Short Service Commission (Non Technical) 34 Course had begun on -- Oct 1981 at Officers' Training School, Madras, Tamil Nadu, and passed out from the portals of the OTS on the morning of 26 Aug 1982 (Sat). The Course, as compared to many courses prior and after it, was a comparatively large course. At this belated stage it is not really feasible to give the exact count, but information collected from all possible sources including the OTS Journal of 1982 as well as discussion with many officers indicates a strength of 234. Some of the Gentlemen Cadets (GCs) were boarded out due to various reasons, some were relegated to SS 35 Course and some from SS 33, who were relegated, joined us to pass out finally. 234 is quite a safe estimate thus.​

It has been a long time, very long time indeed, more than 28 years, but I still remember the first day at the OTS. We all, after qualifying Combined Defence Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission and the following interview by Services Selection Board and the final medical tests, had assumed that we are already Gazetted Officers First Class of the Indian Army. Little did we know that we were not only badly mistaken, we were also headed for a dreadful time ahead. Specimens were many on the grounds: some boys had very long mane, some very curly and stylised hair, some had wrong notions about their pedigree and some wore lots of attitude on their sleeves. There were as many specimens and characters as there were boys. Yes boys, because they were yet to be sharpened and moulded into GCs. No sooner than we were offloaded by those old horses, 'Shaktiman' 3 Tonners, we were asked by the Havaldar Instructors (HIs) to simply dump our measly baggage aside and be parallel to the ground. It was so funny to see the cadets all around; some were rolling on ground, others were front rolling, some more jumping up and down and yet another lot was engaged in running from here to there aimlessly. There were some of us who were trying to answer strange and meaningless questions posed by HIs and senior cadets from SS 33. It was so chaotic, it was so funny. But it was funny only as long as others were doing it, the moment it hit you in the face, the reality dawned and you cursed yourself for having decided to become a commissioned officer in the Army. There could not have been a worse decision. Almost all those present there on that day must have cursed their fate and abused the staff of the OTS. Things were pretty bad and the worse was that bad things had just begun, there was a long period of 10 months ahead. We remembered Charles Darwin's 'Theory of Survival of the Fittest.' But will we really survive this mayhem? Many of us had this doubt in our minds.

Shocks were aplenty in store for all of us. Within the very first day of our arrival, we were herded like sheep into the Barber Shop. This was small shop and there were only a couple of barbers on the job. Just a couple of barbers and a whole bunch of ‘jokers’, as we were addressed routinely by our seniors. But then we soon understood that too many barbers were actually not required as all a barber had to do was to run the machine on your head and voila, you looked so much smarter! The job on one head hardly took a minute. Those in the queue were actually not in a queue. They all had to either bend down on ground, stand next to the wall upside down or sing a song. Those who had the ability and talent to entertain seniors taking hair cut, could hope to jump the queue and be out of the hell shop earlier than many. But where would you go even if you were free from the barber shop early? As soon as a GC stepped out of the barber shop, there were HIs waiting like hungry tigers outside who pounced upon them and took them to task on the road. Tasks were so easy: run, front roll, crawl, move on your haunches. You were actually spoilt for choices. Choose one and excel, if you please.

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"In a land of immigrants, one was not an alien but simply the latest arrival."​
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Rudolf Arnheim​