acceptable than “your 12’o Clock”. I stopped standing when female employees entered the room. I tried my best to become a ‘civilian’, to merge into the surroundings. For sometime, I managed to hoodwink some people. It was a daily chore.

I remember being part of a project in Wipro, Gurgaon in 2007 in which we created a laboratory for Lockheed Martin. This was on the fourth floor of our building. They wanted to sell F-16 fighter jets to IAF. They even put in 2 flight simulators there. I remember meeting the Lockheed Martin engineers and executives. Most of them were from US Air Force or US Marines Corps Aviation. Those days I used to wonder when India would have a private defence industry where soldiers would be part of senior management, doing what we were experts in, rather than security and administration. Maybe that day is not far.

Civilians think that we are experts in Security, Administration and HR. In reality, the Indian Army does not have an HR department, security is radically different from what you see in corporates, and administration is, well, merged into the system. We know as much about hardcore HR as you know about counter-terror operations in Kashmir.

Actually, what we have is attitude. We are willing to learn, ground up. A soldier can do anything. There will be a day when we will have private manufacturers in India making anti-aircraft missiles, fighter jets, automatic rifles, tanks, ammunition, missiles and a plethora of equipment for domestic consumption and export. That is the day, when soldiers will be CEOs and on the board of these companies. That is the day when we will sit down with business plans, and not just battle plans. We still do, but that is far from the smell of cordite.

We were not made for taking corrective measures on ‘employee satisfaction’. We were made to operate weapons of war. For us, Make In India is not just about national self-sufficiency. It is also about finding our true calling.

Between leaving the army and joining the media, there was a gap of 17 years (1999-2017), which I spent in the corporate sector. I was the CEO of a limited company and then, President of an MNC. There was money and the obligatory corner office, but I was a salt-water shark in sweet water. I spoke corporate jargon. Balance sheets, cash flows and EBIDTA were my tools of trade. In spite of all the trappings of what one calls ‘success’, there was a great discomfort within me.

When in 2017, Arnab called me with the proposal to be part of a TV series revolving around soldiers; it was like a parachute opening after an eternity of free fall.

I am now Consulting Editor – Strategic Affairs for Republic TV. Patriot takes me to the length and breadth of the country. I meet soldiers every week. This is what gives me happiness. This is what I was made for. So, I travel to military cantonments and installations around India. I sit with soldiers and talk. They share their stories with me because I am one of them. That bond is unbreakable, renewed each week in a new place with a new group of soldiers.

As I drive into an Army camp in Kashmir, a young Major smiles and shakes my hand.

“Welcome home, Sir”, he says.

Home. That word has certain warmth to it, certain belongingness. Home is love. Home is comfort. Home is safety.

“Where do you stay?” the young Major asks me.

“C/o 56 APO”, I tell him.

He laughs, realisation dawning upon him. We walk towards the small room that will be my home for the next 7 days. We sip tea and talk about the army. What else is there to talk about? He marvels at my vintage. The very fact that we used to fire a 106 mm RCL from a Jonga cracks him up. Another young Major, a company commander, walks in to say hello. We talk about how the army was during my time. Soon others join in. Its snowing outside but the room is warm. There is brotherhood here.

I am in the Indian Army. I have come back home.

Major Gaurav Arya (Veteran)

17th Battalion, The Kumaon Regiment

#MajorGauravArya #Home #adgpi

Disclaimer: When I left the army, resettlement opportunities were few. Things are different now. Officers do resettlement courses in IIM and other institutions of repute. The old image of a fauji as a security officer is no longer the norm. We are in marketing, sales, wealth management, banking and manufacturing. We are TV anchors, actors, businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats and policemen. One day when private weapons manufacturing picks up in India, many of us would have found our true calling once more. That’s because while we can do anything, we are essentially soldiers.